<p>UCBalumnus, I’m not confident that the statistic you cite regarding the Asian demographic is accurate, but even if it is, the achievement and standing of the Asian, particularly Japanese community in Seattle was and is significant. Just as our Jewish bretheren wield a measure of cultural and civic influence that exceeds their numbers, so too does the Asian American community in the Pacific Northwest, including in the 1980s, which is why I think the Chin case would have gone down differently in that region.</p>
<p>And Barrons is right about the broad promotion of antagonism, some of it explicitly racial, in Detroit during the first decline of the Big Three. News video of American autoworkers smashing a Toyota with sledgehammers was a bit scary. Not as vile as Kristalnacht but not that far off, either.</p>