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Civility in the City: Blacks, Jews, and Koreans in Urban America, by Jennifer Lee. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. 288 pp. $35.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-674-00897-9.
Civility in the City, based on fieldwork and interviews with merchants and their customers in five New York City and Philadelphia neighborhoods, brings a new perspective to analyses of ethnic and racial conflict in American cities. Jennifer Lee's thoughtful, original book takes us to the places in which contact between blacks and Jews or Koreans actually occurs: local businesses owned by ethnic entrepreneurs who provide goods and services to underserved African American communities. Because most blacks do not know Koreans or Jews who are not storeowners, Lee argues, interactions between merchants and customers can influence people's perceptions of other groups, with implications for racial and ethnic relations more generally. Lee does not just focus on situations in which conflict arises. She instead tries to explain how commercial relations work, how race and ethnicity are transcended in everyday commercial life, and how, against this backdrop, we can understand the rare instances of conflict that do erupt. She thus seeks a framework in which both conflict and civility can be understood.
Lee sets the stage for her study with a well-researched history of merchant life in black neighborhoods. She begins with Jewish merchants, describes failed efforts to transfer businesses to African Americans after the 1960 riots, and concludes with Koreans' dominance of business niches like small groceries. The way in which ethnic networks shape access to capital and credit is held up...