Racializing Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Chinese Entrepreneurship in the Deep South

Abstract

The research on ethnic entrepreneurship is prolific. Yet very rarely have scholars examined ethnic entrepreneurship through the lens of race and racialization. By using the example of Chinese-owned grocery stores in the Mississippi Delta region during the Jim Crow era, this article attempts to bridge the studies on migration, race, ethnic entrepreneurship, and place. Neither middleman minority nor ethnic enclave economy alone, the two main paradigms within the literature of ethnic entrepreneurship, fully explains the phenomenon of Chinese grocery stores in the Black communities in the U.S. South. By examining ethnic entrepreneurship through the lens of race and racialization, this article also explores the interracial relationships between Asian and Black communities by comparing and contrasting the Korean–Black relationship in Los Angeles and Chinese–Black relationship in the Delta. Despite the institutional barriers against interracial solidarity under the regime of White supremacy, which places Asian and Black communities in opposition to each other, certain historical and geographical contexts that facilitate interracial coembeddedness contribute to intercultural communications among communities of color and thus a more intimate interracial relationship.

针对少数族裔企业的研究成果颇丰。然而, 很少有学者从种族和种族化的角度去考虑少数族裔企业。本文以吉姆·克劳时代美国密西西比河三角洲地区的华人杂货店为例, 试图在移民、种族、少数族裔企业和地理等研究之间架起一座桥梁。文献中关于少数族裔企业的研究, 主要包括中间商少数民族和少数民族飞地经济, 但它们都不能充分解释美国南部黑人社区中的华人杂货店现象。本文从种族和种族化的角度探讨了少数族裔企业。通过比较洛杉矶的朝鲜族和黑人关系、三角洲的华人和黑人关系, 探讨了亚裔和黑人社区之间的跨种族关系。在白人至上的体制下, 种族间团结的体制性障碍, 使得亚裔和黑人社区相互对立。但是, 某些历史和地理环境则有助于种族间共存, 有助于有色人种社区之间的文化交流, 从而建立起更紧密的种族关系。

Muy prolífica es la investigación sobre el espíritu empresarial étnico. No obstante, muy raramente los eruditos han examinado el espíritu empresarial étnico a través de una óptica de raza y racialización. Usando el ejemplo de las tiendas de abarrotes de propiedad china en la región del Delta del Misisipi durante la era de Jim Crow, este artículo intenta ligar los estudios sobre migración, raza, empresariado étnico y lugar. Ni la minoría de intermediarios ni la economía de enclave étnico por sí solas, los dos principales paradigmas en la literatura sobre empresariado étnico explican enteramente el fenómeno de las tiendas chinas de abarrotes en las comunidades negras del Sur norteamericano. Al examinar el empresariado étnico a través de la lente de raza y racialización, este artículo explora también las relaciones interraciales entre comunidades asiáticas y negras, comparando y contrastando la relación de coreanos–negros en Los Ángeles y la relación chinos–negros en el Delta. A pesar de las barreras institucionales contra la solidaridad interracial bajo el régimen de la supremacía blanca, que coloca las comunidades asiáticas y negras en oposición entre sí, ciertos contextos históricos y geográficos que facilitan la co-incrustación interracial contribuyen a las comunicaciones interculturales entre las comunidades de color y, por lo mismo, a una relación interracial más íntima.

Key Words:

• American South
• Chinese immigrants
• ethnic entrepreneurship
• interracial relationship
• race

关键词:

• 美国南方
• 华人移民
• 少数族裔企业
• 跨种族关系
• 种族。

Palabras clave:

• empresariado étnico
• inmigrantes chinos
• raza
• relación interracial
• Sur de los EE. UU

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my interviewees for sharing their stories and experiences. This article would not have been possible without their generosity. I am especially grateful to Frieda Quon, David Dunn, Raymond Seid, Raymond Wong, and Daniel Lum for sharing their family stories and giving me tours of their hometowns and grocery stores. I also express my thanks to the Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum for generously sharing their archival materials with me. Jill Samuels and Binh Doan offered tremendous support and help with the editing of the article. Finally, I am deeply thankful to the three anonymous reviewers, the Guest Editor Dr. Guo Chen, and the Chief Editor Dr. Chang for making this article a better piece.

Notes

1 Bonacich (1973) defined the liquidated businesses as businesses that have a rapid turnover of investment and are easily carried around without the ties to properties or other fixed materials, in contrast with “industrial entrepreneurships and investment” such as agriculture. Examples of liquidated businesses mainly include trade and commerce. According to Bonacich, the liquidated businesses do not require the long-term attachment to the host country. Therefore, sojourning is a necessary condition for the middleman economy.

2 Like most of the early Chinese immigrants in the United States, the Delta Chinese came from Guangdong Province in southern China, largely concentrated in two counties: Toy Shan and San Hui. On Leong Tong acted as an unofficial government of the traditional Chinatowns on the East and West Coasts of the United States (Wong 1988). Although On Leong Tong did not exist in the U.S. South, the chapters of Chinese business associations were formulated in major cities such as Memphis, Tennessee, and Greenville, Mississippi, to serve as a social gathering place and provide coethnic support.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shaolu Yu

SHAOLU YU is currently an Assistant Professor in Urban Studies at Rhodes College, Memphis, TN 38112. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include race and ethnicity, mobility and migration, Asian urbanization, and geographic information systems.