Backlash brews in wake of Big 3 bashing

George Hunter / The Detroit News

WOODHAVEN -- A retired autoworker is organizing a boycott of Alabama. An ubiquitous bumper sticker in Metro Detroit warns "Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign." And last weekend, Woodhaven cops investigated a rash of vandalism on foreign cars.

After a month of Detroit-bashing in Washington and nationally, some say a backlash is forming among Metro Detroiters, annoyed by the attacks on their lifestyle and angry at their neighbors' choices of vehicles. Some fear that simmering resentment could turn to outright hostility.

"I'm afraid we may be about to see a rerun of a bad nightmare we lived through in the late '70s and early '80s," said Helen Zia, co-founder of the American Citizens for Justice, a civil rights group that serves Michigan's Asian-Americans. "We're in the midst of tough economic times, and when that happens you get scapegoating."

Most agree the current climate doesn't approach the open disdain in the 1980s and early 1990s, when workers used sledgehammers to destroy Hondas and Toyotas in union parking lots. But some worry that antipathy toward Asians could return.

In Woodhaven on Friday, someone punctured the tires of five foreign cars -- a Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Toyota and Volkswagen -- and used a marker to scrawl "Buy USA" on the sides of the vehicles, in the lots of Lowe's and Kohl's stores near a Ford plant. A security camera captured a middle-aged white man defacing the vehicles, Woodhaven Police Chief Michael Martin said, who fears there could be more such incidents.

"It's a concern because of the struggles with the auto industry," Martin said.

And it's not just Michigan: In South Carolina, a Ford dealership began airing ads this month blasting Congress and claiming that Japanese cars are "rice ready, not road ready."

Frances Wang, executive director of the American Citizens for Justice, said she is worried someone may take the frustration one step farther.

"The next logical step from someone taking out their frustrations against a foreign car is, someone could take out their frustrations against a person who looks foreign," said Wang, whose group was formed after two laid-off autoworkers in 1982 killed Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American who the men mistook as Japanese and blamed for the loss of their jobs.

But Charles Hyde, a Wayne State University history professor, downplayed fears of a repeat of open prejudice against Asian-Americans of decades ago.

"You don't have someone like Lee Iacocca out there publicly bashing the Japanese for unfair trade practices," said Hyde, who has written books about the auto industry. "One thing the Japanese did to stop some of the political backlash was to move their production here. Now, they're employing a lot of Americans.

"I don't see the kind of public blaming of the Japanese for the situation with the auto industry," Hyde said. "It's pretty clear to people who know anything that the basic problem has been the collapse of the economy."

But some, including retired autoworker Joe Babiasz of Huntington Woods, do blame foreign competition for the state of the Big Three.

"Not enough people recognize the importance of doing the right thing for their country, which is to buy American," he said. "My dad, his brothers and his cousins all fought the Germans and Japanese to have what we have today. And with all respect to the German and Japanese people, I'm not going to give away everything my relatives fought for through the automobile industry."

The recent congressional hearings, in which Big Three auto executives unsuccessfully sought federal loans, prompted Babiasz, 58, to launch a Web site, www.boycottalabamanow.com, to dissuade people from visiting Alabama, where Hyundai, Honda, Toyota and Mercedes have plants. Opposition to the bailout was led by Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican.

"I watched those hearings in horror, as (Shelby) ripped the U.S. auto industry apart, so I set up the Web site in frustration," Babiasz said.

He believes many U.S. auto workers may share his frustration against foreign automakers -- and, perhaps, Asian-Americans.

"For the average 'Joe Lunch Box' who goes to work at the Big Three, there might be a lot of percolating resentment that could blow up," Babiasz said.

The situation has some who drive foreign cars re-thinking their decisions. More than a year ago, Jonathan Barlow, 24, of Detroit bought a used Lexus in part because of its gas mileage. Now, his next purchase could come from the Big Three.

"Most everyone in my circle looks to hopefully buy some type of hybrid in the near future from a U.S. automaker," said Barlow, a community organizer. "The choice before was what color would you prefer. ... But the thought now is: Who would you support?"

Detroit News Staff Writer Mark Hicks contributed to this report.