Dearborn, Michigan

I found myself in Dearborn, Michigan, this weekend. Mostly business, not pleasure, but naturally made time to savor the Arabic cuisine of Warren Avenue. I wonder what the late Henry Ford and Orville Hubbard--arguably the architects of Dearborn's massive growth during the twentieth century--think of the city's distinct middle-eastern culture.

Mainly known as robber baron and popularizer of the "Fordist" model of efficiency in mass production, Henry made Dearborn synonymous with Ford Motor Company (or, "Ford's," as most Dearborn residents say). He also maintained a program in social programming for his employees (including high numbers of Catholics, Jews, and immigrants) that consisted of sending his minions to their households to make sure they and their families were speaking nothing but English in the homes and not practicing the rituals of non-protestant religions.

Orville Hubbard came a few years later. He was mayor of Dearborn for over thirty years (from WWII to the early 70s), an era that saw the population double and the tax base explode. Hubbard was also one of the most infamous defenders of segregation and Jim Crow legislation. Even during the housing crunch of the second world war, even after Open Housing laws in the 60s, Hubbard largely kept Detroit's African-American population out of Dearborn.

Somewhere, Henry and Orville must be sitting side by side, watching the streets of Dearborn team with the highest concentration of Arabs in the world outside of the middle east. What must they be thinking?

Anyway, before heading for Butler County (whose racial composition and political ideology would please Henry and Orville!), I enjoyed a delicious chicken shawarma with fatoush. Yum...