← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Hugh Lincoln
Thread ID: 13070 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2004-04-07
2004-04-07 19:22 | User Profile
I remember seeing once years ago that Honda Motor Corp. aimed to locate its North American plant in a place with as few blacks as possible. If you know of a source for this, please direct me to it. Thanks.
2004-04-08 01:47 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hugh Lincoln]I remember seeing once years ago that Honda Motor Corp. aimed to locate its North American plant in a place with as few blacks as possible. If you know of a source for this, please direct me to it. Thanks.[/QUOTE]
I don't have a source, but I do recall that back in the 80s when Japanese auto manufacturers started factories in this country they tended to concentrate in parts of the South with the least black population, like certain parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. On more than one occasion I read that they liked the South because the union was weakest there, and they liked white Southerners better because they were less likely to be union oriented than blacks in the South. Makes sense when you think about it.
2004-04-08 22:01 | User Profile
[QUOTE=AntiYuppie]Even in the northeast and upper midwest, most labor unions (United Auto Workers, Teamsters, etc) have a reputation for being "white man's clubs," at least until recently.
The main reason that the Japanese preferred to hire white workers was not that they were less "union oriented," but the simple fact that whites are more intelligent and have a far better work ethic than their negro counterparts. If I recall, many Japanese businessmen got into trouble in the 1980's by more or less saying this openly, as Japanese society doesn't place the sort of taboo on "racism" as American society.[/QUOTE]
Oh, this is undoubtedly true also, and certainly another reason why Nissan is in Smyrna, Tennessee and Honda is in Kentucky. That is just not the only reason.