I grew up in suburban Detroit, and when people whom I know wouldn’t be familiar with the area ask me where I’m from, I usually say “metro Detroit” or “suburban Detroit,” so as not to come off as a “pretender.” I also think, though, that it’s not necessarily wrong to expand the idea of Detroit, to some degree, to the metropolitan area. I do think that some kind of shared identity is important for the area to survive and prosper (because I don’t think you can wall off the city’s economic problems in the long term, despite the delusions of folks like L. Brooks Patterson). That said, I realize that “regionalizing” Detroit has its pitfalls and that shouldn’t erase the experiences of those who live and have lived there. But the politics of authenticity also have their drawbacks and we should be aware of those as well. Should I ever return to southeast Michigan, either to the ‘burbs or to the city, I would like to think that I could be a Detroiter. That will, however, require some considerable work on my part in remedying any faults that were passed on to me, as the author puts it.
Linnaeus
