Outcasts United: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Mayor Lee Swaney likes to say that, before refugees started arriving, Clarkston, Georgia was a “sleepy little town by the railroad tracks.” Clarkston is a suburb of around 7,200 people that lies just outside the greater Atlanta area of 5 million. Clarkston was originally settled by farmers and railroad workers after the civil war. Not much happened in the following century; it was a small, conservative, white southern town.

In the 1970s, Atlanta Airport becomes the Southeast’s first international hub, and soon becomes one of the world’s busiest airports. The airport brings jobs, and the jobs bring people who needed housing. A few investors open apartment complexes, where middle class whites move in. The population doubles, until in the 1980s white people began to leave for roomier, newer suburbs farther from town.

Vacancies rise in Clarkston; rents fall. Crime surges, and pretty soon Clarkston catches the attention of refugee resettlement agencies. Clarkston is attractive to these organizations because it is close to Atlanta (which has a growing need for workers) and has public transportation into the city. It is pedestrian-friendly for a group that can’t afford cars.

The first refugees arrive in Clarkston in the late 1980s, mostly from Vietnam and Cambodia, fleeing Communist governments. Their resettlement goes smoothly, and few people take notice. The agencies then bring in other refugees from Bosnia and Kosovo. They continue to resettle refugees, now from Liberia, Congo, Burundi, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. More than 19,000 refugees are resettled in Georgia between 1996 and 2001, and many of these refugees end up in or around Clarkston.

By 2000, one third of Clarkston’s population is now foreign-born, and Clarkston looks very little like it used to. Women walk down the street in hijabs. Vietnamese and Eritrean restaurants have sprung up. There is a “global pharmacy,” a halal butcher, and a mosque. Clarkston high school is home to students from more than fifty countries.

The longtime citizens of Clarkston are surprised by these changes. One councilwoman, Karen Feltz, describes that Clarkston residents had been living “safe, quiet lives in their white-bread houses, and all of a sudden every other person on the street is black, or Asian, or something they don’t even recognize.” They often simply “[retreat] into their homes” to avoid the refugees.

Tensions start to rise in the town. The police chief, Charlie Nelson, views the refugees as “a constant problem.” Many don’t speak English and are poor drivers, and so writing traffic tickets becomes one of Clarkston’s more reliable sources of revenue. Many refugees feel harassed by this treatment and start to act. In one incident, a Somali cabdriver calls in other cabbies when he is stopped by the police for what he thinks are made-up reasons. The officer fears a riot and lets the driver off with a warning.

In 2001, Lee Swaney runs for mayor as “a champion of ‘Old Clarkston,’” meaning Clarkston before the refugees, and wins the seat. A year and a half after he is elected, refugee agency officials announce that they are planning to relocate 700 Somali Bantu to Georgia, and many to Clarkston.

The Somali civil war had begun in 1991, and warring factions had forced the Bantu off of their land in the Juba River valley. In the ensuing decade, many are raped, tortured, and killed, and the rest flee to refugee camps in northeast Kenya. Few in Clarkston know the background of the Somali Bantu, and when they do research, councilmembers are worried that the Bantu would need more help than the town could provide.

Mayor Swaney decides to act, inviting the heads of resettlement agencies to a town hall meeting to answer questions from locals. In an interview before the meeting, he comments, “Maybe we can find a way for everybody to work together, live together, and play together.” The next day, the first question asked is “What can we do to keep refugees from coming to Clarkston,” and the tone of the meeting only gets worse as people begin to verbally attack each other over their positions.