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All you explained is that you have racist tendencies and care more about race than you do about the results a mayor can bring to the city.
For the city of Detroit to Boom and Prosper, yet, the lives of blacks in the area do not improve, is meaningless to me. What you are trying to do is deflect and caste aspersion and create discomfort for those who talk about the long racist history of this nation and the effects created from that history. You attempt to do this by saying I am a racist......to discredit me....and by association....the argument and claims that I have made. If you want to call me a racist and see me as a racist for noting the recorded history of this nation.....fine.....then so is every historian because race and racism is the history that this nation was founded on....I simply report on the effects there of....which you obviously don't want reported.
Racism has been so long and so profound that even if all racism ended in the hearts and minds of whites, that racism would continue via the momentum created through the force of past racism. This “coasting” created from the force of past racism would manifest as things continuing to impact black people more negatively than white people, even without the intent in the hearts and minds of whites for it to be so.
As an example, take poverty and “class-ism”. If racism no longer existed, in this hypothetical, while class-ism remained, the “coasting” legacy effect is that class-ism would impact more negatively on blacks than whites. Why, you might ask? The reason being is that one of the consequences of racism is that it left blacks with nearly 3 times the rate of poverty of whites. If racism vanished in 1970, mysteriously, in 1971 blacks had 3 times the rate of white poverty as a reaction to the 300 plus years actions of white racism. Thus, class-ism impacts blacks disproportionately, as a legacy effect of racism.
The leading candidate to be the next Mayor of Detroit is a white guy. As a write in candidate, he received the most votes in the most recent runoff. Why now? The recent filing of bankruptcy by the city of Detroit is a LAGGING INDICATOR. In other words, it represents the state of things PAST and not FUTURE, as opposed to a LEADING INDICATOR which foreshadows the future. The truth is that Detroit has turned the corner, led by entrepreneurs who have divested from the suburbs and invested Billions in the city, as well as, the rebounding of the region’s main economic engine, the auto industry, plus the political realization in Michigan that the state needs a healthy Detroit to optimize the states potential.
The problem with a white guy as Detroit mayor, at this juncture, is that it sends the wrong subliminal message about race. What will happen is that the turnaround of Detroit, which has already been well underway with black leadership, will be credited to white leadership, and all of Detroit’s decline years will be credited to black leadership, despite the fact that the decline of Detroit was well underway, under Cavanaugh, before black leadership set foot in controlling offices of the city. Even though the intent is not likely such, it works to fortify the doctrine of black inferiority and the widely held belief that blacks cannot govern successfully, as a general rule, a belief that existed long ago and put to film in the movie “Birth of a Nation”.
The truth is..... I actually believe that the white guy would be better for Detroit, even though the city is over 80% black. The reason being is that even without the existence of the malice based racism (in the fantasy world free of white racism), the legacy impact of past racism would be such that it has created skewed statistics which allow people to rationalize, without malice, that a white person will likely do better than a black person. In other words, it allows whites to reason logically, given statistics, that whites do a better job at governing and such, and hence their level of confidence in the cities future will rise with a white face in office, as opposed to another black one, which they will link with incompetence and corruption.
Already, turnaround has a white face. The areas of Detroit that are currently seeing a “turnaround” are synonymous with the areas that are seeing the whitest influx and investments. It makes me chuckle that white influx is associated as a catalyst for the cities turn around, but the massive white exodus of previous decades was not the root explanation of the cities decline, but rather, the cause was “blacks”. Whites’ returning to the city is turns the city around, while whites’ leaving in mass produces no effect is illogical…..but again, we are coasting.
Economics rest on the foundation of confidence. Whites returning to leadership position in Detroit will increase white confidence in the city and since about 70% of the people in Southeastern Michigan are white, and since the legacy effect of racism has given whites more income and wealth to work with than blacks, white confidence in the city is key to its revitalization, because they have the critical mass of bodies and monies that influences market demand, value, investment and the like. Thus, if or when Detroit elects in first white Mayor in decades, Detroit will gradually boom from the core outward, with massive new residents and investments.
I actually "get" what the OP is saying but I don't feel that Detroiters will overlook Duggan just because he is white and they want to have a black mayor lead them to "the promised land" or anything like that.
I am unsure if Duggan will win, but I think Detroiters are looking for a change of sorts and are willing to put their votes with Duggan since he has a solid business background. I know I would consider him (I am black) if he had some solid goals and a plan of action to ensure Detroit's recovery from bankruptcy and to make a commitment to solicit businesses besides auto manufacturing to come to Detroit in order to diversify the economy.
I currently live in Atlanta and in our last mayoral race a white candidate won the primary as well - I voted for her because I liked her ideas better than the black candidate (who did win and Atlanta is not as "black" as Detroit so he got some white voters too over the white lady). I think that race is less of a factor in local races and especially in Detroit right now. I am sure there are a minority of blacks there who wouldn't 1-vote for a white person or 2-vote for a republican but I think there are enough of the 700,000 residents who are looking for a solid leader no matter that leader's political affiliation or ethnicity.
And FWIW, I did live in Detroit for a while and still have family there. I really do think they will look more at who can bring them into stability versus race and that not enough people will care about having a black person bring them to stability versus getting a good, solid mayor period.
Honestly are there any white people left there?
Detroit would be the perfect place for white liberal hipster students to move in, live next door to their precious victimized minorities, then they can help clean up the mess they made and rebuild the city.
They can prove to the world that they live by what they claim to believe in and that they're not just a bunch of lazy spoiled brats with their greedy hands out waiting for Daddy's weekly allowance while whining about being too good to apply for a job at McDonald's.
Indentured Servant - you have a very monochromatic view of the world. Everything you write suggests that black vs. white explains everything to you.
Until I looked this morning, I did not know that Detroit's last five mayors were black. More meaningful to me is that since 1962 all of Detroit's mayors have been Democrats.
The downfall of Detroit has been managed by Democrats. Detroit isn't a mess because they have 39 years of black mayors. It is a mess because of the policies Detroit's city leaders, all Democrats, have put in place.
For the city of Detroit to Boom and Prosper, yet, the lives of blacks in the area do not improve, is meaningless to me. What you are trying to do is deflect and caste aspersion and create discomfort for those who talk about the long racist history of this nation and the effects created from that history. You attempt to do this by saying I am a racist......to discredit me....and by association....the argument and claims that I have made. If you want to call me a racist and see me as a racist for noting the recorded history of this nation.....fine.....then so is every historian because race and racism is the history that this nation was founded on....I simply report on the effects there of....which you obviously don't want reported.
I am not deflecting anything. The only way we will get over racism is to bring up a single generation without talking about race at all. People who continually bring up racism (like you) do nothing but create more racism. Stop being part of the problem.
Honestly are there any white people left there? Detroit would be the perfect place for white liberal hipster students to move in, live next door to their precious victimized minorities, then they can help clean up the mess they made and rebuild the city.
They can prove to the world that they live by what they claim to believe in and that they're not just a bunch of lazy spoiled brats with their greedy hands out waiting for Daddy's weekly allowance while whining about being too good to apply for a job at McDonald's.
that's already happening, but they aren't exactly getting the red carpet rolled out for them.
I actually "get" what the OP is saying but I don't feel that Detroiters will overlook Duggan just because he is white and they want to have a black mayor lead them to "the promised land" or anything like that.
I am unsure if Duggan will win, but I think Detroiters are looking for a change of sorts and are willing to put their votes with Duggan since he has a solid business background. I know I would consider him (I am black) if he had some solid goals and a plan of action to ensure Detroit's recovery from bankruptcy and to make a commitment to solicit businesses besides auto manufacturing to come to Detroit in order to diversify the economy.
I currently live in Atlanta and in our last mayoral race a white candidate won the primary as well - I voted for her because I liked her ideas better than the black candidate (who did win and Atlanta is not as "black" as Detroit so he got some white voters too over the white lady). I think that race is less of a factor in local races and especially in Detroit right now. I am sure there are a minority of blacks there who wouldn't 1-vote for a white person or 2-vote for a republican but I think there are enough of the 700,000 residents who are looking for a solid leader no matter that leader's political affiliation or ethnicity.
And FWIW, I did live in Detroit for a while and still have family there. I really do think they will look more at who can bring them into stability versus race and that not enough people will care about having a black person bring them to stability versus getting a good, solid mayor period.
I agree with everything you said. As I stated in a follow up thread, blacks are really only concerned with the color of leaders when they represent milestones as FIRSTS for black people, then race place a major role, but not an exclusive role. I mean, hey……how long did blacks vote (when they were allowed to) when the only options were white? Black people are used to voting for whites and have no problem voting for whites when our interests are represented in the platform.
That having been said, one cannot or not dismiss the psychology. The majority narrative is that Detroit failed from incompetence, mismanagement and corruption by its political leadership…..which has been black. While those things may have existed or have surfaced at times and to one degree or another, it’s not even close to being the main cause of Detroit’s woes. However, as the narration goes, it was the leadership that brought Detroit down. When people here this narrative enough, they can start to believe it and repeat it, regardless of their color….hence, the association is made, subliminally, that another black mayor would be the same old thing, while a white mayor offers the potential of actually turning the city around.
The thing is this. The city is currently turning around. I project, barring a major national economic malaise or collapse, that Michigan and Detroit will become a premier state and destination in the next 10 years. There is going to be massive residential construction, of medium rise apartments and condos, in the core areas that now look like wasteland, as soon as all the needed property is bought up. There is a master plan that is taking shape and that will really take off from the symbolism of a white mayor…..as it will restore confidence in many who were not confident in previous leadership and make people feel that the 83% black city is not “anti-white”……which it has never really been.
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