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I'm going to relish hearing all the black race-baiters cry over the loss of their chocolate city.
Nearly every majority black city in the nation is experiencing gentrification from whites. Washington DC and Atlanta are the most notable. Hence, their percentage black is falling. The trends are coming from the Pacific Northwest and places like Portland and Seattle with dense walkable neighborhoods located near public transit and cultural amenities. Suburbs do not offer this and cities that have this are winning the competition to attract the best and brightest young workers. If Detroit and Michigan is to compete, it has to become attractive to young talented workers.
I have long predicted that Detroit would go in this direction. I think many suburbs will become, in the future, the new home for the poor while the cities will become more for the middle class and affluent. That having been said, Detroit is still Americas chocolate city. I think that status is determined by the demographic makeup of the residents and not the mayor.
Here in Southeastern Michigan you have one of the most racially segregated areas in the nation....and people want to stick their head in the sand and pretend as if race does not matter or is not an issue. Furthermore, we live in a nation with egregious socioeconomic differences between the races, which also manifest here in Metro Detroit.
Strongly agree.
Even now, I'm a bit shocked when I go back to Metro Detroit, and cross over 8-Mile. I really can't think of anywhere else in the States, or the world, that is quite like that.
Detroit, one of the blackest cities in the United States, and many of the Detroit suburbs are some of the whitest in the nation.
Seriously? We don't see the decline of Detroit as one of GREED and ARROGANCE? Cause that is what many people see, even the residents.
This addendum was not part of the quote I responded to.....so let me respond to it. What many people "see" or "hear" is the result of who is controlling the narrative. There are narrators in America that have an interest is hiding the truth by deflection and or omission. While it maybe true that there was corruption under Kwame, as concluded in a court of law, its spurious to claim that such corruption was the catalyst of over 50 years of decline, as measured by population loss. Simple mathematics would reveal such given that Kwame was only Mayor for 8 years and no other Mayor was convicted of corruption and I am sure that each previous mayor has been "looked into".
Detroit's decline was simply another chapter in America's ugly racial history, one in which blacks were the primary victims. The decline of Detroit was rooted in white reactions to a growing black population, which led to a change in behavior, economic and social, which in turn depleted from Detroit that which was responsible for the rise and zenith of the Detroit population, which was its white residents. Detroit has lost nearly 95% of its peak white population. Why people do not see the obvious role this played in the changing fortunes of Detroit is a riddle to me.
Say if a small local bank has one wealthy depositor who is a billionaire. The bank was able to grow as the result of the deposits of this depositor. However, after a period of years, that depositor withdrew 95% of their deposits from the bank and the bank subsequently went into decline because it could not make up the difference with new and other depositors. Its fair to say that the banks decline was directly related and proportional to the withdrawal of the funds from the banks major depositor. The same is true for Detroit, but instead people want to DEFLECT from the actions and motives of the depositor and focus on the other depositors who remained with the bank. In Detroit, many depositors just did not feel "safe" and comfortable being a part of the same bank with "those people" running it.
Of course, not everyone who left Detroit did so for those reasons....and I am not saying that....but enough certainly did or were forced to by the speculation of others who felt that way and had the power to narrate. That having been said, no depositor is obligated to keep their money in a particular bank....but their actions do produce reactions. I am not blaming, just using the science of cause and effect.
Deflection is like a slight of hand trick of a magician. The key to success of a magician is the ability to deflect attention away revealing what is really going on. The focus on Detroit's leadership, to me, is a similar kind of deflection that takes attention away from the REAL trick of how Detroit declined.
Last edited by Indentured Servant; 11-06-2013 at 12:53 PM..
Growing up, my uncle was constantly ranting about how the WHITE MAN did this, or the WHITE MAN took that. He was a walking-talking furnace of HATE. He was always going on about how there would never be peace until his people (and I suppose mine?) were compensated for what we "lost."
He went on and on. Even after he had earned his 4th college degree---a bachelor, 2 masters and a Ph D--he wanted everyone to know how those RED NECK CHICKEN CRACKERS were oppressing him and his people.
For years, I too embraced this mindset. I was absolutley convinced all my and the communities problems were cause by the WHITE people.
That everything I did was a reflection of my people.
Then one day I asked my uncle how he was able to complete those degrees? Did he have to work for them or were they given to him?
Of course he worked for them he said.
What can you or have you done with this knowledge I asked.
Why, I have tried to educated the people about the wrongs suffered under the oppression by the WHITES..
What is oppression I asked?
Look it up you fool of a child...uncle shouted..
\So I did....oppression=the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner
I asked how oppression stopped him from going to college and getting those degrees?
I continued my inquiry and asked if he had personally experienced the "wrongs" of long ago? Had he walked along side the RED NECK CHICKEN CRACKERS and physically felt the pain of the oppressors rod on his skin?
I finished by saying that he had many opportunties. He was able to have his dreams and actually develop plans to accomplish his dreams--if he wanted.
And yes, while discrimination still exists and may always exist, he can chose how it will impact his life. He could work to change perceptions or he could continue to be an angry man no one wanted to invite to family functions because it was always the "racists'" fault he felt oppressed.
In reality, my uncle died an angry old man because he was determined to make it a point to lable every action as being racist or racially motivated. He refused to take up the cause and stand with those who were different from him because he always trying to extract a public apology from every white person and wanted it delivered on their knees.
ME? I have learned to hate the game, not the players. I sincerely believe it is not (as a rule) individuals who wreek havoc, it is the system that has been allowed to continue unchecked or gone unchallenged by the individual.
Detroit, one of the blackest cities in the United States, and many of the Detroit suburbs are some of the whitest in the nation.
If Detroit had both peak populations of blacks and whites (777,000 and 1.5 million respectively), the city would be 50/50 white and black. Of course then the total population would also be 2.3 million but probably the largest city in the country with that even a population between both races.
In sort of a dualistic sense, if whites actually start moving into the city now, it'd be on a path to probably become the most integrated large city in the county. Especially given that there's no neighborhood in Detroit that's exclusively white and that it seems really unlikely that gentrification would occur in a fast enough process to really push out blacks completely. That is, if middle class blacks for whatever reason aren't returning to the city.
I'm going to relish hearing all the black race-baiters cry over the loss of their chocolate city.
Not to mention the white race baiters and trolls who continually argue that the "illiterate black community" will only elect other blacks due to their "reverse racism" regardless of competence and qualifications.
What will their new argument be?
Growing up, my uncle was constantly ranting about how the WHITE MAN did this, or the WHITE MAN took that. He was a walking-talking furnace of HATE. He was always going on about how there would never be peace until his people (and I suppose mine?) were compensated for what we "lost."
He went on and on. Even after he had earned his 4th college degree---a bachelor, 2 masters and a Ph D--he wanted everyone to know how those RED NECK CHICKEN CRACKERS were oppressing him and his people.
For years, I too embraced this mindset. I was absolutley convinced all my and the communities problems were cause by the WHITE people.
That everything I did was a reflection of my people.
Then one day I asked my uncle how he was able to complete those degrees? Did he have to work for them or were they given to him?
Of course he worked for them he said.
What can you or have you done with this knowledge I asked.
Why, I have tried to educated the people about the wrongs suffered under the oppression by the WHITES..
What is oppression I asked?
Look it up you fool of a child...uncle shouted..
\So I did....oppression=the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner
I asked how oppression stopped him from going to college and getting those degrees?
I continued my inquiry and asked if he had personally experienced the "wrongs" of long ago? Had he walked along side the RED NECK CHICKEN CRACKERS and physically felt the pain of the oppressors rod on his skin?
I finished by saying that he had many opportunties. He was able to have his dreams and actually develop plans to accomplish his dreams--if he wanted.
And yes, while discrimination still exists and may always exist, he can chose how it will impact his life. He could work to change perceptions or he could continue to be an angry man no one wanted to invite to family functions because it was always the "racists'" fault he felt oppressed.
In reality, my uncle died an angry old man because he was determined to make it a point to lable every action as being racist or racially motivated. He refused to take up the cause and stand with those who were different from him because he always trying to extract a public apology from every white person and wanted it delivered on their knees.
ME? I have learned to hate the game, not the players. I sincerely believe it is not (as a rule) individuals who wreek havoc, it is the system that has been allowed to continue unchecked or gone unchallenged by the individual.
Sir (or ma'am), I have been following this message board for several years, and usually you give flippant or smart-aleck remarks, but this post was so very poignant and powerful.
Urban prairie is ripe for whatever development would work best. It could be open space / ag related, it could be new industrial spaces, new commercial spaces or even ... gasp ... new housing.
Detroit's current form is like LA many years ago, with leap frog development and spaces mixed in. Of course Detroit's spaces require some rehab in most cases. But it's not much more difficult than initial clearance of the land.
Growing up, my uncle was constantly ranting about how the WHITE MAN did this, or the WHITE MAN took that. He was a walking-talking furnace of HATE. He was always going on about how there would never be peace until his people (and I suppose mine?) were compensated for what we "lost."
He went on and on. Even after he had earned his 4th college degree---a bachelor, 2 masters and a Ph D--he wanted everyone to know how those RED NECK CHICKEN CRACKERS were oppressing him and his people.
For years, I too embraced this mindset. I was absolutley convinced all my and the communities problems were cause by the WHITE people.
That everything I did was a reflection of my people.
Then one day I asked my uncle how he was able to complete those degrees? Did he have to work for them or were they given to him?
Of course he worked for them he said.
What can you or have you done with this knowledge I asked.
Why, I have tried to educated the people about the wrongs suffered under the oppression by the WHITES..
What is oppression I asked?
Look it up you fool of a child...uncle shouted..
\So I did....oppression=the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner
I asked how oppression stopped him from going to college and getting those degrees?
I continued my inquiry and asked if he had personally experienced the "wrongs" of long ago? Had he walked along side the RED NECK CHICKEN CRACKERS and physically felt the pain of the oppressors rod on his skin?
I finished by saying that he had many opportunties. He was able to have his dreams and actually develop plans to accomplish his dreams--if he wanted.
And yes, while discrimination still exists and may always exist, he can chose how it will impact his life. He could work to change perceptions or he could continue to be an angry man no one wanted to invite to family functions because it was always the "racists'" fault he felt oppressed.
In reality, my uncle died an angry old man because he was determined to make it a point to lable every action as being racist or racially motivated. He refused to take up the cause and stand with those who were different from him because he always trying to extract a public apology from every white person and wanted it delivered on their knees.
ME? I have learned to hate the game, not the players. I sincerely believe it is not (as a rule) individuals who wreek havoc, it is the system that has been allowed to continue unchecked or gone unchallenged by the individual.
Growing up, my uncle was constantly ranting about how the WHITE MAN did this, or the WHITE MAN took that. He was a walking-talking furnace of HATE. He was always going on about how there would never be peace until his people (and I suppose mine?) were compensated for what we "lost."
He went on and on. Even after he had earned his 4th college degree---a bachelor, 2 masters and a Ph D--he wanted everyone to know how those RED NECK CHICKEN CRACKERS were oppressing him and his people.
For years, I too embraced this mindset. I was absolutley convinced all my and the communities problems were cause by the WHITE people.
That everything I did was a reflection of my people.
Then one day I asked my uncle how he was able to complete those degrees? Did he have to work for them or were they given to him?
Of course he worked for them he said.
What can you or have you done with this knowledge I asked.
Why, I have tried to educated the people about the wrongs suffered under the oppression by the WHITES..
What is oppression I asked?
Look it up you fool of a child...uncle shouted..
\So I did....oppression=the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner
I asked how oppression stopped him from going to college and getting those degrees?
I continued my inquiry and asked if he had personally experienced the "wrongs" of long ago? Had he walked along side the RED NECK CHICKEN CRACKERS and physically felt the pain of the oppressors rod on his skin?
I finished by saying that he had many opportunties. He was able to have his dreams and actually develop plans to accomplish his dreams--if he wanted.
And yes, while discrimination still exists and may always exist, he can chose how it will impact his life. He could work to change perceptions or he could continue to be an angry man no one wanted to invite to family functions because it was always the "racists'" fault he felt oppressed.
In reality, my uncle died an angry old man because he was determined to make it a point to lable every action as being racist or racially motivated. He refused to take up the cause and stand with those who were different from him because he always trying to extract a public apology from every white person and wanted it delivered on their knees.
ME? I have learned to hate the game, not the players. I sincerely believe it is not (as a rule) individuals who wreek havoc, it is the system that has been allowed to continue unchecked or gone unchallenged by the individual.
Well, everyone has a story. My father, and mother, grew up as share croppers in the Mississippi Delta. My father said that people around them were so poor that the used to eat dirt to get nutrients. For Christmas, they got an apple and an orange if they were lucky. The land owner, as my father and uncles told us, always told my grandparents that that they came up short, no matter how much crop they produced or how long they worked. The land owner wanted EVERYONE in the family out in the fields working to produce more crops, but it was never enough to pay what was owed to the land owner, who would even sometimes even TAKE the crops that my grandparents were allowed to grow for their own sustenance. Obviously this peonage prevented the kids, including my father, from getting a proper education. My grandfather died basically in peonage and the kids migrated north, where I was born.
I have come to realize that my father is a very intelligent person. He was also a very bitter person like your uncle. Yes, to him the white man was the devil. Why, because he was treated devilishly by them. He felt robbed of his true full potential in life…..and he was….no question about it. That drove him to drink and a bitter person who drinks is not a good combination for the head of a family of 6. Certainly these problems created problems for the family. Bitter angry parents can and do often create bitter angry kids, who are also robbed of their full potential as a consequence. That is called displacement. The Boss yells at the husband who yells at the wife who yells at the kid who yells at the dog. I honestly believe that much of violence in the black community is the result of societal displacement that stops at black people because there is no one under us to chew up, thus we chew up each other.
Every action creates a reaction. Beliefs have consequences. Hence, years of racism and racist beliefs, produce reactions and consequences. I do not subscribe to the “benign racism” school of thought, which implies that racism did and does not produce negative reactions and consequences. One of the more insidious things that it produces is self-fulfilling prophecy.
Process by which one�s expectations about another person eventually lead the other person to behave in ways that confirm these expectations
NOTE: Self-fulfilling prophecies must involve at least two people-- you cannot have a self-fulfilling prophecy with yourself
4 Steps to Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
1. Perceiver has expectations about how target will behave
2. Perceiver then behaves in a way that is likely to elicit the expected target behavior
3. Target indeed behaves in a way that confirms perceiver�s expectations
4. Perceiver (Objective Perceiver) sees predicted behavior
Examples of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy * You expect your new roommate to be shy so you don�t speak much to him after he moves in, and he therefore does seem shy
* A coach expects his freshmen to be uncoordinated and unskilled so he does not play them often, and when he does they are rusty and do not perform well
* Your professor expects you to do well and she spends extra time with you preparing for the exam, so you get an A
Much of the condition of socioeconomic inequality, between blacks and whites, can be explained via the theory of self-fulfilling prophecies. People never stop to ask themselves what has been the consequence of white beliefs upon black psychology, culture, economics and sociology. If beliefs have behavioral consequences and behaviors are actions and if all actions produce reactions, which they do, then where is societies acknowledgment and accounting for the accrued reaction in shaping the black condition? Today, it’s written out of the narrative of the black condition ….either to accentuate the perception and continue the doctrine of black inherent dysfunction and or to sanitize or minimize the ugly history of white racism.
Finally, let’s just assume for the moment that no white person alive today is racist and that the doors of opportunity are equally open now. Even if that were true that still does not mean that the consequence and reaction of past white racism upon blacks is not real. Blacks are still living under the consequences and conditions that resulted from past racism, as reactions transcend time and space. Hence, your uncle’s obsession was a reaction….that only has or had life due to real actions that had taken place. My father also was reacting and his reactions begat reactions. Also, if we continued the assumption that white were free of racism, then they would in turn start reacting to blacks reactions to historical racism, which then creates modern racism in whites because they have issues with the black reaction. It’s a vicious self-perpetuating cycle of actions creating reactions.
Unfortunately, I have no solutions. If you drop a rubber ball to the ground it will set off a series of rebounding reactions that eventually fades away as all the forces gradually fatigue and the ball reaches equilibrium. That takes time. I certainly do not subscribe to the publication that whites are the cause of all black problems. That kind of absurd thinking has the logical inference that every black person would be rich and without problems if not for whites and there would never be a murder, rape, robbery or any socioeconomic dysfunction with ANY black person. I also do not subscribe to the publication that black humanity is sup par, which leads blacks to have a greater propensity to be more irresponsible, to make poorer choices, to be more violent, simply because we are “black”. That implies that blacks are inferior. What I do subscribe to, as well as publish, is the school of thought that explains white racism for causing the socioeconomic GAPS that exist between the races. If our humanity and capacities and capabilities are equal, regardless of race or color, then after over 300 years in this nation, our conditions should be equal as well, if not for unequal treatment.
All that having been said, your uncles is not related to the fact that there are 1.6 million less whites living in Detroit today than in 1950, when the population of the city peaked. Whatever the moral is to the story you just told, why there are 1.6 million fewer whites in Detroit today still has to be accounted for and it still plays the most significant role in Detroit's decline, notwithstanding your uncle or my father. Also, just because EVERYTHING is said to be racism and is not.......that does invalidate the destruction caused by racism. How many people have been falsely imprisoned for crimes? Does the fact that people have been falsely imprisoned invalidate all others who are in prison? Should people stop being arrested because false arrest have existed and exist....ergo....is racism invalidated by false claims made of racism? Should bringing up racism cease due to false claims of racism?
Hate and bitterness do more internal damage than good. However, your uncle was not a selfish person, in my opinion. He was not as concerned about his plight as the plight of others. Martin Luther King Jr probably could have led a pretty good life. He was also very well educated....but he sacrificed his life for the condition of OTHERS. It was not about HIM. He realized that not all black folks had the opportunity as him....and your uncle probably did as well.
Home Work Assignment:
How has racial self fulfilling prophecies shaped modern Detroit? What were the origins of this? How has whites beliefs and perceptions about blacks and black leadership, been self fulfilled by white actions in the metro area? How, in turn, have whites reacted to blacks reaction to white actions?
Last edited by Indentured Servant; 11-07-2013 at 08:25 AM..
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