Hm. Interesting.

Brizee states
Take the EFM law out of it. The OP has repeatedly stated his thoughts on it's application/intentions. I don't and won't agree, but that's not what this is about.
I can agree to disagree about the EFM law. And for the purpose of the discussion, let's presume that there is no EFM law. Assume that it was reversed in the courts or nullified by referendum, etc.

So we have no EFM. But we still have a financial emergency.

So why is the emotional reaction to the EM/EFM 10x more than the emotional reaction to the financial emergency? Do we not see that if we instead focused on the financial emergency that we may even be able to prevent an EM/EFM?

When black people see the trend of takeovers in this state, it is very easy for them to be convinced that something shady is going on. They are highly sensitive to racial issues because historically Blacks in this country have lived under extreme oppression supported by the government, longer than they have lived with the same relative freedoms as whites. I understand that we must move forward, but it is very hard for the people who received this adverse treatment to forget it. Getting Black people in America to fully trust the American Government, would be like trying to convince the Jews to fully trust a Nazi Government. They go along with the process, but there will always be that memory in the back of the minds, in spite of there being a Black person in office. I hope this gave you a little insight into the thought process behind the resistance.
Thank you, and it does. I have a great deal of empathy for this. Detroit in my experience has always been a Black majority city. I experienced racism and institutional exclusion, too, albeit to a much lesser degree than Black friends of mine. And I know that those wounds still hurt me at times, despite the fact that -- for all practical purposes -- I now am the institution and not the one being excluded from it.

I'm not asking anyone to put that aside or forget the institutional wrongs that have taken place or even to ignore the ones that are taking place now.

There's a lot of talk about the trend of state takeovers in the state being aimed at cities that are majority Black. But DC and Atlanta are majority Black cities, and they're not facing takeover. Hamtramck is 60% White and has been mired in fiscal emergency.

I'm not asking skeptics to trust their leaders. I'm asking them to just look at the numbers and trust the financial statements. And if they don't know how to read those statements, then they should find someone who's well-versed at understanding them to explain.

Blacks are following numbers too, just different numbers than the rest of the population.
The tragedy is that it doesn't have to be either/or. The fact that poverty disproportionately affects Blacks is one that I wish more people understood. Or that far too many atrocities have been committed in the name of government to count.

But I also wish that those at the middle and the bottom of the income scale could learn to look at problems from a perspective of "how does this affect the big picture?" or "If I was responsible for all these 27 different competing interests, how would I prioritize them?"

When the chorus coming from the masses is, "This is all BS and I'm not going to stand up for it anymore."...how does that get us any closer to solving any of the problems?