Detroit's Agony - ABC Primetime Special November 8th, 1990

[masterblaster]

I brought it up on reddit today, I might as well post on Detroityes



A 'response' show to the Special aired later that evening with Bill Bonds officiating:

[Ray1936]

Come a long way in 30 years. There's still problems, but on the whole, coming back strong.

[Danny]

Coleman A. Young's interview in ABC's Primetime Live turn out to be a national disgrace. Young don't want to hear about the urban problems in Detroit's ghettos, increase of white flight, regional flight, poor police protection, HUD housing problems, violent street crime. So when ha said. " The interview is over" He got up from his set and left.

Then took the nice Hawaiian vacation and say "Aloha M_____________!!!!"

[Bdjack]

Come a long way in 30 years. There's still problems, but on the whole, coming back strong.

Got that right!

[KnnNike]

Come a long way in 30 years. There's still problems, but on the whole, coming back strong.

Hmm...30 years is about how long it's been since Coleman Young left. Funny how that works.

I hang out a lot on Nextdoor, and it's unreal to hear how many longtime residents still idolize that man. That man could do no wrong, simply because of the color of his skin.

[royce]

Mayor Young was tired of hearing the same BS from the media that he had to contend with since the day he took office. Whites disinvested in Detroit, whether financially or through moving out of the city. Dealing with the remnants of that and the remnants of systemic discrimination/racism on the part of whites for decades in Detroit and throughout the country, did not make his job easy. The police force was hostile towards African Americans in the city. That led to the 67 riot. Young changed the police force and stepped on some toes in the process [[promoting blacks over whites despite lower test scores) in order to racially balance out the leadership of the police force and the rank and file.

Young awarded some African Americans contracts that they otherwise might not have gotten under a white administration. Young was no saint and I'm not praising him because of the color of his skin. I voted for him his first two terms but not the lasts. Young, like any politician, played to his base. Remember he and Henry Ford II got the RenCen built . I think the integration of African Americans into the police force and to senior levels of the force was his greatest accomplishment as mayor. As cities today deal with police shootings that disproportionally kill African Americans, Detroit doesn't have those issues. I credit Mayor Young for that.

[Richard]

Whites disinvested in Detroit causing it’s downfall.

Detroit had the largest African American homeownership and accumulated wealth in the country at the time.

The move to the burbs started after WW2,the writing was already on the wall for major cities and as proven there was nothing that could have been done to change that trajectory,it would be speculation for me to say burning cities may have played a role in accelerating that,no different then it does today.

I did not know this mayor,but one would think if you are in charge of a city that had the largest African American accumulated wealth in the country at his disposal,it might have been a bit more productive to put that to work by promoting large scale African American business ownership in the city.

All through history most cites had highly economically productive African American communities that were self contained where all the businesses and buildings were owned and run by African Americans.

To say woe is me all the whites left and took all their money and caused our downfall is BS,you might as well be saying African Americans are incapable of economic impact,even after history proved the opposite.

Also at the time Detroit had the second highest heroin addiction rate in the country behind NYC who had double the population,it gives the appearance that more time was spent playing the blame game then actually working with what one had and expanding on it.

[royce]

"All through history most cites had highly economically productive African American communities that were self contained where all the businesses and buildings were owned and run by African Americans." Richard

Richard, what happened to all of those black-owned businesses? They were destroyed by white-controlled city-governments who cleared them out to make room for the interstate highways. Ever heard of Hastings Street, Black Wall Street in Tulsa, or the Hill District in Pittsburgh?

Don't want to call it white disinvestment. Then call it corporate disinvestment. Many corporate offices left the city. The Lions left, and the Pistons left. I'm not playing the "woe is me" card. I'm just stating what happened.

[Richard]

We are just having a discussion and not throwing arrows.

Agreed the slamming of freeways through cities destroyed a lot of tight knit African American enclaves,which also contained German,Irish,and other immigrants,the building of the Brewster projects also took 15 acres of Black bottom.

The mindset also at the time and sense these areas were considered low income with older housing stock,outside of the freeways cities were also looking at renewal.

The Sojourner Truth housing project was also built to clear the rest of Blackbottom out,that was actually Mrs Roosevelt who made that decision.

There was 350 African American businesses in Black-bottom at the time,O am not sure but it appears as though a majority moved over to 12th street.

They did not just all fade away and actually today Detroit is 5th in the country in the amount of African American owned businesses,considering the other cities above have populations over 1 million,it still holds true.

I cannot think of the name of the city in the south,it still retains its African American community like blackbottom had back then,it’s school graduation rate remains 98%,with 85% going on to collage and top end careers.

I am not pointing fingers or anything it,I do not know what to call it,maybe boggles my mind ?

I deal with alot of African American businesses,I have some good African American friends that are in their late 70s - 80s that grew up in all of that turmoil and even worse,in the south.

But yet they became multi millionaires and they started out with the crap jobs,numbers runners,drivers for the girls,running bootleg but yet they preserved and made it.

The African American that invented peanut butter,17 years old and wants to get a education,so he walks 1200 miles from Florida to the Carolinas at a time when he could very well have been lynched had he been caught,gets a job at the university as a janitor,studies off of the books,they noticed and allowed him to get a degree and he invents everything peanut outside of the shell.

I agree with there has been past history of racism,un even odds,deck stacked against or what ever one calls it,everybody that I know in business no matter what the odds or skin color that wanted to succeed,did so and does.

Even if one is white,or Bieze or Asian or what ever,if one was not born with a silver spoon,it’s a uphill battle full of its ups and downs and disappointments,sucesses and failures.

I do not buy this whole,the white man keeps me down approach,and because of the past I am at a disadvantage,the ones throughout history that took the approach of nobody is going to keep me down,or the only way they can is if I let them.

We have to remember history while not destroying it,the good or the bad,otherwise future generations will know little about it,but it seems as people like to use it as a crutch.

There are people out there that like us to be at each other’s throats,it’s power plays, just as there are people out there that cannot stand it when others succeed and will do anything to keep others down,it’s just the way it is.

I just think we spend to much time in the past and not allowing to move forward,we know what happened and we need to always discuss it so it does not happen again.

In my humble uneducated opinion where Detroit’s concerned,it needs to get over all of this past and move on,to constantly relive it is not helping,do not forget it but yesterday is history,tomorrow is the future.

I do not know much about mayor Young,outside of what I read here and other research,but he seemed to like stoking the flames with division and blame game,as a mayor,all of that should have been irrelevant,I just think he could gone a lot further had he gone down a different path.

But it does not really matter at this point,we cannot go back and change it,maybe learn from it and decide if that is the best way to move the city forward,judging from current choice of leadership,I am thinking most have learned from the past and are moving forward.

[Zacha341]

The man you are referring to is George Washington Carver.

...The African American that invented peanut butter,17 years old and wants to get a education,so he walks 1200 miles from Florida to the Carolinas at a time when he could very well have been lynched had he been caught,gets a job at the university as a janitor,studies off of the books,they noticed and allowed him to get a degree and he invents everything peanut outside of the shell.

[enio]

The man you are referring to is George Washington Carver.

George Washington Carver had nothing to do with the invention of peanut butter. Marcellus Edson and John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of the corn flake, both had patents on the production of peanut butter in the 1880s - 1890's.

BTW, your knowledge of geography is severely lacking. Even if Carver lived in the Keys, it wouldn't take 1200 miles to reach the Carolinas. Besides, Carver was educated in Iowa, not the deep South. The Hillbillies that dominated southern governments prevented most blacks from getting an education at public and private universities until the 1960's.

[313WX]

George Washington Carver had nothing to do with the invention of peanut butter. Marcellus Edson and John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of the corn flake, both had patents on the production of peanut butter in the 1880s - 1890's.

BTW, your knowledge of geography is severely lacking. Even if Carver lived in the Keys, it wouldn't take 1200 miles to reach the Carolinas. Besides, Carver was educated in Iowa, not the deep South. The Hillbillies that dominated southern governments prevented most blacks from getting an education at public and private universities until the 1960's.

What does any of this have to do with the OP?

[Richard]

George Washington Carver had nothing to do with the invention of peanut butter. Marcellus Edson and John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of the corn flake, both had patents on the production of peanut butter in the 1880s - 1890's.

BTW, your knowledge of geography is severely lacking. Even if Carver lived in the Keys, it wouldn't take 1200 miles to reach the Carolinas. Besides, Carver was educated in Iowa, not the deep South. The Hillbillies that dominated southern governments prevented most blacks from getting an education at public and private universities until the 1960's.

If you are going to correct somebody,at least correct the person that provided the information that you wish to dispute while unable to see the forest through the trees.

That would be me.

He actually left Diamond Grove Missouri and walked to Tuskegee Alabama which is 708 miles by car on todayÂ’s roads,considering it was 1920s and todayÂ’s roads did not exist it could have very well been the 1200 miles.

In your haste to correct, you completely glossed over the fact that I actually provided the incorrect states.

Irregardless great job on completely missing the point,gold star standard there.

The point was if a former slave can make a difference at a time when all odds were against him,then anybody can once they stop playing the blame game.

[Zacha341]

Good points Royce. Young had his flaws, no doubt. But from one of my uncles working in construction I heard about the contracts many AA worked under the Young admin.

Good paying work at a time when people with young families were purchasing their first homes, cars towards building-out our working and middle class. Couple that with the automotive work so abundant as well. Indeed this was a time of some prosperity Detroit.

Then things changed [crack epidemic, economic, manufacturing shifts, etc.].

...Young awarded some African Americans contracts that they otherwise might not have gotten under a white administration. Young was no saint and I'm not praising him because of the color of his skin. I voted for him his first two terms but not the lasts. Young, like any politician, played to his base. Remember he and Henry Ford II got the RenCen built . I think the integration of African Americans into the police force and to senior levels of the force was his greatest accomplishment as mayor. As cities today deal with police shootings that disproportionally kill African Americans, Detroit doesn't have those issues. I credit Mayor Young for that.

[Zacha341]

I can live with that being the most important point and take away!

The point was if a former slave can make a difference at a time when all odds were against him, then anybody can once they stop playing the blame game.

[Honky Tonk]

The point was if a former slave can make a difference at a time when all odds were against him,then anybody can once they stop playing the blame game.

To quote an old George Carlin skit: "you gotta WANNA!"