Abandon Detroit, Abandon Black America

[English]

Found this article on the Atlanta Post website last week...

Abandon Detroit, Abandon Black America
http://atlantapost.com/2010/06/02/op...black-america/

Detroit is a microcosm of Black America. I believe if you cannot love Detroit, you cannot fully love Black people. The Detroit Metropolitan area represents the best and the worst that Black folks in this country have to offer. The Black middle class was solidified in and around Detroit with steady unionized blue collar labor in the auto industry.

The middle class expanded as more Black folks with college educations occupied managerial positions. Detroiters experienced and vigilantly fought the racisms of housing redlining, riots, as well as White and Black flight. Detroit has benefited and suffered at the hands of White and Black leadership. If there is a city that tells us about the promise and perils of Blackness, it’s Detroit. I’m so interested in what happens in Detroit because if we can turn it around, we can turn around the rest of our cities.

I'm interested in what people think about Lewis' ideas. Here are my views...

I don't want Detroit to be viewed as a black city any more than New York or Chicago is viewed as just a black city. We need to broaden our conceptualization of who a Detroiter is. To be honest, many whites just don't feel comfortable living in Detroit because they feel they are not welcome. An earlier generation of black people with lived memories of pre-Civil Rights America may have felt that turnabout was fair play, but the majority of us under 45 don't have that excuse.

I believe that Detroit needs to clean up both its image and its reality first. Then it needs more people from all backgrounds, and a huge flood of immigrants [[please oh universe, please please please...).