Quote Originally Posted by fryar View Post
Wouldn't they change it to "Novi man" either because of public pressure, or because they precisely don't have an agenda, as an organization. A mental slip, some inadvertent racism, if "Detroit man" indeed was code for black man, is something different - not something admirable, but something different. I realize the words inadvertent and racism don't often go together, and for good reason. But it is something different if the writer automatically assumed the black dude was from Detroit - not terribly cool, but something different from an anti-Detroit or anti-black agenda.

I think you're reading too much into it. I'm thinking the reporter is so used to writing the phrase "a Detroit man" when it comes to crime, he inadvertantly put that in the story. Chalk it up to muscle memory, not racism.