Very interesting read:
Detroit's Tragic Decline Is Largely Due To Its Own Race-Based Policies
This is true, and it largely dates back to Coleman Young as this article states. He created an "us vs. them" attitude in the city that still persists today (despite efforts to the contrary).
By WALTER E. WILLIAMS
Posted 12/18/2012
JoAnn Watson, Detroit city council member, said, "Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president, and there ought to be a quid pro quo."
The Detroit City Council is a waste of space. They wouldn't know a good idea if it hit them in the face. I've seen it happen.
In other words, President Obama should send the nearly bankrupted city of Detroit millions in taxpayer bailout money. But there's a painful lesson to be learned from decades of political hustling and counsel by intellectuals and urban experts.
This will never happen, and I'm not hearing anything about this happening either on the news or around town. The city is more likely to be taken over by an "emergency manager" and split up than it is to be "bailed out". Further,if the city is bailed out in ANY way, it will be by the State, not the Feds.
In 1960, Detroit's population was 1.6 million. Blacks were 29%, and whites were 70%. Today, Detroit's population has fallen precipitously to 707,000, of which blacks are 84% and whites 8%.
The whites left in droves after the riots of 1969 (1968?), anyway, that is when the white middle class fled. I believe the city fell under the one million mark.. gosh, within the last 10 years? The people of Detroit are fleeing to the suburbs. All of them, not just the white people.
Much of the city's decline began with the election of Coleman Young, Detroit's first black mayor and mayor for five terms, who engaged in political favoritism to blacks and tax policies against higher-income, mostly white people.
He also engaged in political terrorism. He had bands of young men who would go around and intimidate the residents of Detroit to vote for him. They even had a name "Coleman's Boys". He was a terrible mayor, and a terrible man.
Young's successors, Dennis Archer and Kwame Kilpatrick, followed his Third World tyrant policies, but neither had his verbal vulgarity. Kilpatrick (2002-0
went to jail and is on trial today on charges of corruption.
went to jail and is on trial today on charges of corruption.This is where this author jumps off the mark a bit. Dennis Archer did NOT follow his "third world tyrant policies". Dennis Archer did everything he could to bring the city and the burbs together, and even attracted some business (white business by the way) back to the city. The Downtown revival is largely due to Dennis Archer and his efforts.
However, Kwame was a whole different kind of bad guy than Young. Kwame played the hip, gangster mayor. He wasn't all about black vs. white like Young was either. He was just all about HIMSELF and his family and friends. Oh, and he was about kickbacks too. Lots of those. He ran the city almost like a mob would run it's business. Piss him off? Get shot. Boom.
Mayor David Bing is making an effort to revive Detroit. His problem is that he's not God.
His problem is the City Council. They are IDIOTS. Bing, from what I can see, is looking for very creative ways to help the city come back from the terrible place it is in.
Policies that ran whites and other more affluent people out of Detroit might have been Young's and his successors' strategy. After all, why not get rid of people who aren't going to vote for you anyway?
You also have to think about when this was. Late 60's. Granted, this lasted until well into the 80's - but again, Coleman Young was a terrible person.
The problem is that getting rid of these people left Detroit with a lower tax base, fewer jobs and fewer consumers. Fewer whites might be good for the careers of black politicians, but it's not in the best interests of ordinary blacks.
Blacks have political control of Detroit, but the relevant question is whether some control of something is better than 100% control of nothing. By most measures, Detroit is one of the nation's most tragic cities, and it's mostly self-imposed.
The City Council would rather have 100% control of nothing. No joke. I can give examples if you like.
Detroit topped Forbes magazine's 2010 list of America's Most Dangerous Cities. That year there were 345 homicides, but that's going to be topped with this year's 365 homicides so far.
This is true, however, when I go there, and I go often, I do not feel threatened or in danger. Most of these murders are not random.
Most homicide victims in Detroit and elsewhere are black, and 95% of the time their murderers are black. But far more important to black leaders and white liberals than blacks murdering blacks are charges of police misconduct and racial profiling.
I was pulled over in the city one night. I was driving by myself, and was much younger. The cop said "get out. Go home. I75 is that way." So yeah, there is a little of that.
Detroit's predominantly black public schools are close to being the worst in the nation, perhaps with the exception of those of Washington, D.C. Only 4% of Detroit's eighth-graders scored proficient or above on the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test, sometimes called "The Nation's Report Card."
This is largely due to the School Board - they are worse than the City Council, and this also goes back to Coleman Young and his vision of Detroit. It's very sad.
Thirty-six percent scored basic, and 57% below basic. "Below basic" is when a student is unable to demonstrate even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level. "Basic" indicates only partial mastery.
Unbeknownst to most black parents is the fact that most black students who manage to graduate from high school cannot read and compute any better than whites four years younger and still in junior high school.
This is not fair. This should state that students graduating from Detroit Schools, not white vs. black.
Here's a question for you: If we put a group of 100 students of any race having an eighth-grade level of proficiency and another group of 100 students of any race with a 12th-grade level of proficiency in college, is it reasonable to expect the first group to perform as well as the second?
On top of that, is it reasonable to expect a student of any race to be able to make up 12 years of fraudulent K-12 education in the space of four or five years of college?
Detroit's social pathology is seen in other cities with large black populations such as Philadelphia, Newark, Baltimore and Chicago. These are cities where blacks have for years dominated the political machinery in the forms of mayors, police chiefs, superintendents of schools and city councilmen, plus they've been Democrats.
"plus they've been democrats"??
It's safe to conclude that the focus on political power doesn't do much for ordinary blacks.
This was a very racist article.
Amy
By the way, I miss you too.~KB
1971-2006
By the way, I miss you too.~KB
1971-2006
Detroit, MI - A case study of how to destroy a city.....
- 20/12/2012 05:54:05 AM
785 Views
Interesting, however it smacks of...
- 20/12/2012 04:22:50 PM
431 Views
Williams tends to focus on race, specifically erosion of the black family
- 20/12/2012 05:10:10 PM
351 Views
Yes and No..
- 20/12/2012 05:15:02 PM
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Re: Yes and No..
- 20/12/2012 05:26:56 PM
376 Views
Re: Yes and No..
- 20/12/2012 05:32:33 PM
427 Views
You know, Amy, I was struggling with that point, but I thought...
- 20/12/2012 07:07:55 PM
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+1 - "groupthink" is probably the biggest thing that's holding back.
- 20/12/2012 07:52:25 PM
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Yeah, it's absurd how people keep calling Obama an African-American.
- 20/12/2012 08:59:21 PM
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