2008-07-31

White Folks, Please Come Rescue Detroit!

The editor of Detroit's largest black newspaper has given up on black folks running Detroit. He calls on educated white folks to rush in and rescue it. I wouldn't have stated it in those terms, but he did. He's surely more fed up than I could ever imagine. He's an older man, and I assume a life-long Detroit resident. His despair and disappointment is surely unmeasurable. I disagree that this problem is black and the solution is white. But I suppose it approximately is.

In any case, a pretty devastating essay.

1 comment:

Nadir said...

He didn't say "White people come save us." At least not in those words.

He said "That requires a broader base of young, educated new residents, the likes of which abandoned the city years ago."

Yes, the people who abandoned the city were white people, but I think he's talking more about an attitude than a race of people. There are a lot of Black folks in Detroit with the attitude he is talking about. They're just outnumbered by people who don't pay enough attention to the political process, and sometimes don't seem to care about the city. Often I wonder if people just think this is the way it's supposed to be.

It isn't.