Today, an article in the local paper, told of a Detroit city lawyer being fired because she called the district court a “Ghetto Court”; she is white, the court is mostly black.
Why did I react to this article, because I think, in general and specifically in Detroit, the race question needs to be revisited?
Let me tell you about Detroit and then you tell me what you think.
Our former black mayor is in jail. He took his blackness and the blackness of the city of Detroit to new highs (or is it lows). He ran the city like his personal kingdom and the citizens of the city allowed him to; hell, they adored him. He stole money, appointed only friends and family to city positions (no work experience required) and sold city contracts to friends and family. He was a family man that slept with his assistant and who knows who else but maintained his devotion to his family.
He was caught lying in court and using city money for personal matters among many other illegalities that will never be fully exposed. Right now the FBI is looking into his empire.
One thing to remember, many Detroit residents rallied behind him including the Baptist ministers of the city because “he is a good black man”.
The Detroit School Board is black. They behaved and behave today just like the Mayor did. Contracts to friends and family, kickbacks, total fiscal irresponsibility to the point that Detroit students had to bring toilet paper from home. And by the way, there were no textbooks for the students but there was a $100,000 publicity campaign trying to promote the “great” education available in Detroit Public Schools. The graduation rate is the lowest in the nation.
They hired a black superintendent that promptly called them incompetent, so they fired her and blamed all financial problems on her.
In the past, a white Republican Governor took over the schools but the cries of racism were so loud that he gave up control to the elected board; the schools sank even lower.
The white, female Democratic governor knows she needs to take over the schools for the sake of the children who are mostly black but she is scared of being called a racist so she demurs.
The Detroit City Council is black (one white woman that used to be married to a prominent black, she actually is the step-mother of the current Mayor and former council president). They are elected at-large so they do not represent any specific region in the city and they vote down all calls for a ward system in the city where members would be elected from city districts.
They are mostly clowns with a few serious members who usually are overshadowed by the clowns. One is a former Motown singer and one is the young wife of Rep. Conyers, a powerful House member. She is currently in Israel trying to solve the Palestinian problem?
The Council is a joke. It is incompetent, stupid and rude but Detroit citizens keep reelecting them because they are black. We have a sizable Hispanic population in Detroit but they will never see representation on the council because council members are elected at-large and always will be.
I don’t know much about the District Court in Detroit but obviously the elected judges are probably reflections of the city and the other governmental bodies in the city. The white lawyer, who represents the city, probably was frustrated and instead of saying she was sick and tired of the “black” culture on the court, she called it a “ghetto” court which is basically the same.
So here we are and I have only touched on a few things that make Detroit suck. Is it a black problem? We have a black president and many black officials that are outstanding in their fields so it is not a black thing but it may be a Detroit black thing.
My wife, who is white, is in charge of the annual MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) parade in Detroit and celebration program. She has done this for many years but this will be her last year mainly because she sees it is hard to get people to participate and now that we have elected a black president, she feels MLK’s dream has been realized. She will look for other “good” deeds to perform for the poor and downtrodden.
What is my point? My point is that today, if we see gross incompetence that is hurting a city and its people, we should be able to point it out without getting labeled racists; I think the race card needs to be torn up and anyone that plays it should be ridiculed as someone using race to cover up his /her incompetence or wants to get something for nothing.
Will Detroit ever change? Young, smart blacks are moving out to the suburbs leaving the older blacks who make up the voting mass. Don’t get me wrong, there are many black residents in Detroit that cannot stand what is going on in their city but they are a minority in a minority which is really a majority in Detroit.
The jailed Mayor Kilpatrick was a smart, young black man that exploited his race and his people instead of helping them. A slew of new black men are now running for Mayor of Detroit. Will they all succumb to the “black” political culture when they take office?
One of them is a former Piston’s NBA player, Dave Bing. He is older and has a proven track record as a business man (lived in the suburbs but now rents an apartment in Detroit because you have to be a city resident to run for mayor).
In the past, Detroit also had an “Irish” political culture and a city suburb (Hamtramck) also had a “Polish” political culture, so I am not saying this is uniquely a black issue but in today’s Detroit, it is. Another close- by city to mention is Dearborn which today is emerging as an “Arab” city.
The stark difference between Detroit and other “ethnic” majority cities is that the other cities worked and prospered and continue to prosper while Detroit has been and is a dismal failure.
The city of Gary, Indiana also comes to mind as an example of an all black failing city that saved itself by electing a “white” mayor, not because the mayor was white and therefore somehow better than a black mayor would be but because the mayor was white, he did not belong to the inner black community that so strongly controlled the actions of previous black mayors.
Barak Obama is a great example of a black man who is president of and for the whole nation not just the blacks (he is white also). Can a black mayor be a mayor of the city of Detroit and not only of the black citizens of Detroit? The other way to ask this question is will the black citizens of Detroit allow a black mayor to be mayor of the city; the whole city and all its inhabitants?
Let’s bring this to a close already if we can. Can anything be done about the culture in Detroit? - probably not; since we can’t change how the black voters think and feel. Can we win the right to criticize without being called racists? -probably not, the race card will be played until we make it into a negative recognized by both blacks and whites. I am hoping Obama’s presidency helps us take race out of issues once and for all!
Why did I react to this article, because I think, in general and specifically in Detroit, the race question needs to be revisited?
Let me tell you about Detroit and then you tell me what you think.
Our former black mayor is in jail. He took his blackness and the blackness of the city of Detroit to new highs (or is it lows). He ran the city like his personal kingdom and the citizens of the city allowed him to; hell, they adored him. He stole money, appointed only friends and family to city positions (no work experience required) and sold city contracts to friends and family. He was a family man that slept with his assistant and who knows who else but maintained his devotion to his family.
He was caught lying in court and using city money for personal matters among many other illegalities that will never be fully exposed. Right now the FBI is looking into his empire.
One thing to remember, many Detroit residents rallied behind him including the Baptist ministers of the city because “he is a good black man”.
The Detroit School Board is black. They behaved and behave today just like the Mayor did. Contracts to friends and family, kickbacks, total fiscal irresponsibility to the point that Detroit students had to bring toilet paper from home. And by the way, there were no textbooks for the students but there was a $100,000 publicity campaign trying to promote the “great” education available in Detroit Public Schools. The graduation rate is the lowest in the nation.
They hired a black superintendent that promptly called them incompetent, so they fired her and blamed all financial problems on her.
In the past, a white Republican Governor took over the schools but the cries of racism were so loud that he gave up control to the elected board; the schools sank even lower.
The white, female Democratic governor knows she needs to take over the schools for the sake of the children who are mostly black but she is scared of being called a racist so she demurs.
The Detroit City Council is black (one white woman that used to be married to a prominent black, she actually is the step-mother of the current Mayor and former council president). They are elected at-large so they do not represent any specific region in the city and they vote down all calls for a ward system in the city where members would be elected from city districts.
They are mostly clowns with a few serious members who usually are overshadowed by the clowns. One is a former Motown singer and one is the young wife of Rep. Conyers, a powerful House member. She is currently in Israel trying to solve the Palestinian problem?
The Council is a joke. It is incompetent, stupid and rude but Detroit citizens keep reelecting them because they are black. We have a sizable Hispanic population in Detroit but they will never see representation on the council because council members are elected at-large and always will be.
I don’t know much about the District Court in Detroit but obviously the elected judges are probably reflections of the city and the other governmental bodies in the city. The white lawyer, who represents the city, probably was frustrated and instead of saying she was sick and tired of the “black” culture on the court, she called it a “ghetto” court which is basically the same.
So here we are and I have only touched on a few things that make Detroit suck. Is it a black problem? We have a black president and many black officials that are outstanding in their fields so it is not a black thing but it may be a Detroit black thing.
My wife, who is white, is in charge of the annual MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) parade in Detroit and celebration program. She has done this for many years but this will be her last year mainly because she sees it is hard to get people to participate and now that we have elected a black president, she feels MLK’s dream has been realized. She will look for other “good” deeds to perform for the poor and downtrodden.
What is my point? My point is that today, if we see gross incompetence that is hurting a city and its people, we should be able to point it out without getting labeled racists; I think the race card needs to be torn up and anyone that plays it should be ridiculed as someone using race to cover up his /her incompetence or wants to get something for nothing.
Will Detroit ever change? Young, smart blacks are moving out to the suburbs leaving the older blacks who make up the voting mass. Don’t get me wrong, there are many black residents in Detroit that cannot stand what is going on in their city but they are a minority in a minority which is really a majority in Detroit.
The jailed Mayor Kilpatrick was a smart, young black man that exploited his race and his people instead of helping them. A slew of new black men are now running for Mayor of Detroit. Will they all succumb to the “black” political culture when they take office?
One of them is a former Piston’s NBA player, Dave Bing. He is older and has a proven track record as a business man (lived in the suburbs but now rents an apartment in Detroit because you have to be a city resident to run for mayor).
In the past, Detroit also had an “Irish” political culture and a city suburb (Hamtramck) also had a “Polish” political culture, so I am not saying this is uniquely a black issue but in today’s Detroit, it is. Another close- by city to mention is Dearborn which today is emerging as an “Arab” city.
The stark difference between Detroit and other “ethnic” majority cities is that the other cities worked and prospered and continue to prosper while Detroit has been and is a dismal failure.
The city of Gary, Indiana also comes to mind as an example of an all black failing city that saved itself by electing a “white” mayor, not because the mayor was white and therefore somehow better than a black mayor would be but because the mayor was white, he did not belong to the inner black community that so strongly controlled the actions of previous black mayors.
Barak Obama is a great example of a black man who is president of and for the whole nation not just the blacks (he is white also). Can a black mayor be a mayor of the city of Detroit and not only of the black citizens of Detroit? The other way to ask this question is will the black citizens of Detroit allow a black mayor to be mayor of the city; the whole city and all its inhabitants?
Let’s bring this to a close already if we can. Can anything be done about the culture in Detroit? - probably not; since we can’t change how the black voters think and feel. Can we win the right to criticize without being called racists? -probably not, the race card will be played until we make it into a negative recognized by both blacks and whites. I am hoping Obama’s presidency helps us take race out of issues once and for all!
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