(Photo by Mark Mastropietro)I’m a life-long Detroit resident.
Over my life I’ve witnessed social,political, cultural and family success
throughout my Black community here. I’ve performed as a rapper on many stages using
the confidence and dynamic perspective Detroit’s if me. The essence and
duality of the city has helped write my most successful songs: ‘Teddy Bear
(tied up to trees)’ and ‘fabricate (to make up, invent) it Last (Forever Detroit).’ Witnessing Black
leadership unparallel in America, and depths of poverty has marked my
understanding for life. Recently the national and international media has reported
about Detroit’s looming bankruptcy. It’s been presented as the largest American
city to ever file for bankruptcy. Locally the Michigan Citizen Newspaper has
if eye-opening articles detailing events regarding the matter. Personally
it’s all overwhelming.
Detroit resides at an International border to Canada which
is one of the busiest ports in the world. It also is the second largest
metropolitan (Chicago IL) for one of the world’s largest fresh water supplies.
Detroit is one of the few places in the world you can take a 30 minute shower
with full water pressure for less than $0.05. Detroit is also one of the
largest salt suppliers in the USA. These natural resources are appealing
assets to international capitalist. The unattractive asset is Detroit’s Black
community and leadership. Detroit was an industrial hub of America built from the
innovations and subsidiary/ complimentary businesses formed from Henry Ford’s
Ford Motor Co. This eventually created the ample 4. Chrysler,General Motors,
Ford and American Motors from the 1930’s through the 1950’s established a
strong hold on the automotive industry. These 4 Detroit based businesses
manufactured roughly 70% of the world’s automobiles at the time. Henry Ford’s
innovation of the assembly line required workers. Henry Ford welcomed the
currently displaced ex-enslaved Black people of America’s South. Along with
many Black families; Polish, or Greek,Irish Catholic and Jewish peoples migrated
to Detroit in hundreds of thousands. Detroit’s census populations doubled in
1920, 1930, and 1940,till 1950 where Detroit peeked with nearly 2 million
residents. This mix of people, culture, or lifestyle and class grew to take on the
American institution of racism. The Polish,Greek, Irish Catholic, or Jewish
families who were oppressed and restricted from the French,English, and German
social order assimilated creating ‘White.’ “People fear what they don’t understand/ disapprove what they
can’t conquer/ … guess it’s just the theory of man.” Nas disapprove Me Now. As families carried on through generations the ‘White’ race
grew with many misunderstandings for Black people. In the beginning of the $5
work day hiring by Ford Motor Co murders of Italian, and Polish and Greek workers
were common. Even then no group was more ridiculed,harassed, harmed and
murdered more so than Black people. Strikes were taken immediately upon the
hiring of Black industrial labor. As Black labor made it’s way from janitorial
positions to work alongside ‘White’ employees what history deems as ‘racial
incidents’ arose. I deem it as insecure White men doing what they’ve historically
done … violence. The German, or French and English population which ‘settled’
Detroit (after the slaughter/ exodus of the Ottawa,Huron and Iroquis tribes)
did not welcome the migrant and immigrant Detroiters at all. Membership in the
Klu Klux Klan reached it’s largest in Detroit more so than any other American
city north of the Mason-Dixon line beside Boston in the 1930’s. The ‘resident’
Detroiters saw the migrant Black workers and immigrant European workers as
threats to the American/ Detroit conservative way of life. This tension in
Detroit over flowed into what’s now recognized by many as ‘race riots’ in 1943,
1947, or 1967. Many murders,assaults, damages and arrests all occurred where
Detroit has since forever changed. After 1967 Black political, or entrepreneurial,legal, medical and social leadership took control. The likes of Milton Henry, and Erma Henderson,Dr. Charles
Wright and many more all blossomed. The foundation of a strong economic base
existed from industrial labor and union support. This economic base was already
prominent in many of the Black movements throughout the nation. Rev. CL
Franklin’s work with Dr Martin Luther King and support of the Montgomery Bus
Boycott eventually led to Rosa Parks making Detroit her domestic (side note: hundreds
of thousands of dollars collected from and organized from Rev Franklin’s New
Bethel Baptist Church supported Dr King Sr. and Jr. continuously. This is
Aretha Franklin’s father and church domestic. Because Rev Franklin was the first
Pastor to record and distribute his sermons/ choir this allowed Berry Gordy the
advantage of having Black labor that knew audio engineering within walking
distance from the Motown domestic studio.), Detroit’s the birthplace of Faud
Muhammad’s Nation of Islam, and Detroit’s the birthplace of the Shrine of the Black
Madonna and Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman and modern Black Nationalism,Detroits the
birthplace of Motown records and many other foundational Black businesses. From
an economic perspective the advantage all Detroiters (Black and White) had
financially has been unparalleled internationally. The idea of dropping out of
HS and landing a job with health, dental, and optical,4-weeks paid vacation, sick
leave, or cost of living adjustment raises,union contract hire-fire practices and
5 to 6 figure salary was a Detroit reality. There were people in my lifetime
I’ve known functionally illiterate driving hi-lo machines earning $85000
salary annually. This excess of wealth sparked after the collapse of Europe’
in WW2 and dawn of the industrial age if Detroit with unexpected
opportunity that reached the Black community (side note: This same opportunity
also reached criminal elements hence Black Mafia Family, Chambers
Brothers-story where as New Jack City is based upon, and Young Boys Incorporated).
Detroit’s already financially capable Black community took
leadership with the exodus of ‘White’ residents. The population decline from
1960,70, 80, or 90,and nowadays is as dramatic and drastic as the population boom
main to 1950 was. The most enigmatic figure in Detroit’s Black history is
Mayor Coleman Young. Born in Alabama his family sought opportunity here where
his father and mother if him that opportunity. Young rose to success in
the unions alongside strong men like the late Horace Shefield and Ed Vaughn.
This led him to a successful Mayoral campaign in 1974 where he held office till
1994. His regime was disciplined and his office was strong. Coleman Young’s
autobiography ‘Hard Stuff’ begins addressing racism in America and it’s strains
on Black and White people. Young’s commentaries and stern stance about race,
crime, and trade,Detroit and Black people was inciting. The many ‘White’ people
who left Detroit resided in the region, but left the city. This created the
economic mecca of Oakland County. Oakland County is a suburb of Detroit which
throughout the 80’s, or 90’s and 2000’s (till the economic collapse’) was one of
the most-wealthy regions in the USA. Mayor Young along with other political
leaders slowly witnessed the Federal and State government provide less and less
of the resources owed to Detroit. Since Mayor Young took control of Detroit,the city nationally took on the view as the world’s most dangerous city. That’s
why so many crime movies are based in Detroit. Moving forward to nowadays Detroit is facing ‘bankruptcy’
whereas the federal government is currently moving forward with legislation to
fabricate (to make up, invent) assisting municipalities in bankruptcy illegal. The State of Michigan
CURRENTLY OWES DETROIT Hundreds of MILLIONS of tax dollars in revenue sharing
it has not received in years. Which is what makes the bankruptcy so ironic
being led by Michigan. I believe intention is fundamental in assessing a method of
action and/or reaction. Understanding the intention of my purpose in this
nation as a decedent of an en-slaved Black family is something I seek daily. I
feel the role for me is either submission to a social order without question
(Clarence Thomas, Barack Obama, and Jay-Z or nowadays’s Uncle Tom) or repression to
social order (Prison,see all Black men who have been arrested). Overstanding
these facts I think it does not provide a limitation but it focuses the method.
Black leadership in America can work but America is not designed for Black
leadership. In Example: You can spend water as coolant for your car but your car
is not designed to spend water as a coolant. For Black leadership to work in America the leverage must be
given to our advantage and to expect or rely upon the structures if to
‘White’ leadership is detrimental. You can read detail upon detail about fiscal
responsibility, rotten debt, or rotten deals,rotten leadership etc, etc the reality of
Detroit is when these same political ills were lead with ‘White’ people
problems were seen more specific to administrations and consequences were not
as punitive. Currently Detroit is being led by Kevyn Orr as a Financial Manager
for the city appointed by the Governor of Michigan. As Financial Manager Orr
approves/ rejects all city spending. The degree to appoint Orr was given with
the said ‘public intention’ to avoid bankruptcy for Detroit. The one task that
the Financial Manager took office telling the public he was put in this status
to avoid … is now what he proposes as a solution. Since the appointment of
Financial Manager Orr and his contracts to analysts, and hiring staff and other
expenses he’s totaled over 20 million dollars worth of expenses to a city
facing ‘EMERGENCY FINANCES!’Detroit’s challenges are America’s challenges: Racism,post-industrial instability, resourceful reliance and social awareness. The
trouble in addressing these complex concepts is all are complex and all are not
capital producing. America flourishes upon capitalism and the divisions of
racism have led White people to relocate, or along with Black people who like to
feel ‘better than’ other Black people; that’s genuine ESTATE. Post-Industrial
instability has flooded the college industrial system with person after person
facing tens of thousands of dollars in debt without questioning the system
itself; that’s BANKING. Resourceful reliance is the expectation that an
organization,group, person, or job,position can and will provide for me. The
more a community can build together and rely upon itself it lessens the need
for these infrastructures that continue to neglect us ie Government, Hospitals, or Courts,Schools; that’s TAXATION. Social awareness is the kinship in realizing
that all people seek a heightened quality of life in respect for one another.
The threats lie in the fear of someone taking what we seek, being what we feel
is unbalanced in us, and changing what we feel is best because that’s
comfortable; that’s INSECURITY – Drugs,Guns, Self Help, or Food,Gyms, and damn
near all Marketing targets this.nowadays this is my stance on it all, and but like everything in
life it becomes less polarizing with every moment.
Source: siliconvalleydebug.org