Posted on 05/21/2014 10:59:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
Just off of the James C. Lodge Freeway in Detroit is Eight Mile Road. The stretch near the freeway is just east of the famed area that provided the basis for the Eminem film of the same name. To its north lie predominantly white suburbs -- over 77 percent of those who live in Oakland County are white -- with median family income in excess of $65,000. Married couples comprise approximately half of households, with fewer than 15 percent of households led by a single female. Since 1990, the population of Oakland County has jumped from 1.083 million to 1.202 million.
South of Eight Mile Road lies the city of Detroit, with a nearly 83 percent black population and a median household income of under $27,000. Almost 74 percent of households in Detroit are led by single parents, nearly all women. The population of the city has dropped from 1.027 million in that same period to approximately 713,000.
Eight Mile Road itself paints a bleak picture. In the middle of a weekday, the streets are sparsely populated; old, solid-structure brick houses with rotten roofs dot the side streets; beaten-up Pontiacs from the early 1990s sitting forlornly in driveways. Hair salons, liquors stores and rim stores are open for business, but they're located between defunct hair stores, liquor stores and rim stores.
What happened in Detroit? Horrific governance destroyed the industrial infrastructure that created the growing mixed-population base of the city; it centralized employment in the government while devastating the business and tax base. Businesses fled to the suburbs, as did whites. The bulk of the black population, trapped in a cycle of poverty and government dependence, sold a bill of goods by Detroit's politicians, stayed behind. Those politicians covered their mismanagement with racially charged rhetoric, from former Mayor Coleman Young to jailed former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. When Detroit went bankrupt in 2013, it was the final result of decades of failed policy decisions based on central planning.
When financial analysts look at Eight Mile Road, they see the tragedy of a once-proud city separated. On one side of the road, Detroit; on the other side, Detroit without the mismanagement. To fix the situation would require good governance -- slashing regulations, lowering taxes, attracting business, creating jobs.
Instead, politicians offer more of the same. This week, Attorney General Eric Holder stated that America's racial disparities are a result of continued racism and suggested that neutral laws had reinforced an enduring "subtle racism" throughout the country. Holder cited particular disciplinary practices in schools and sentencing guidelines as repositories of racism.
None of this will heal Detroit or places like it. Economic health requires a dedicated workforce, a free entrepreneurial climate, protection against crime. Those, in turn, require solid two-parent families, a competitive educational environment and a dedication to equal application of the law rather than equal results under it.
Eight Mile Road is a blot on a once-beautiful city. It will remain a dividing line so long as America's politicians continue to use it as one
To answer the headline’s question: Probably not. We’ll have to invent “super-subtle racism.”
They have a point. I’m guessing one of the biggest problems with Detroit is racism. However, it’s overt black racism.
Subtle racism.What would I know about that? After all,I’m just a creepy a$$ cracker.
Like your tag line. You need re-education. Blacks are oppressed and they are a minority, ipso facto they cannot be racist.
You must have read “White Girl Bleed Alot”.
Well, me too. I am, according to all Left metrics, a raving racist.
I thought I was a pretty nice guy too. How puzzling to find my true criminal core at this late stage in my life.
Don’t care if its’ racist or not, any area with a population that’s over 80% black isn’t anyplace I would ever want to live.
I live in the Detroit suburbs, Sterling Heights - great place to live.
When I drive to the airport via I-75, through the middle of Detroit, all I see is neglect, burned down homes, homes falling apart. It is a wasteland....and a result of cultural decay. There are places that are “no go” zones for white people, you WILL be attacked.
You can go to the downtown activities, sports teams, restaurants/casinos, mostly safe there - just don’t venture beyond the immediate downtown area.
The thing is, it is plainly obvious these people are doing this to themselves, nobody outside Detroit is doing anything to them. However, to many, it is because of racism, because they’re black. The position of Detroit Mayor really equates to “top gangsta”, at least in terms of behavior, which is always self enrichment. They need to clear entire subdivisions, take down all the abandoned homes...although that’ll do nothing for the attitude of the residents. I can only hope that people continue to move out, let the disease die out...only then may the opportunity to revive the city be a viable option for those willing to invest.
...tbh, every time I drive through, makes me sad.
They just need some wealth redistributin from da burbs! Heck, let’s extend it throughout the entire mitten!
Personlly, they are proposing some state funding to help the bankruptcy proceedings. Until I get to vote in the Detroit elections, it sounds a lot like taxation without representation.....
In the end, maybe drastic overhaul of tax laws and business regulations will bring America’s industrial might back.
I don’t want to live anywhere near foul mouthed thugs who wear their pants below their butt and walk around holding their crotch like it was their only toy, or blasting filthy lyric music from ridiculously large wheeled cars night and day. Yeah Trayvon, you and Squaneshia can stay in yo’ hood and keep out of mine. Does that make me racist? If yes, then so what? When they lift their culture out of the gutter we can talk.
Lets be honest. They RAN the whites out of Detroit. And those folks took their business and work ethic with them.
I’m just 51, but I STILL remember the threats my family got simply by virtue of being ‘white’ when I was a little kid. My folks got sick of it.
“Whitey, you in da WRONG hood; you don’t BELONG here!”
So be it, we left.
Your very existence is racist, cracker!!!!
Those pushing the racial grievance industry will never allow you to live it down either.
There is nothing subtle about the racism in Detroit. Since Coleman Young days whitey has been beaten, punished, and had his money stolen by a corrupt black political machine. Whitey left and took his money with him.
No mystery about it.
Is that like double-secret racism?
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