In the February 3rd edition of the Detroit Free Press, journalist John
Carlisle recounted the public comment portion of a recent Detroit City Council
meeting. A few of the regular attendees had this to say:
- We should never have to lose our island and have outsiders waltz into our city, a black city, and take over our park.
- [The
Belle Isle deal is] a plan to have us out of Detroit and that island out
there….They don’t want that island out there for black people to enjoy.
They want to turn that island into something other than a black island.
- We should never have to lose our island and have outsiders waltz into our city, a black city, and take over our park.
Because of their seeming lunacy and outright bigotry, these
statements may seem unworthy of consideration. But they illuminate a valid fear
that is probably shared by many of Detroit ’s
black residents: If whites are responsible for improving the city, then blacks
will be shut out. Whites will move in to enjoy the prosperity that they have
created, and blacks will be stifled—economically, politically, and socially.
This history played out once already—except that, back then, it was blacks
moving in and whites moving out. The results of this traumatic shift are evident
today, not only in the city’s and the region’s landscape but also in the hearts
and minds of those whose families lived it.
When viewed from this perspective, it’s not a mystery why
many of Detroit’s black residents want to claim the city as their own, want its
pending prosperity to grow from their own influence—not that of rich, white men
or young, white hipsters. Better, perhaps, to own a crumbling home, than to own
nothing. Theirs is a battle cry—though a faltering one: A reminder that,
although racism may not take the form of separate drinking fountains and
burning crosses, it still exists in powerful but subtle ways.
Sadly, though, in idealizing Detroit ’s blackness, these residents chain the
city to a history that they themselves would not have chosen, to a present that
is born out of that history, and to a future that looks like more of the same.
Sources:
Carlisle, John. “Giving Voice to Detroit ’s Worries.” Detroit
“Letters: Dear Detroit
Don’t Shut the Door on Outsiders.” Detroit
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