I have a lot of hope for the city of Detroit, but the most complex problem, least likely to be overcome by any human effort, is the racial reality of this city and surrounding area. It has been said that there is no city more divided by color. In short, if you meet a black person from Detroit, they are more likely than not from parts of Detroit that white people have never set foot in. If you meet a white person from “Detroit,” they are more likely than not from a suburb that black people do not go to.
Previously, I linked to this picture to depict race and ethnicity in Detroit.
There is a lot of hype popping up about Detroit and the young, professionals with creative business models and artist sensibilities moving into Detroit. I quoted an article about it just last week. This PBS article references the same idea. But, as the comments to the PBS article can attest, race is a factor that this city could overcome with only supernatural help.
Commenters scoff at the white “creatives” moving back into the city. Rightfully so. A few hundred white people does not an accurate depiction of Detroit make. At the same time, if we discount the importance of white young people moving in the city, then we make the same mistakes over and over again. In a city that white people left for many wrong reasons, a new generation with a different perspective on race, culture, and lifestyle make their way in. It does not solve the problems of the large community of people who have been disenfranchised in Detroit, harmed by a poor education system and corrupt government, but it does open the door for interaction, for being neighbors, for caring about the same community and the same city.
Detroit does not need any white saviors and it won’t get any, but some white taxpayers and neighbors could be a good thing.
What do you think? What is the best case scenario for the city of Detroit and it’s 800,000 people if these suburbanites turned urbanites really do make a long-term home in the Motor City? What is the worst case scenario?
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