The Detroit City Council has finally figured out what to do about all those damn furriners setting up shop in black neighborhoods.
The Detroit Free-Press reports:
A majority of the Detroit City Council wants to implement an economic development plan it commissioned for $112,000 that preaches racial isolation and rails against immigration in its bid to gain economic success for poor blacks. The crux of the plan is the creation of a business district -- dubbed African Town -- that would be funded in part with city money and made up of black-owned businesses catering to a black clientele.The report also complains that immigrants from Mexico, Asia and the Middle East are stealing resources, jobs and other opportunities from blacks and calls on city leaders to stop the economic shift.
The report is authored by Claud Anderson:
...a former Detroiter who had unsuccessfully applied for a casino license. He is also the author of popular books about the economic state of blacks in the country.
On his web site's main page he outlines his philosophy: "Blacks are trapped in the lowest level of a real life Monopoly game. 'Powernomics' is a national plan to empower America's only non-immigrant underclass."
The Freep, again.
....Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick...vetoed efforts by the council in July to implement the plan, but last week the mayor met with (Anderson)...Kilpatrick officials said they did not sign any agreements with Anderson, but they are working to help him find land for a business district. So far, they have been unsuccessful. A mayoral spokesman...said the administration is against the council's efforts to institutionalize a system that only helps blacks to the exclusion of other races. The council will find it difficult to implement its plan without the mayor's approval.
The....says inner cities should be improved for its residents, who should own and control the businesses in their neighborhoods. He calls on blacks to support black-owned businesses, in the same way he says other groups frequent stores owned by people of their own ethnicities.
The report also says integration has failed blacks and that regionalism is a bid by whites to control the city's resources. Anderson warns city leaders to beware of non-blacks moving into the city because they will have their own agendas.
Mmmm hmmm.
....The executive director of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a Boston-based nonprofit created by a Harvard University business professor, said the council is right to want to implement a plan to help blacks become entrepreneurs. But the director, Anne Habiby, said black-business ownership is not a panacea, especially if there are no plans in place to help the business owners succeed.....Habiby said Detroit has suffered so much population loss that its future success depends on more people moving into the city....seven of nine council members...voted in July to begin implementing parts of Anderson's plan, including a resolution that designates blacks, who make up 83 percent of Detroit's population, as the "majority minority" group and another that creates a development corporation that would operate as a loan fund exclusively for black entrepreneurs. The mayor vetoed both resolutions, but the same council members overrode the veto.
Councilwoman Cockrel, who supported the mayor's veto, said: "I'm not prepared to support an economic development strategy that has the unintended consequences of pitting people against each other. At the end of the day ... the plan ... advocates exclusionary classifications and illegal set-asides that only serve to divide and polarize within the city and the region. And we have plenty of that already."
The Free-Press also weighs in with this editorial.
Hat tip: Americans Against Discrimination and Preferences.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at September 22, 2004 12:38 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.rosenblog.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/522
Dr. Anderson has said time and again, that the key to black progress is not "intergration" or "segregation" of the
races, thats not even the issue. and yet the writers of the Detroit dailies have either LIED to been TOO DUMB
to understand this fact. Other groups dont formally practice either one, yet they practice a business/social model
that gives them what they need so that their progeny can assimilate mostly on their own terms.
For the longest time, the white press ignored thinkers like Claude Anderson and their issue of Black folks
re-developing black economic districts that have repeatedly been destroyed thru out american history. However,
whites have an extremely poor memory when it comes to the fact that its was white folks that destroyed
Rosewood, Wilmington, Bronzeville, and dozens of other black business centers time and again. Later on,
blacks helped kill our business centers with intergration by supporting white businesses over our own and also
the last vestage of well know black business districts were destroyed to build freeways.
Now what is happening is that across the country there is a covert message being sent out that blacks tear up
cities and whites and immigrants build them back up. the most telling aspect of all this is the fact that the white
controlled press leaves out is:
1. Reminding people of these successfull black business districts that they had worked constantly and
feverishly to undermine these districts and
2. Leaving out the opportunities the given to immigrants by governments. One particular neo-colonial racists
called Laura Berman compared giving money to black businesses as a form of welfare. So.... if whites get the
a chest load of cash, its good, its being color-blind, blacks as for 10 dollars of mostly their own money back, its
bad. SICK, SICK SICK.
Ask George Bush and he will tell you...he who has the gold makes the rules, the detroit city government may be
mostly black folks, but its whites and other groups that really run things, that will give them more money....to run
things....and so forth and so on...Most of the so-called Black Political, religious and social leaders in this city and
nation have whored and pimped themselves to the highest bidder.
Blacks once again attempt to make the smallest toehold into real commerce, all hell breaks lose. The majority
white press time and again, skips over the news how black companies are frozen out of opportunities. Black
cab companies frozen out of contracts...the Insurance redlining... the denial of loans and when given loans at
outrageous rates. the state legislature took over the school system in Detroit so they could steal the 1.5 billion
dollars in bonds and give the contracts to white corporations. Claude Anderson talks in great detail about the
stupids mistakes black folks have made. Dr. Anderson has talked with immigrant groups in great detail about
they succeed and examined what they did. Powernomics is the RECOVERY of behaviors, committments and
practices African Americans have historically prospered by and the adoption of certain practices the immigrants
have engaged in, ie the business model of VERTICAL INTERGRATION. whites constantly snip, "why cant you
be like immigrants?", but its the LAST THING whites or anyone else wants.
Dr. Anderson is the only black person that has had the courage to ask how mass numbers of immigration affects
the black community in this country. Imagine Hatian immigrants moving into Mexico that already has millions of
poverty stricken citizens... well? what about us?
It was WHITE PEOPLE that created segrated communities by leaving, NOT black people. Now, instead of
feeling shame about it and begging folks who have a neo-colonial bent to come back and run things for us poor
black fools, many black folks see this as a opportunity to get a toehold on opportunities, ie the Irish Catholics in
Boston and Chicago. And besides all that. we HAVE given whites 90% of the cash and opportunites and land
available in Detroit, and while a few negroes have some pork chops, has it really help the poor black folks in
Detroit? I dont see it.
the possilbility of a strong business district of black folks scares the wits out of people used to getting 98% of
the black dollar. Powernomics saids nothing about doing away with other ethnic districts, its about getting tax
money constantly being taking out of black communities and putting it back in, and I am talking about a few
pennies on the dollar to start this district if that. its totally galling that white companies that have gotten thousands
of acres of Detroit land, and hundreds of millions of dollars in tax brakes and infrastructure, these same groups
have NOTHING to say, the hypocrites....
Where are the whites, Indian, Asians and Hispanics when an Indian reservation was created in Greektown( a
part of our downtown) in order to have a casino? There is no way to get more "separtists" than that, but everyone
(including me) blinked and eye because we believed it would facilitate having a casino and give an overall
advantage to Detroit. The Arabs are not allowed to get a toehold in Mexicantown, and vice versa, the Native
Americans control thier reservations. Chinatowns in other cities wouldnt allow significant number black
businesses into their area, if any.... In califoria, Asian beauty supplies pushed out the black supply owners, no
one has anything to say. only the black community is supposed to leave its borders wide open
A few months ago there was a huge conference of Arabs from all over the world discussing making the Detroit
and global hub for Arabs in this country. It got great press and the city council rolled out the red carpet for them.
okay, fine, great for them! Black folks want to make 80% Detroit a hub for Pan-African trade, and all hell break
loose by the same sick hypocrites . ONLY THE CONNECTION OF BLACKS WITH BUSINESS POWER causes
this uproar and allows white folks to revert back to thier same nasty habits of days gone by. Look, we want the
same thing that everyone else gets in proportion to our numbers, nothing more, nothing less.
Many black folks know what whites are doing, they want to regionalized the Detroit area, privatize the services,
the contracts will go to businesses that hired mostly non-black folks, so they can bring in more immigrants. Even
though they created a black Detroit, they cant stand the though all that power base reaching its full potential.
Most black people are scared, they dont want to look at the situation as it really is, black folks really do want to
"love everyone", so we will backtrack and say nothing to this economic suffication and prey for the best... by then
it will be too late.
Regionalization in Dada County Florida was a horror story to black people there.
Apparently, the white definition of a peaceful, together Detroit is the black community being killed off
economically and subjegated socially and politically to the whims and desires of whites and other folks and
thrown on the trash heap when no longer needed. If we object to this type of behavior, we are "causing
trouble"???!?? You have completely lost your minds if you believe this. Its ethically, morally and spiritually
bankrupt. Shame on you.
Black consumers ARE being underserved in detroit, there is no reason in the world why they have to go so far to
shop, there is NOTHING wrong with building an district that can convieniently served them. Dr. Anderson and no
one else has any objections to non-blacks coming to Africantown when its open and supporting our businesses.
I can assure you it they will be more than welcome to return the favor that black folks do all the time to support
white, arab and other groups' business. Detroit has Mexicantown, Greektown etc.. and many other ethnic and
business district. They have recieved PUBLIC FUNDING, council and mayoral support Detroit, and good
publicity from the two white dailies, Black folks ask for the EXACT same thing with Africantown, and now there is
a problem?
There are still black folks in what is now Mexicantown, and from what I hear, they are getting NOTHING, why? do
you go into other communities and rail against signs and storefronts being in other langauges than English?
Detroit, which is over 80% black, needs a black business district. black folks are not going to stay the
non-competitive consumers that everyone else is used to. Dr. Anderson and the powernomics book is available
for anyone to read it. I think Anderson has a strong case of libel.
Dr. Anderson and his supporters can more than adequately speak for what they are proposing. Name the time
and place, and someone will be there. its not going away, we are ready to fight for what is ours.
Posted by: Shelley in Detroit at September 29, 2004 07:49 PMShelley sounds like the typical militant negro, unwilling to admit that black peoples biggest problem is themselves. Her comments come off as an uneducated fool spouting useless bile, laced with venom and hate.
Quit blaming the evil white devil and clean up your own back yard. Quit being such a nuisance, no one wants to hear you screaming on your cell phone, bumping bass, and generally acting like retarted thug bullies no one wants to offend.
Grow up. A fight? Hopefully soon, like in the old days, when you take to the streets to demand more welfare and entitlements, whites will decend on you with bats and clubs, and chase you back to your own filth-ridden streets.
The time to appease the militant black should be over. We need to take a severe and hard tone with you, just as you give us.
Id love to see 12.7% of the population try to pick a fight. Hopefully you will, im tired of the urban decay as it is. Oh thats right, its the evil white devils fault!
Posted by: Michael at October 7, 2004 09:27 PMMichael, I thought the comment you were responding to was somewhat overwrought, and agree with some of your response.
However, your tone would outrage many blacks and others, even folk willing to admit the validity of some of what you say. One thing: can you not use the term "Negro"? How hard would that be?
And overall, I think you could have made your points a bit more tactfully.
Still, having seen some unfortunately hair-trigger responses at other strings here, to frank comments on race and alleged racism, from individuals I will not name right now, I'd also advise everyone to have a very thick skin. These days, nothing less is required.
If something bugs you...RESPOND, without resorting to demonizing the commenter with whom you disagree.......That goes for everyone....
Keep it coming......
Posted by: Matt R,. at October 7, 2004 11:07 PMI heard what Dr. Anderson was doing. He is bringing inspiration to me and African people in America. I think its time for Matah Network to be greatly involved in what is happening in Detroit. What about that Need to Grow Mayor in Detroit? He is a disgraceful, Sambo!!
Posted by: Haki at October 9, 2004 05:26 PMYour hatred precludes any whites from being near you. The ones who hoard all the cash--filling out the forms and "doing the dance"--are to be commended for their hard work. Only the ones who get the money illegally, I assume, are the ones you hate. And yet you want immoral and racist money also. Where will you be once you have that money? Remember that Greektown, Mexican Town, China Towns and all the others were formed long ago by ethnic groups who were unwelcome in white america. They used their own money and toil to create these erstwhile businesses while bonding with their communities. It was a lot of work, and many didn't make it. The idea of an Afrikan Town has great potential, but not at the cost of practicing the same racism we fight. Alienating people; Black, White, Chineese, Arabic, is alienating any chance for change in the future. We all need each other.
Posted by: John Anderson at December 8, 2004 07:17 PMThis whole country is full of shit. Anyone who is honest enough to say he is prejudiced, which we ALL are to a point is labeled a racist. If people want to live with their own race what the hell is wrong with that. As it is we have racial tolerance at best. If anyone believes we actually have racial harmony in this country, they are delusional idiots. Why do the idiots who run and make up this country think we must be together to be morally correct when we bully and butcher people all over the world. If the blacks want to live together more power to them. I'll even help them pack. Give them their chance to prove that it's everybody's else's fault that most of their male youth is in jail or on welfare or any negative problems that they have, that are not of their own making for some strange reason. Wise-up America and stop believing all that righteous and moral bullshit that you are constantly hearing. If you want a separation of the races, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. We are already doing it. Hard working whites are always on the move to better neighborhoods, tragically after a while when the blacks move in those once nice neighborhoods turn to shit. So the whites move further away and it starts all over again. Show me ONE neighborhood where blacks moved to and it's an improvement, I'm still looking. I'm kidding myself because separation will never happen and we'll all have to live together like shit eventually, sooner than you think.
God Bless and Help America!!!
RJM, I don't think people can be forced to live with people of other races, but I think that diversity in communities, schools and workplaces is a good thing. The catch is, it needs to happen on its own. I know that as a Jew, I am NOT going to live in the Inland Northwest, or the Smoky Mountains, because there are still vicious anti-Semites and racists in such areas. This is the dark side of the homogenous communities you speak of positively.
But the same insularity you get in these kinds of places can also arise, although expressed in different ways, in lily-white "tolerant" suburbs of big cities, or city neighborhoods where everyone is the same race or income level. I guess that's why I don't totally pooh-pooh the idea of new mixed-income housing developments here in Seattle, such as Holly Park and now, High Point, in West Seattle. The market will decide if owners of a $300,000 home in the new High Point really want to live next to rent-subsidized families. I'm not holding my breath, but let's see how it plays out.
That said, I'd have to draw the line at an intentional effort to create a "black" business district, as was proposed in Detroit. Ethnic business districts do arise on their own, but not because some consultant to a city government decrees it should happen. And inevitably, they change over time, as I saw on the SW side of Chicago (my old hometown) when visiting last winter. What had been an Arab business district along 63rd Street running from Ashland Ave (1600 W.) out to Pulaski Blvd (4000 W.) had changed. A whole mile-plus stretch on the strip's eastern side was no longer Arab restaurants, Arab food shops, and other Arab merchants, but had been replaced over time by black and Latino businesses, as Arab entrepreneurs had gained wealth and moved west to the SW Chicago suburbs. Change for one=opportunity for another.
The constant, which I would stress in response to Dr. Anderson's notion of an "AfricanTown" black business district for Detroit, is that there already is ample opportunity for all - it is a matter of making the right choices in life in order to sieze opportunity. Racially-driven enterprise zones aren't the answer.
Posted by: Matt R. at June 30, 2005 08:44 PMwow, I dont remember posting here. I have read it again and I stand by everything I said and more. several things stick out when reading white responses.
*even as I wrote all this before as I write it now. I know thats its a waste of time. the vast majority of whites have this amazing capacity to mentally insulate themselves into their reality when it comes to black folks. anything resembling facts or info seem to bounce right off! lol!
hence expending energy to try to discuss anything more complicated than the weather is a waste of time. So I will not discuss the issue further unless someone get off their LAZY A$$ and actually read the proposal and go from there.
*I neither blame or absolve whites 100% percent for the condition of black folks in this country at this time in history, neither does Mr Anderson or anyone else who agrees with many of his points. the proposal covers what black folks have not done, which if you had read it you would know.
* my postings are long because I know the issue, which i admit is not always the case. like the folks on this board, sometimes I try to BS my way thru a discussion i feel strongly about but know I dont really know that much about what is going on.
unfortunately when it comes to black folks, most of you feel you dont need to know this issue and instead try be condescending if not down right insulting. NOT gonna work. i see you for what you are.
*white folks have never stopping committing psychological and economic warfare/competition on the black community, albiet many times with help from black folks. its up to black folks to reconnize this and respond accordingly.
*opposite to Micheal's claims, history has shown this time and time again. white folks were/are not "sick" of seeing blacks in urban squalor, they love it deep down."oh those blacks are such losers with us to guide them!" true the occasional successful black doesnt bother them, its when they see blacks successful as a GROUP that scares the daylights out of them and they have a tragically violent pathological response. Tulsa, bombed, Rosewood, obliterated. Wilmington, NC, Did anyone know that the only literal coup de tat in America took place in Wilmington? I remember reading that in the Christian Science Monitor. historically whites have not attacked the squalid parts of black communities as much as they targeted the businesses, churches, halls, schools,etc. I remember hearing about the black towns out west that tried to get started but whites poisoned the well water, so please dont bore me with this whites might strike out at black welfare cheats.
*99% of those that have commented on the proposal, for and against, HAVE NOT READ IT. I have, all 86 pages. if they had read it, they could speak far more factually and sensibly on the issue. they may not agree, but at least they would know what they are talking about. i know this,because I have indeed talked with a couple of whites that ACTUALLY KNOW
something about the economic history of this region. its far easier to talk to them. But in their arrogance too many feel they dont need to know anything except what is in their little bitty minds at the time. pity.
*historically whites do indeed bring in buffer groups against black populations, this is well documented to anyone who wants the info. actually its been done in other places between other groups ie, England placing Brits in Northern Ireland. apparently whites and other groups are assume that black folks are too dumb to notice this and pretend a hissy fit they are called on it.
*white folks COMPLETELY IGNORE or perhaps didnt comprehend the destruction they wought in past of black business districts.
*Mr Anderson went into detail what other groups did to get ahead and what they getting in terms of support from the government, whether they are legal or illegal aliens. he was right on target and their is nothing to take back on his side.
*other ethnic groups DID AND ARE getting funds for programs that are exclusive to them. As I pointed out earlier, but once again white folks act deaf dumb and blind to this fact. He also pointed out how they are serious about business and have their priorities correct in a way that black folks have failed to grasp.
*most whites who respond on subject
the responses prove my point: whites take an enormous amount of glee in acting like other immigrants are doing something that black folks cant do, Black folks here in Detroit say we can do it because we HAVE DONE IT, even thought whites ignore that crucial fact.
*for all his ranting, Micheal is irrelevant, its glaring he doesnt know beans about the issue, and I doubt he has picked up a book in recent memory, but its extremely offensive and racist when people like MattR dont talk to me directly to critcize my post and then lack the balls to discuss in detail
the points I covered because they dont know and dont care to know and fake intelligence or even integrity by talking down or over the discussion. shame on you!
*Detroit had a black business district, like other ethnic districts. and like other
black business districts around the country,they were it was destroyed to make freeways.WE HAVE A RIGHT TO REBUILD IT AND MAKE IT BETTER. whites can
go into their deaf, dumb and blind mode and act like our districts never existed and we have no right to compare ourselves to other ethnic enclaves, however, some black folks have chosen NOT to adopt your kind of insanity to historically whitewash history anymore. We owe it ourselves to do better.
we have a RIGHT TO SURVIVE, and do well on our terms.
have a nice day!