Coleman Young

                My parents moved from central Wisconsin to Flint, Michigan in 1953.  They moved to be part of the economic boom that was going on all over what they now call Automation Alley.  The city at the heart of all this was, of course, Detroit.  In the 50’s it was one of the richest and fastest growing cities in the country.  The political and economic power of the region was wielded by auto executives and the millionaires that the Big Three and the supporting industries created.  They were mostly white guys in suits that invested in the civic development of the region.  In Flint, the Mott Foundation funded educational and cultural programs that made the city important.  The factories were booming, the unions were expanding, and future was so bright you had to wear shades.

                Underneath this prosperity, were the fault lines that would turn this region into the dystopia that it is today.  When I was in school, Flint had four Class A high schools and a network of parochial schools.  Today, there isn’t a single class A school in the city.  The landmark buildings of the Detroit architect, Albert Kahn, that symbolized the wealth and power of Detroit are often in ruins today.  There are books of photographs of decaying buildings that make the city look like a ghost town, like it was the site of some horrible war.  All these cities saw folks, mostly, but not entirely, white folks move to the suburbs and the surrounding small towns that stretch from the Tri-Cities to the downriver communities in Detroit. 

                What happened in Michigan is complicated.  It always is.  There is enough blame to go around about how something that looked so prosperous and solid could fall apart so fast.  The usual suspects have all been rounded up and interrogated, globalization, the unions, the lack of innovation have all been cited as being part of the demise.  But as I sit here watching what is left of American democracy being cynically destroyed by Republican sycophants defending an indefensible president, the element that I think played the biggest role is race.  It might have been difficult for Detroit to survive and flourish with all the economic and cultural upheaval of the 50’s and 70’s, but even that slim chance left town when the racial turmoil of the period caused the compact that connected the city to the surrounding area broke down in the 1970’s.  I don’t mean to imply that race wasn’t an issue before then or that everything was fine until the civil rights movement came along.  Far from it.  Race always divided the city and the shop, even in the best of days.  What I want to suggest, however, is that a fundamental change in the way people thought of Detroit happened when Coleman Young became mayor in 1974.

                When he became the first African American mayor of what was still a major American city, something changed.  The white people who had been leaving Detroit anyway, now left completely.  It was as if having a Black mayor meant they could abandon the city emotionally and culturally.  If Coleman was the mayor, then they were going to take their ball and go home.  Instead of trying to find a new coalition to share the city, they left it to die on its own.  Young wasn’t without some blame.  In the twenty years of his stewardship there was enough corruption and bombast to make what was an already difficult proposition impossible.  But every large city has corruption, and every large city has problems.  When they survive, it’s because all the people in the city want to make it work.  That didn’t happen in Detroit, or Flint, or Pontiac, or Saginaw. 

                I say this because this is the impulse I see today in Republicans.  The mere existence of an African American president was enough for them to abandon the country.  They no longer want any part of America.  They want their own, unsullied version of America that they don’t have to share with “them.”  There have always been racists that are load and vulgar about it, but in both of these instances the racism is deeper.  If white people can’t have control, then they don’t want anything to do with it.  It’s the only way that I can make sense of people supporting the most incompetent, corrupt and stupid president in our history.  I think most of the people who left the city would deny this, but what other reason is there?  So when I watch the news and see how bad things have gotten, I think of Coleman and the city they let die.