What would Kwame Do?

The tee-shirt asks: What Would Kwame Do?
And I totally wanted to buy it.  I am all for poking fun at politics, political leaders, etc.  Basically everything is fair game in my book. And I think this is an awesome shirt.  BUT, when I look at it I think of all the conversations I have had with white kids from the Detroit suburbs who complain about how Kwame screwed everything up--that Coleman Young hadn't already screwed up, they say as an afterthought. 

The undercurrent of racism in playing the mayoral blame game is evident in these statements.  If they don't blame Kwame and Coleman Young then they blame the 1967 12th street riot for making all the white people scared to live in Detroit (which is factually inaccurate--"white flight" as it is often referred to began in the mid 40's and was largely the result of the prevalent automobile culture that encouraged whites to move to bedroom communities and of the despicable practices of blockbusting and redlining).   

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that  Kwame is by no means perfect, but it seems like he often falls victim to the same social beliefs that  are used to explain away the problems of Detroit by so many white residents of the surrounding areas: it's the fault of the black people, we had nothing to do with it.   And that's just not true.  Later in the week I'll write a post on the Kerner Report, what I find to be a fascinating document on race relations in the United States circa 1968.   

By the way, shout outs to Detroit Muscle, the Detroit based tee-shirt company that made this shirt and started me on my train of thoughts for the afternoon.

~bEckY

The tee-shirt asks: What Would Kwame Do?
And I totally wanted to buy it.  I am all for poking fun at politics, political leaders, etc.  Basically everything is fair game in my book. And I think this is an awesome shirt.  BUT, when I look at it I think of all the conversations I have had with white kids from the Detroit suburbs who complain about how Kwame screwed everything up--that Coleman Young hadn't already screwed up, they say as an afterthought. 

The undercurrent of racism in playing the mayoral blame game is evident in these statements.  If they don't blame Kwame and Coleman Young then they blame the 1967 12th street riot for making all the white people scared to live in Detroit (which is factually inaccurate--"white flight" as it is often referred to began in the mid 40's and was largely the result of the prevalent automobile culture that encouraged whites to move to bedroom communities and of the despicable practices of blockbusting and redlining).   

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that  Kwame is by no means perfect, but it seems like he often falls victim to the same social beliefs that  are used to explain away the problems of Detroit by so many white residents of the surrounding areas: it's the fault of the black people, we had nothing to do with it.   And that's just not true.  Later in the week I'll write a post on the Kerner Report, what I find to be a fascinating document on race relations in the United States circa 1968.   

By the way, shout outs to Detroit Muscle, the Detroit based tee-shirt company that made this shirt and started me on my train of thoughts for the afternoon.

~bEckY

Comments

[Harold Leese]

Please support my pettition to get SMART 24 hour, 7 day a week bus service to connect downtown Detroit, Pontiac, Mt. Clemens and metropolitan airport together. I want to save SMART by protecting state funds and increasing industry supports. My name is Harold Leese and I'm presently a SMART bus rider from Livonia. As many of you know we are losing our bus service. Please make my WebPages extremely well known so the public will know that Livonia wants to keep the SMART bus service. There are many of us who are lobbying Lansing to put an end to the opt. outs and cuts in state funds and are working to get more industry support.
http://savethefueltax.org