"If Obama Had a City, it Would Look Like Africa Town".., I mean, "Detroit" -- The Simple Fact of Detroit's Bankruptcy

Seventy-four percent black Birmingham saw its city council (7 of 9 members are black) don hoodies to a meeting and declare Trayvon Martin an honorary citizen of the Magic City.

But what does this meme mean? Simply put: 82 percent black Detroit looks like Obama's city

Today, 82 percent black (and bankrupt, though no one dares publicly notice this powerful correlation) Detroit saw its city council (9 of 9 members are black) demand the federal government investigate whether or not George Zimmerman violated the honorary citizen of Birmingham’s civil rights [Detroit council supports calls for federal investigation of possible civil rights charges against George Zimmerman, Detroit Free Press, July 24, 2013]:

The Detroit City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution calling for a federal investigation to see whether civil rights charges are warranted against George Zimmerman, who was acquitted July 13 of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. 

The resolution, sponsored by Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, sparked a discussion over the need for city leaders and others to focus more on violence in Detroit. 

“We need to have that same level of outrage with respect to the black-on-black crime that takes place in our community,” Councilman Kenneth Cockrel Jr. said. “How many people were shot — maybe even shot and killed this past weekend in the city — mostly likely by folks who look just like them?” 

Watson said there are many events held regularly to address violence in Detroit. “Because the so-called major media does not cover all of the expressions does not mean it does not happen,” she said. “So that’s not correct.”

This is a city, Detroit, where only a decade ago the majority black city council tried to move forward with a plan to fund “Africa Town” (whereas “Little Italy” or a “China Town” pop up spontaneously, the black Diaspora is incapable of such collective entrepreneurial activity without state intervention) with $40 million [Detroit’s plan for ‘African Town’ stirs racial tensions, Washington Times, October 8, 2004].

The key quote from the Times story is: 

The city’s African-American Chamber of Commerce also opposes the bill, calling it unconstitutional, but has said it wouldn’t file a lawsuit.

The inherent hilarity in the quoted material should require a momentary pause to allow you to catch your breath.

Caught it yet?

Good. Let’s move on.

Racial loyalty, even in the face of economic Armageddon, is a hell of a thing.

More to the point, racial loyalty for a slain black kid in a city hundreds of miles away is a hell[er] of a thing.

But for clarification purposes, the inability for conservatives to even acknowledge a connection between Detroit’s bankruptcy and its 82 percent black population (after all, the majority black population kept electing black individuals to represent them at the executive and legislative level) is – at this point – on par with willfully sticking ones head in the sand, hoping to avoid seeing reality stare back at them.

Some clown named Kurt Schlichter argues conservatives should do their best impression of Nelson from The Simpsons, point at Detroit and go “Ha Ha” until their Fredrick Hayek-filled hearts are content. [Conservatives Should Point and Laugh as Detroit Dies, Townhall.com, July 24, 2013].

Using Bastiat’s The Law as a frame of reference for supplying the punch line in the joke of Detroit’s bankruptcy isn’t funny nor veracious, when you consider how the Detroit City Council once pushed for a tax-payer funded “Africa Town” and now pushes for the federal government to pursue civil rights litigation against George Zimmerman.

Conservatives who point and laugh at the bankruptcy do so without understanding why the punch line is so funny...

For in the tale of the Detroit Institute of Art, one of America’s great museums, do we have the true source of hilarity in the entire saga of how black people have contributed almost exclusively to the bankrupting of Detroit in 2013.

Howdy Doody, perhaps America’s most famous and beloved puppet, calls the Detroit Institute of Art home (though valued at $1 million, perhaps a Detroit creditor or two has their eyes on picking him up on the cheap).

And it’s in the history of the Detroit Institute of Art that we find the story that should silence any laughter from Kurt Schlichter and his ilk [Detroit Institutions Are Entangled in the Politics of Race, Class and Labor, New York Times, May 28, 1997]:

The Detroit Institute of Arts, the nation's fifth-largest art museum, is crumbling because of financial problems. Strong fences have been built around much of its base because of the imminent risk that sections of the outer walls will fall away from the building's corroded steel frame. Employees place sponges and mop heads just below gallery windows in the museum during snowstorms to catch the condensation dribbling down the single panes of thin glass. 

A block away, the same city government that owns the art museum has just finished building the nation's largest museum of black history and culture. The double-paned glass dome over the rotunda at the new Museum of African-American History is specially designed to admit light while keeping the building at a steady temperature and humidity. The museum's outside doors are bronze, and many of the inside doors are mahogany. The towering decorative masks over the main entrances are partly plated with 14-carat gold. 

The visible contrast between the museums partly reflects the difficulty of raising money to maintain old cultural institutions and the relative ease of fund-raising for new buildings. But behind the contrast also lies a remarkable example of how race, class, labor unions and big-city politics can affect cultural institutions. These issues have echoes in cultural battles in other cities, although seldom are the fights as nasty or as public as they have been in Detroit lately. For the Proletariat, Not the Bourgeoisie 

At a tumultuous special session in March, the Detroit City Council ended up siding with the unionized workers and blocking the management transfer. ''I am for the proletariat, I am not for the bourgeoisie,'' declared Kay Everett, the City Council member who held the council's rotating chairmanship during the special session. 

Union officials told City Council members that Detroit, the nation's largest city with a black majority, should not transfer control of one of its cultural jewels to a group of mostly white suburban residents. ''The race issue was probably made the key role,'' said Bret A. Ceriotti Sr., the museum's chief union steward, who is white. He also told the council that it would be better to close the museum entirely than give more control to private donors. 

But some of the same issues of race and class have helped the black history museum win broad public support. Voters here have approved two bond issues to cover most of the $38.4 million in construction costs. 

The ample budget has produced a breathtaking museum, with a core exhibition designed by Ralph Appelbaum, the exhibition expert who also designed the Holocaust Museum in Washington. Like the Holocaust Museum, the black history museum derives its emotional power from photographs, videos and clearly worded explanatory panels. 

Yet the black history museum is relatively weak in actual artifacts. Indeed, many of the traditional African masks are on loan from the art museum. 

By contrast, the art museum has a remarkable collection of masterpieces, including one of the largest and most famous murals by Diego Rivera, the Mexican muralist. But with money in short supply, there are virtually no signs explaining the context or importance of the artworks. 

Two years ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York borrowed Fra Angelico's ''Annunciatory Angel'' from Detroit and sold posters of the painting to commemorate the occasion. The 15th-century Italian Renaissance masterpiece now hangs in an obscure gallery here, ignored by visitors, with a simple label and no text to explain its significance. The new Museum of African-American History, which was founded in 1965 by a local physician, Dr. Charles Wright, has prospered in this contentious political climate. Coleman Young, the populist black Mayor here from 1974 through 1993, actively promoted the black history museum, while often criticizing the art museum for not exhibiting enough works by black artists. 

Construction Costs Paid by the City 

The city paid for construction of a large building in the mid-1980's to house Dr. Wright's collection, which is still owned by a nonprofit corporation he set up and which occupies city-owned buildings free of charge. Shortly before leaving office, Mr. Young decided that the city should build the even larger building that opened last month. 

Excavation for the new building began immediately, even though architects had not yet come up with a design. A $20 million bond issue for construction was also approved by voters, still without any architect's plans. ''We dug a hole and left it there for almost a year,'' until the design was ready, said Harold R. Varner, the chief architect. 

Mr. Young left his more frugal successor, Mayor Archer, with little choice but to finish the project. Mr. Archer ended up spending another $18.4 million in city money to that purpose. Detroit officials have not yet decided what to do with the building that housed the black history museum for 10 years.

The New York Times story from 1997 is the hell[est] story of them, isn’t it?

Conservatives who laugh at liberals are missing the joke.

A joke being played out in Birmingham, Memphis, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia, with the same inevitable punch line.

For it is the history of the Detroit Institute of Arts and the erection by the new black rulers of Detroit of the largest black museum in the world that one of the greatest jokes played upon us delivers the type of punch to the gut that killed Houdini.

The meme “If Obama had a city, it would look like Detroit” is true in ways almost no one is prepared to explore.

Wherever you find black people, and the absence of whiteness, civilization is going to pieces.

Most stunningly, even in a city built by whiteness, those new black inhabitants and rulers of the city will watch it collapse in its footprint.

So point your finger at Kurt Schlichter and those Flat-Earth Society members who refuse to even entertain the notion that race exists.

Race is very real. Detroit in 2013 is an outward expression of this reality.

It is what fueled the push for the creation of “Africa Town” in Detroit, and race is the reason Detroit in 2013 is bankrupt: it became an Africa Town in America.