Business

Finley: 'Where Are the Black People' in Downtown Detroit?

December 14, 2014, 10:45 AM by  Alan Stamm

Invited HopCat guests at a preview night Friday are example of "a clear red flag" that Finley sees as an "obvious warning sign." (Photo by Steve Neavling)


Nolan Finley is among those who see "obvious warning signs," as he puts it, about the whitenesss of New Detroit.

The Detroit News editorial page editor presses that hot button in his Sunday column, describing the race gap as "near the top of the list of the challenges Detroit faces as it starts its post-bankruptcy era."

The question is how to avoid "becoming two cities — one for the upwardly mobile young and white denizens of an increasingly happening downtown, and the other for the struggling and frustrated black residents trapped in neighborhoods that are crumbling around them."

Nobody wants to inject race into the marvelous story of downtown's rebound, driven largely by young creatives who grew up in the suburbs and are now fiercely Detroiters. I don't either. It's a downer. . . .

But with racial tension simmering across the country, Detroit must heed obvious warning signs.

It's a clear red flag when you can sit in a hot new downtown restaurant and nine out of 10 tables are filled with white diners, a proportion almost exactly opposite of the city's racial make-up.

It's a warning signal when you go to holiday events for major Detroit cultural institutions and charities, and you can count the number of African-American revelers on both hands.

It should stop us in our tracks — as it did me the other day — when a group of 50 young professionals being groomed for future leadership shows up to hear advice from a senior executive, and there's only one black member among them.

Finley adds an influential voice to a conversation also encouraged by Detroit artist-essayist Kelly Guillory, whose Oct. 29 post at Medium -- titled New Detroit -- stirred lively discussions at our site (96 comments) and on Reddit. Here's how she put it:

New Detroit is better, prettier, evolving and more inclusive. It’s also a dangerous lie. . . .

New Detroit tells you about all of the great things happening here. He or she tells you what a wonderful time it is to be in the city. They say it’s a Clean Slate . . . the New Beginning, the Fresh Start. . . . New Detroit believes in progress. They do not see race. They see race, but don’t talk about it. The talk about it very briefly before changing the subject.

In his column, illustrated with a photo of patrons awaiting Saturday's HopCat debut in Midtown, Finley stresses that he's "not disparaging the newcomers" and doesn't "believe it's about racism." Solutions matter more than reasons for the gap, he writes.

We have to understand that we're buying trouble if we don't encourage more black participation.

This isn't about handouts or set-asides or affirmative action.

He suggests what business owners and "the African-Americans who've already made it" can do. See his ideas at the Read More link below.

Predictably, the daring column sparks an online buzz. Reactions include this tweet from local branding author and speaker Hajj Flemings:


Read more:  The Detroit News


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