by
Detroit writer Aaron Foley likes what is up for discussion Thursday afternoon at the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual Mackinac Policy Conference, though he sees big problems with where the topic is raised and who leads the dialog.
Actually, he'd consider "dialog" a bad way to describe the one-hour town hall titled "Uniting Two Detroits." It's intended to solicit "ideas for increasing African-American participation in Detroit's comeback," as co-moderator Nolan Finley describes it in a Detroit News column.
Aaron Foley: "The Detroit Regional Chamber should . . . remember the name of its organization."
(Facebook photo by Gary Lichtman)
Here's part of Foley's takedown in a guest commentary at Bridge magazine:
Sometime between 1967 and now would’ve been a good time to address race. But other than this discussion being too little, too late, it, there is the problem that it will reflect the makeup of conference attendees: Mostly white, and mostly male. . . .
Why name two middle-aged white men -- both residents of suburbs, neither with school-aged children in the city -- to talk about how residents of color are faring in Detroit? Was there not a single person of color available to host this discussion? And is the Grand Hotel the best setting for the conference’s attendees to be holding forth on the unrest, frustration and despair that pervade too many American cities?
The chamber's agenda frames the hot-button town hall this way:
The rebirth of Detroit’s downtown and Midtown and the city’s emergence from bankruptcy have raised questions about inclusion, racial equity and economic opportunity for all Detroiters. Since December 2014, Nolan Finley, editorial page editor for The Detroit News, has been heightening awareness of this issue and as a result, formal and informal dialogues among the community are occurring.
Finley and Devin Scillian, anchor for WDIV-TV 4, will lead an interactive, solutions-based discussion on how the region can coalesce and bridge the two Detroits. This session offers an opportunity for attendees to come together, elevate ideas and share what they believe needs to happen to unite Detroit.
Foley's beef is with the organizers and the cushy Grand Hotel site 300 miles north of Detroit, not the "fine journalists" who'll moderate.
"The Detroit Regional Chamber should, in the future, remember the name of its organization. "Make the leaders and power brokers who are helping to shape the city’s future feel uncomfortable, so they can really see how people deal with the realities of living in cities like Detroit."
In other words, hear from Detroiters where they live, wait for buses, cope with poor schools and see "that minority-owned businesses are ignored in favor of young, white restaurateurs that just got here a minute ago," as Foley writes. "We’ve spent so much marketing and incentives to woo young, white Americans."
Trying to discuss complex issues of race and equity must be done at home, instead of somewhere disconnected from it all. You can’t talk about things like the need for public transit on an island that doesn’t allow motorized vehicles. And you can’t be too comfortable when having these conversations. . . .
What the policymakers and political leaders who attend the Mackinac Conference need is less talk, and more exposure and immersion. They need to get off the island – or at least realize that the people who would benefit most from the hopeful change that would come from these conversations likely can’t afford to make their way to the island in the first place. Those people need to be in the conversation in their own environment.
Separately, in a response at a Reddit thread about his commentary, Foley raises an added concern:
The decision to include a discussion about race came right after the riots in Baltimore. Like, literally a few days after. Out of all the opportunities to discuss race, equity, inclusion, diversity, whatever term you'd want to use for it, in Detroit -- why wait until something happens in another city to suddenly pull the trigger? It feels knee-jerk and pandering.
Foley, a former full-time journalist, is a copywriter at the Team Detroit ad agency in Dearborn and a freelance writer. His first book, “How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass,” is due to be published this September by Belt Publishing of Cleveland.
He's not at the policy conference and can watch a livestream video of the 4:15 p.m. Thursday session via Detroit Public Television with the rest of us.
