Aaron Foley (Linkedin photo)
A common complaint these days is that the media, both local and national, has far too often featured new, white-owned businesses in the city as part of Detroit's comeback story, ignoring black-owned ones, particularly those that have been around for a while and weathered tough times.
Aaron Foley, editor of Blac Magazine, writes about the issue and his conversation with Ron Fournier, the newly minted editor and publisher of Crain's Detroit Business. Fournier says he would like to do more on veteran business owners in the city that have been around for quite some time.
Foley thinks it shouldn't just be up to black publications to feature black businesses, and writes:
It’s the responsibility of media to uplift these stories, and I explained to Fournier that sometimes that burden falls (sometimes unfairly) on identity publications like BLAC. BLAC’s circulation, print or online, is not large compared to Crain’s. Our staff is not as large, and our footprint is not as wide. But we do what we can.
What would give businesses like Heavyweights a boost is if more folks like Crain’s gave them shout-outs here and there (in addition to the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed white folks), which in turn would give them wider exposure, and perhaps catapult them to the same level as the newer, trendier places in town.
That sentiment brings me to this fresh pile of free-advertising, cheerleading, white savior dogshit in The Detroit News today. What the fuck is this?
If you haven’t noticed, it’s Pi(e) Day, March 14, which means Americans everywhere are treating themselves to slices of pie. And what did the News do? They beelined straight to fucking Sister Pie a-fucking-gain to repeat some non-news about how good Sister Pie is.
Is Sister Pie still news? Is it?
Don’t get me wrong. This is not a slam on Sister Pie; I was just there this weekend, and I have the Square receipt to prove it. The pies are really fucking good at Sister Pie. Let’s get that straight. It’s just that, oh my God, does Detroit really need another Sister Pie story? Another one? Especially one that declares that the “top spot” in the whole fucking Southeastern Michigan metro area is this one and only this one?
Would it have killed the News to have included a black-owned place in there somewhere, or did the quota run out in February? “Well, it is Women’s History Month,” you might argue – Sister Pie is owned by a woman – but damn, not even black women?
