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The chairman of Crain Communication Inc. is decidedly pessimistic this Easter Sunday about the resurrection of Detroit, his company's base.
After Kevyn Orr's 18-month term as emergency manager ends Sept. 25, "there is a horrible possibility that Detroit could end up just the way it was a few short years ago." Keith Crain writes at his flagship business weekly.
Crain's thoughts come in a column that originally carried an indelicate headline: "Maybe we need a permanent overseer." It ignited criticism on blogs and social media that Crain was grossly insensitive for using a word -- overseer -- closely linked to slavery while commenting on a city that is more than 83-percent African American.
The headline was later changed to read: "Detroit needs independent finance exec."
Keith Crain: "Permanent oversight . . . is a good idea and will protect the residents."
In Crain's gloomy view, it's risky to assume Detroit can march forward without an appointee's steadying hand.
Certain members of the Detroit City Council have already proved to require oversight for their personal conduct. We don't have any idea about financial conduct.
It is time to consider a permanent, independent executive who permanently oversees city finances and operations. Perhaps a federal judge, someone who would be objective and save our elected officials from their own worst enemies — themselves. . . .
Giving someone a specific responsibility for oversight might be the ticket for making sure that elected and appointed officials keep the city on track for many years.
I have no idea how long such supervision would be required, but I would not remove it any too soon.
Crain seems to see the city as a slow-learning ward that may need training wheels and hand-holding "permanently" -- or at least indefinitely.
He expects howls and tries to pre-empt objections that this notion is undemocratic:
I will be very suspicious if I hear a lot of elected officials complain about having permanent oversight. It is a good idea and will protect the residents . . .
It simply makes very good sense for everyone — except those being supervised.
That's quite an exception -- a mayor and nine council members elected by residents who need protection from themselves, in Crain's view.
It didn't take long for the column, posted Sunday morning, to make waves. These are among comments at Crain's Detroit Business:
- "Are you the world's most clueless, racist moron? . . . You owe the people of Detroit a public apology." -- Michael Goldenberg, Ann Arbor math coach
- "Wow. This is beyond insulting. Crain's sunk to a new low. We have new leadership, if you weren't aware of that. Also, did you forget to read your civics books in high school? We have a democracy here." -- Steve Neavling, Detroit blogger
Some critics pounce on the headline's O-word, which is defined as "a person who oversees; supervisor; manager: the overseer of a plantation."
"Dude, are you for real?" asks Dexter blogger Chris Savage in a post at eclectablog.
It’s truly astonishing that, in this day and age, a white publisher of Detroit’s major business publication needs to be schooled on why it’s entirely inappropriate to use slave plantation imagery when referring to a city that is almost 83% African American, particularly in the context of a piece that essentially says, “These people are too stupid to run the city.” . . .
It’s an unbelievably tone-deaf piece that also continues to perpetuate the myth that Detroit’s current financial crisis is entire the fault of incompetent city leaders who mismanaged the city’s finance.
On Facebook, Savage adds: "It's rare to see Detroit-based racism quite this obvious and blatant. I'm gobsmacked."
At Reddit, a Midtown Detroiter posting as Jay Arem comments: "The underlying premise of this article is that the Detroit electorate can't possibly be trusted to elect competent representation. . . . Don't couch your preference for indefinite state control in concern for the residents while you gut their right to elected representation."
