Mortal History describes how the masses of humanity have viewed Detroit. Certainly they know nothing
of vampires, or that something especially dark and sinister lurks among the shadows of the Motor
City’s streets at night. The fact that most of Detroit’s residents want to move away from the city
is surely just a coincidence.
“Under [Mayor Coleman] Young, Detroit has become not merely an American city that happens
to have a black majority, but a black metropolis, the first major Third World city in the United States.
The trappings are all there—showcase projects, black-fisted symbols, an external enemy and the
cult of personality.”
–from Ze’ev Chafet’s “Devil’s Night”, a survey of the political and racial landscape of late eighties Detroit
Chafet was an unapologetic racist, but does his description fit what the city of Detroit is now? A third
world colony located on the border between the USA and Canada? Let’s examine Chafet’s ‘trappings’.
The showcase projects are the failed civic revitalization attempts like the People Mover, the hugely
over-budget downtown elevated train which hardly anyone rides, and the enormous Renaissance Center
which was supposed to draw suburbanites and tourists downtown to a grand shopping mall and luxury
hotel complex but now sits mostly empty even as it dominates the skyline.
The black-fisted symbol is the aptly named The Fist at the intersection of Woodward and Jefferson
avenues. This sculpture measures 24 feet long, weighs eight thousand pounds, and sits in the center of
downtown. The Fist is officially a tribute to Joe Louis, the native Detroit boxing champion. However,
the only part of Louis’s body you see is his clenched right fist. The racial symbolism is lost on no one.
The external enemy are the white suburbs and the Detroit residents who don’t support a city
government plagued by a continuous series of legal investigations, bad press and corruption scandals.
The cult of personality was Coleman Young, the five-term Mayor of Detroit from 1973 to 1992 whose
confrontational style toward whites and suburban interests made him as popular inside Detroit as he
was unpopular outside of it. He grew more isolated and arrogant over time, and actively kept down
a secondary level of black leadership. Most members of the city council never openly opposed him.
Who or what is responsible for this mess? Is it the corporations? Racism? The grinding progress of the
global economy? Mayor Young? Detroit’s situation has been a long time in the making. But when
exactly did things go wrong? More importantly, can anything be done about it? Is it even worth
saving any more?
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