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Suzette Hackney: Will The Improved Detroit Help Poor Blacks?

September 29, 2014, 7:43 AM


Suzette Hackney: "I’m not certain the urgent message is being carried into most of the neighborhoods."

 

It's not necessarily a new question, but it's certainly a recurring one:  Will the so-called resurgence of Detroit make room for blacks, particularly poor blacks who live in the distressed areas of the city?

Suzette Hackney, a former Detroit reporter who is now an editorial writer and columnist for the The Blade in Toledo, wrote a column for Politico headlined: "Is There Room for Black People in the New Detroit?"

She reports: 

“Detroit is making progress, but I think the question is ‘progress for who?’ and ‘who is being left behind?’” Michael Whitty, a retired University of Detroit Mercy professor of management and labor relations, and a city researcher for the past 40-plus years, told me.

“The positives from the city filing bankruptcy won’t reach the most disadvantaged stratum of Detroit. They won’t even get the most entry-level jobs.”

The people Professor Whitty speaks of are the underclass of Detroit—the human reality of decades of devastation—and they happen to mostly be black. . . .

There, too, is a need for a social and cultural shift among residents, yet I don’t see anyone stepping up to help push Detroiters out of their comfort zones of despair. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is an operations guy. I have little doubt he will ensure that the trash is picked up and that dilapidated houses are demolished; he’s already making inroads in those areas.

Fifty new buses are coming, thanks to Duggan lobbying for a $25.9 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant. His administration is also forcing people living in decent areas to fix up their homes or risk losing them. But I’m not certain the urgent message is being carried into most of the neighborhoods: Get on this train of resurgence right now or be left behind.

Hackney joined The Blade in January. Her career includes stints at The Detroit News (1996-98), Free Press (1998-2012) and as a UM Knight Wallace Fellow (2012-13).


Read more:  Politico


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