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David Phillips, a digital executive and co-founder of an IT networking group for Metro Detroiters, boldly goes where others fear to tread.
In a blunt essay at his group's site, Phillips pokes at the elephant present when people talk about New Detroit:
Every time I turn around, there’s another article, another blog, another inflammatory infographic telling me that I, or people like me, are a problem.
Why? Why does it even need to be called out which race is doing things?
Isn’t it enough that things are finally freaking happening?
David Phillips: "Someone had to say it." (Facebook photo)
He's irritated by "all of these statistics floating around about how Detroit was 82 point something percent 'Black or African-American' and that’s not being reflected in what’s going on downtown," Phillips writes in Friday's post, headlined "Don’t Like Change Coming to Detroit? Get Involved."
"Someone had to say it," he comments on Facebook with a link to the provocative piece.
"I’m not the only middle-aged white guy in the suburbs who thinks this way," he notes.
We’re not racists. We’re not carpetbaggers. We’re not shysters. We’re not vultures.
We’re genuinely looking to help things because we understand the fundamentals at play here, and we’re tired of getting told that we’re not needed. That we’re not wanted. That we’re somehow “bad” or “evil” because we’re trying to help.
Phillips works at FordDirect, a joint venture with Ford Motor Co. that provides digital marketing and advertising support for dealers.
In 2001, he and two others launched the Detroit Networking Organization, which now approaches 5,000 members and changed its name this year to IT in the D. With two industry colleagues, Phillips hosts the group's weekly podcasts that began in mid-2013. Episode 66 on Monday from 9-11 p.m. will be lively if the new call-out and reactions to it are a topic. (Links to listen via iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher are here.)
Here's how Phillips suggests that Detroit critics empower themselves instead of griping about perceived inequities as entrepreneurs, nonprofits, civic groups and companies work to help the city reboot::
Stop identifying yourself as a subset of society and become a part of the solution instead of the problem. Quit whining, stop bitching and knock it off with the divisiveness.
If you’re not happy with the solutions that are evolving around you, then figure out a way to guide things in a direction that’ll be more in line with how you’d like to see things go. There has never been a better time, a cleaner slate, a more insane set of opportunities laying in front of you than right now in the metro Detroit area. . . .
Do it. Build it. Grow it. . . . Stop pretending to be a martyr and climb down off the cross already.
The outspoken essayist, who posts this illustration, has harsh words for those "looking to play the victim card."
His targets include demographic research by WSU graduate student Alex B. Hill, who sees "a deliberate, racially unequal distribution of support and funding" for high-profile efforts to revive Detroit's economy. (His Oct. 16 posting is headlined "Detroit: Black Problems, White Solutions.") Phillips also swipes at Kelly Guillory's Oct. 29 "New Detroit" essay at Medium, which he calls "nonsensical crap."
When I see those [reports], you know what I see?I see divisiveness.
I see racism.I see obstructionism.
I see someone looking to play the victim card instead of actually doing something positive. . . .
Change is coming, and yes, change is painful sometimes.
The self-described "middle-aged white guy who cares about Detroit" describes three categories of recipients who should "quit whining, stop bitching and knock it off:"
You don’t want “outsiders” buying buildings in your neighborhood? Fine, figure out a way to buy it yourself. Form a collective. Host a fundraiser. Get involved and guide the change in the direction you think it should be going.
You don’t want someone new opening a business in that vacant storefront that’s sat there and languished vacant for years on end? That’s cool – go get yourself a small business loan and open a business there yourself. Employ the people from your neighborhood to run it . . .
You’re mad because you’re an artist and that run-down building you’ve had a studio in for a few years is being renovated? . . . Hey, maybe get a bunch of your artist friends together and buy a building yourselves. Become the landlord. Own the property. Rent it out for whatever amount you feel is right, pay your taxes and be part of the solution for the city, yourself and your friends.
Amid his "call you on your bullshit" pushback, the suburban white guy slips into tone deafness twice.
His suggestion that artists own their own space includes condescending dismissiveness:
Either start selling more pieces of wood with “Detroit” spelled out in Faygo bottle caps or start thinking about a new workspace.
And in trying to show that so-called privileged people also feel a New Detroit downside, the writer veers into self-parody:
It’s not all fun and games for us, either. It’s getting to be a pain in the ass to find a venue that doesn’t suddenly think they can price gouge the hell out of anyone who walks up. Parking is getting to be worse and worse. It’s a miracle when our favorite bars that we’ve gone to for years aren’t packed to the gills and over-run with the new folks.
But those blemishes don't undermine the thrust of a 1,200-word manifesto of resistance that's brave, constructive and sure to inspire discussion.
