Dr. Lester K. Spence

…went much better than I expected. Listen here.

Quick thoughts:

An email comment from “Eric” noted that in the wake of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination it’d be hard to ask taxpayers to continue to expend resources for the black “underclass”. My response was that blacks serve as our nation’s “miner’s canary”, and that sooner or later, he and people he cared about would need help too. Probably sooner than later given the current state of the economy. If I had a do-over what I’d focus on is the fact that taxpayers already spend their resources on the black “underclass”, Why would he prefer that more money be spent on punishing, surveilling, and terrorizing black bodies rather than creating programs that help more citizens live more productive lives? (I suspect I know the answer….)

I also spent a little bit of time emphasizing the importance of “inner-city” values. One of the callers talked about how we can find a great deal of strength in poor communities if we just looked. I agreed wholeheartedly, emphasizing that it was the knuckleheads I grew up with in poor suburban Detroit that taught me most of the values I live by. Without these values I wouldn’t be at Hopkins, wouldn’t have a PhD. I didn’t get any pushback from Wilson here, but there were a number of callers waiting to get a piece of me that never got their chance because of time constraints.

“Middle class people know how to make hard decisions too” was the money quote from one of them.

Here I’ve obviously got class bias issues–I grew up working class, even though I’m no longer in that category. So my comments can be taken with a grain of salt. But if we had a real discussion about what middle-class values were in practice I think we’d look less to the over-spending over-consuming under-saving middle class and more somewhere else for the values that make America work at her best.

The one area of disagreement Wilson and I had was on the amount of spending that Obama included in the stimulus package to deal with poverty. For Wilson 50 billion was a windfall, and he’s right, if you look at it from a position of lack. Going from nothing to $50 billion is a big leap. But I set our sights much higher. If he can spend $1 trillion on the finance industry and they don’t make a single product that you and I can touch with our hands, surely he can spend more than  $50 billion on poor and working class Americans.

And I’d say “that’s just me”. But it isn’t.

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Today on Midday with Dan Rodrick I’ll be talking with William Julius Wilson who released a new book More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. Wilson’s work over the past thirty years has defined the discussion on poverty both in academic and in policy circles. Indeed it is not difficult to trace a straight line between the comments of Bill Cosby made several years ago now and Wilson’s work. Should be an interesting discussion. Please chime in.

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All on one ticket. Today I did a live segment of Tell Me More’s barbershop. Comments welcome.

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That’s all I want to know.

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Dave Bing was elected to fulfill the remaining year or so of Kwame Kilpatrick’s turn. For many this represents a turn for the better, given not only the competition (Ken Cockrel Jr.), but given other recent choices (Martha Reeves, Monica Conyers, Kwame Kilpatrick).

What Detroit needs is more than a single politician. To that degree they could have elected Freeman, they could have elected Cockrel. Hell, I think that Kwame Kilpatrick was the best neoliberal mayor Detroit had (better than Archer, better than Cockrel, better than Bing will be). If the text scandal hadn’t happened Detroit would still be in the shape it’s in now. Housing market in tatters, unemployment rate too high to measure accurately, city services weak. I’ve had conversations with my fraternity brothers about what Bing brings to the table. They think his business savvy will bring new economic development into the city.

Wrong.

1. The economic development model they’re talking about doesn’t work for working class Detroiters because city services don’t increase as a result (tax abatements are usually used to bring businesses into cities) and because they don’t significantly lower unemployment levels (to the extent businesses like Compuware hire, they hire service professionals rather than manufacture workers).
2. The economic development model they’re talking about isn’t sustainable. It’s obvious that such a move won’t work in this economy. But it doesn’t work even outside of this economy. It potentially increases a number of short term outputs, and makes the city appear vibrant and “on the move”. But that’s about it.

Now it is possible that Bing’s election will send some type of signal that Detroit voters aren’t on crack and this will lead to more resources. This too is doubtful. I do think that resources will flow into Detroit eventually, but this would’ve happened regardless of the mayor, because Detroit is so connected to the automotive industry and even as Chrysler and GM fail there’s a perception that something has to be done to soften the fall. (Whatever that means.)

(I don’t think Detroit voters are on crack by the way.)

(I do believe that Detroit needs a better quality of city councilperson–but even that’s a wash given that all councilpersons in Detroit are elected at-large (meaning that no individual on the council has an identifiable constituency that can hold them accountable).)

With all this said, what’s required?

I’ve got ideas. I’ll toss a couple of questions out. Politicians have finally begun to think seriously about high-speed rail. I thought it was too little too late…until I realized how much the housing market had tanked. If you could buy a brand new home in the best suburb for $90,000 and had the opportunity to commute, to Chicago on a train that would take 2 hours would you?

With housing stock cheaper than almost any other industrial city, with the largest available land mass of any of them….what populations could you attract?

What would you do with the land?

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“It’s kind of dehumanizing,” Mr. Brewster-Streeks said of the experience. “They see you as a certain kind of person. We’ve never been that certain kind of person.”

via More Middle-Class New Yorkers Fall Behind on Rent and Face Eviction – NYTimes.com.

So what does “that certain kind of person” look like?

I had a talk the other day about the fortunes of the GOP in the wake of Arlen Specter’s defection.

The writing was on the wall as soon as middle-class men and women looked in the mirror and realized they were swiftly becoming “that certain kind of person.”

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I was on the Marc Steiner Show talking about Obama’s first 100 days. In part because of this piece Marc thought I’d be more sympathetic to Obama than I was. But just because I froze my butt off seeing Obama get inaugurated doesn’t mean I’m willing to go all soft.

Obama’s already changed America both policy-wise and value wise. The creation of a Women’s Council within the White House all by itself is tremendous. But the decision to reverse Bush’s Freedom of Information Act policies, the decision to reverse Bush’s stance on abortion providers, the decision to reverse Bush’s stance on labor agreements, all help us in important ways. His decision to increase unemployment benefits and health care to those hit hard by the economy is important as well.

But with that said I give him mixed grades.

Why?

Because he’s black.

And I don’t mean “he’s black” as in “he should do more stuff for black people”. Even though he should in as much as blacks serve as the miners’ canary.

Chris Rock, riffing on the difference between blacks and n*ggas, gave the example of someone who bragged about how they take care of their kids.

Rock: “You’re SUPPOSED to take care of your kids, fool! You shouldn’t get any props for doing what you’re SUPPOSED to do.”

In this case being black means being able to perform under considerable pressure. With grace and style. Swagger even. The fact that he can run and chew gum at the same time–granted it’s a LOT more than this, but feel me–is something that we shouldn’t be astounded about. We knew this from jump.

When asked about Obama’s basketball game, Michael Jordan said that for someone who didn’t get paid to play for a living he was ok. But for Jordan the question was “can he go to his left?” “Can he finish with both hands?”

We’ve got to have the same high standards for Obama that we do for the things that we are willing to figuratively die for in the barbershop.

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