Blacksmythe

Fifty or so years ago what was good for GM was good for the nation. Yesterday GM officially went into bankruptcy. Shares of the stock are now worthless. The government is for all intents and purposes the virtual owner of GM. There are already signals they intend to put caps on executive compensation. Health insurance plans for retired workers are under siege.

I am particularly interested in what this means for Detroit and other rustbelt cities. On the one hand it isn’t like Detroit isn’t already the posterchild for corporate disinvestment, unemployment, and political corruption. But what this signals is the end of corporate socialism. Yes Detroit has had high unemployment rates going back almost forty years, but if you had a college education, and some professional training you were assured a job with one of the Big Three or one of their suppliers. Michigan MBA’s weren’t the ones out of work, Henry Ford High School graduates were.

Not anymore.

And what little the Detroit region spends in social services will now go to people who never imagined in a million years that they would need it, leaving those who have depended on these services out there. Out there bad, actually. And there is no sports stadium or entertainment complex that can bring Detroit back from the brink, right? No political leader who can lead Detroit into a shiny new era. Even if Kilpatrick hadn’t made the mistake of his life, we’d still be here.

I asked the following question on facebook.

Where else can you buy a nice home for $25 grand and still have access to international markets and a world class airport, as well as the largest body of fresh water in the world?

The difference between the hustler and the neoliberal subject/citizen is one of semantics. The perfect subject in the neoliberal order is the subject in control of his/her human capital and is able to–through discipline– use his/her entrepeneurial spirit to become self-sufficient. The schools in Detroit are bankrupt. The schools outside of Detroit are becoming bankrupt–everytime you see “Detroit” in this post, think “Metropolitan Detroit”. Unlike the seventies the fallout here won’t be confined to Detroit’s borders.

For those able to grow their own food, or develop local food markets, for those able to educate their children, for those symbolic workers who don’t need to be in a specific city in order to work, I can think of no better city to cast their lot in. If Bing and Metro Detroit leaders were smart this is the pitch I’d make. Several months ago Ed Dunn asked where the best cities for African Americans were. He stayed away from Detroit like the plague. I’d rethink that.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

…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.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

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?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Metro, originally uploaded by Unbowed.

I’m going to Vancouver on Thursday for a conference. I’m presenting the first chapter of my next book on neoliberalism in black politics. Vancouver has a Skytrain that traverses 33 miles through the city. It’s the longest rail of its kind in the world. Thirty years ago Detroit sought to be the first, by creating a People Mover that would extend from Detroit to Ann Arbor (over 40 miles). Although the money was there, suburban angst nixed the deal. The People Mover was built but it is barely used and travels only 3 miles around the city. I’ve probably ridden it five times in 30 years.

News comes today that the state legislature is seriously considering building a high speed rail line from Detroit to Lansing (over 50 miles).

Thirty years too late. Right now in Vancouver there is talk of extending the rail to the University of British Columbia, Vancouver…because people have seen the benefits of public transportation. Furthermore, Vancouver has a significant ridership (as well as a growing population). Metro Detroiters are conditioned to use cars, no matter what the price of gas is. But even if they could be conditioned to use public transportation…given the state of the region’s economy where would they take a Skytrain to? The region may have another chance to live together, but I don’t think some type of high speed rail line is going to be part of it. Folks in Lansing are living a pipe dream. Or maybe, smoking one.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Day 60, originally uploaded by Unbowed.

I’m not sure how to take the news that the Baltimore Police Department will no longer inform the public about officers who kill/wound citizens in the process of carrying out their duties.

Yes, you heard that right. The Baltimore Sun, like many other big city papers is a shell of its former self–it didn’t even report the police department’s move. But combine the slow death of journalism as we know it, with government move away from transparency?

We can celebrate the rise of bloggers all we want. But even 10,000 bics (sorry, 20th century reference, I mean “lit up cell phones”) can’t provide enough light to read in the dark.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’ve been meaning to get to this, but Buster brought up something in comments that I meant to address but haven’t had a chance to get to. In fact, because my blogging has been so light, in the wake of so much bloggable material, I’ve considered making this a group blog. I’ve made an offer to one person, and am going to make an offer to a few others. We’ll see what comes of it.

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to comment on the new Attorney General’s comments about our nation being a “nation of cowards.” Although Coates, P6, Rachel among others addressed this, I think they mostly missed the point. From the Attorney General’s website:

The Attorney General represents the United States in legal matters generally and gives advice and opinions to the President and to the heads of the executive departments of the Government when so requested. In matters of exceptional gravity or importance the Attorney General appears in person before the Supreme Court. Since the 1870 Act that established the Department of Justice as an executive department of the government of the United States, the Attorney General has guided the world’s largest law office and the central agency for enforcement of federal laws.

 …and all he can ask is that we…TALK about race? To the extent that we talk about cowardice…who is the coward?? Where is the cowardice?? Buster is absolutely right. I expect an Attorney General to talk about something more than…talk.

Last weekend the New York Times ran a poignant story on the plight of the new American poor. Middle managers forced to work menial labor after being let go as a result of the current economic crisis. 

Mark Cooper started his work day on a recent morning cleaning the door handles of an office building with a rag, vigorously shaking out a rug at a back entrance and pushing a dust mop down a long hallway.

Nine months ago he lost his job as the security manager for the western United States for a Fortune 500 company, overseeing a budget of $1.2 million and earning about $70,000 a year. Now he is grateful for the $12 an hour he makes in what is known in unemployment circles as a “survival job” at a friend’s janitorial services company. But that does not make the work any easier.

“You’re fighting despair, discouragement, depression every day,” Mr. Cooper said.

More here.

Craig Nulan has done yeoman’s work in uncovering the causes and consequences of this dynamic. And reading stories like this literally breaks my heart. But note the move here? The challenges that Mr. Cooper and others face as they struggle making $10/hour is the struggle that some of us have been trying to wrestle with for decades. Obama’s attempt to shift the nation leftward is only possible when the neoliberal exception becomes the rule. I still argue that exception is worth our time and our political energy. That we should care about the people who’ve BEEN making $10/hour as well as those who NOW make that much.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

(From Makani Themba-Nixon, director of The Praxis Project)

1. Digg the story so that the national media can pick up on it

2. Contact BART Director Carole Ward Allen and demand that 1) the officers involved be taken off duty without pay and charged and fully prosecuted; 2) there be an independent investigation of the shooting that includes a review of training and hiring practices; and 3) BART establish an independent residents’ review board for the police Call her at 510-464-6095 or email the BART Directors atBoardofDirectors@bart.gov

3. Call the BART police to complain about the officers’ conduct and demand immediate action: Internal Affairs: Sergeant David Chlebowski 510.464.7029,dchlebo@bart.gov; Chief of Police: Gary Gee 510.464.7022, ggee@bart.gov

Call them toll free at 877.679.7000 and press the last four digits of the phone number you wish to reach.

4. Talk it up on your blogs, networks and talk radio shows (call Michael Baisden 877-6BADBOY or Rev. Al, etc. to get this on the national radar)

5. Stay tuned for other actions, protests, etc., especially if you are in the Bay.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Crossposted at Blackprof.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

My colleague and fraternity brother Darryl McMiller wrote today about the connection between the subprime mortgage crisis and the vicious land grabs that were commonplace in the South during the Jim Crow era in particular. There are some very important differences obviously, but the connection is worth noting. 

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

In Congress, then-House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Democrat whose Boston constituents couldn’t stop talking about Bias’s death, saw a political opportunity. Throughout the 1980s, the federal government had waded deeper into the war on drugs, part of a trend spawned by the turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s. Bias’s death offered a perfect chance to capitalize on the growing public outcry, especially over crack. “The speaker realizes, if the Democrats take the lead on this, if we play it right, maybe we can win the Senate back,” Eric E. Sterling said recently. He was assistant counsel to the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime in 1986 and now heads the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, a Silver Spring nonprofit that educates the public about criminal justice issues.

O’Neill convened the steering and policy committee of the House Democrats and moved the formation of tougher drug laws to the top of the agenda. Sterling and other staffers were told to draft a law that would punish high-level traffickers, but they didn’t know what amount of drugs would qualify someone as “high-level” and, with the midterm election campaign season just a few days away, they didn’t have time to determine that, Sterling said. No hearings were held.

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 established the mandatory minimum drug sentences that remain in effect today. It imposed a five-year mandatory prison term for first-time trafficking of five or more grams of crack or 500 grams of powder, and a 10-year mandatory minimum for first-time trafficking of 50 grams of crack or five kilos of powder. In drug policy circles, this is known as the “100-to-1 drug quantity ratio,” and it has hit African Americans hardest because they are more likely to live in the neighborhoods where crack cocaine is used and sold, even though, in absolute numbers, most crack users are white. In 2006, 82 percent of crack offenders sentenced under federal law were African American, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an independent agency set up to develop a national sentencing policy for the federal courts.

Taken from this story about Michael Short, recently released after serving almost twenty years for dealing crack. I’d thought for a while that black legislators had actually come up with the draconian anti-drug laws that had people spending much more time dealing crack than cocaine. But I was dead wrong. I just wrote about Nathaniel Abraham. The quick response is that this is an example of rehabilitation done right. And this wouldn’t be…wrong necessarily. But the difference here is that Michael would have most likely been on this path had he served two years rather than almost twenty. This policy, created as noted above for crass political reasons, destroyed a generation’s worth of social and cultural capital. 

Bookmark It

Hide Sites