he NBC show “Parks and Recreation” features a relatively benign and good-natured Emergency Management Team that motivates city workers to creatively problem-solve and think-outside-the-box to save the city’s crippled budget. Each week the nation gets lots of laughs from the camaraderie between the managers and the municipal officials, who act as though they all were on the same team. In Detroit and other majority black cities in Michigan, we’ve experienced EM’s as closer to a horror flick than a situation comedy.
Highland Park, Michigan (93 percent black) was hit with an emergency manager and had to pay his salary of $200,000 per year and other consultant fees out of the city budget. When he left, the city was further impoverished, hundreds of citizens faced home water shutoffs and related life-or-death issues, and the city’s problems were still unsolved.
Detroit Public Schools has been under emergency management for years, and now the governor is threatening to place the entire city under emergency management. After the schools were taken over by the state from 1999 to 2005 and again in 2009, EM Robert Bobb left his office advocating for a plan that would have closed dozens more schools and left up to 60 students in a classroom. This was his emergency recommendation for fiscal responsibility!
Detroit’s budget is a mess. But cities across America are struggling, even the U.S. government itself. The New York Times reports in “When States Shut Down for Business” that Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Minnesota all had shut downs from 2002 to 2009, ranging from a few hours to nine days from financial shortfalls. How many of the cities there went into receivership?
If the new plan to send an EM to Detroit is successful, then the majority of Black people in the state of Michigan will be administered by these managers. As the EM has the ability to remove elected officials and can spend money in ways that aren’t accountable to elected officials, it would take away our ability to govern ourselves. When you look at the cities in Michigan that have been selected for emergency management, you’ll see that they are all majority Black cities and towns. In addition to Highland Park, other cities touched by emergency management include Benton Harbor (89.2%), Detroit (82.7%), Inkster (61.3%), Flint (56.6%), and Pontiac (52.1%).
What Is An Emergency Manager
In Michigan, emergency managers are appointed by the governor when he or she judges a municipality’s budget deficit to be irreparable. The EM has the absolute power to disincorporate the city, sell its assets, remove its elected leaders, privatize or eliminate services, and break union contracts, among other measures. During the state of Michigan’s 1999-2005 takeover of Detroit public schools, the elected school board was disbanded.
In the name of saving the system, the services that people depended on for livelihood and well-being were slashed until they were useless and unrecognizable. School Board Member Elena Herrada reports in a Facebook note to her constituents, “We have gone into much more debt, closed schools and lost many students from our District. Those in power have set up a ‘failing district’ which is state wide, but only Detroit is in it. This parallel district is run by private interests. There is no public oversight to it.”
In these select black municipalities, where budget deficits have led to the removal of the elected leadership, our political leaders face racial stereotyping that they are incompetent.
About the Author
This Thursday, May 17 a coalition of organizations lead by Stand Up For Democracy are working to force the Secretary of State to place the referendum on the November 2012 ballot. This case in the Michigan Court of Appeals is to overturn a deadlock of the Board of Canvassers which failed to place the referendum due to a technicality, stating a font size on the petitions to repeal Public Act 4 were not 14 point type.
America embraces competition even when people are suffering. Unfortunately, this extends to the political realm as well. Whats clear to me is that Black Americans are very bad at pushing forward an agenda of self-interest, of getting the government to do what is best for them. Other groups that experience(d) discrimination have been much more effective at advocating for their own welfare, safety, security and freedom from government harassment. Groups such as Latinos, Jews, Muslisms, East Asians, South Asians, even Native Americans have been better at making their case and making change, at least in my lifetime. MLK, Jr was an amazing leader, orator and person who has inspired millions to stand up for a better society, here and abroad… and now you have hucksters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
It is Racism that Black Americans are thought of as “them” rather than “us” but in today’s America, anyone not rich or upper middle class is thought of as “them” so don’t feel special. The government is being pulled by all these interest groups, corporate and otherwise and if you don’t fight for your needs, they get trampled on.
The Black community mobilizes behind the above mentioned hucksters to pillory notables every time someone utters the N word instead of advocating for systemic policies that benefit Blacks and against systemic policies like the Emergency Management.
Also, racism is a much worse problem among recent immigrants, Latinos and Asians, than it is among whites. Whites know racism is not socially acceptable and that stereotypes are invented generalizations with exceptions. Immigrants have not experienced exceptions or learned the history of the invention of the stereotypes, and they come from societies where racism is the norm and basis for society. Black Americans are not doing enough to outreach and challenge racism among immigrant groups.
The job of the police is to arrest, ticket and investigate violations of the law. They are typically lazy human beings who go for the low-hanging fruit and target the politically weak. It is your fault that you are politically weak – you don’t need to be.
In the interest of disclosure, I’m a Jew with “white” features but don’t call me white – my extended family burned in the ovens for not being white.
Politicians don’t get elected for being “good”, they get elected for getting the support from focused and monied interest groups, for appearing to do things those groups want. Black advocacy focuses too much on superficial prestige projects (an institute of this, a project of that) rather than on shaping conventional institutions in ways that benefit Blacks without a big fuss. The groups that are most effective keep a low profile with the public but are right there with the politicians. How many publicly funded institutions cater specifically to Jews? None. How many to Blacks? too many to count. Thats a problem – it breeds resentment; Also, an institution that specifically caters only to one group is inevitably going to be marginalized by everyone else. For instance, Jews back a wide variety of organizations within government and in the nonprofit sector that promote religious tolerance and a secular society – because in a majority Christian country, encroachment of religion into public life marginalizes us and leads to discrimination and harassment against us. This is not a Jew-specific agenda but rather a broad agenda that a lot of different people can get behind. Yet, it serves our self interest and comes out of our historical consciousness. Likewise, with Jewish support for organized labor.
MLK, Jr’s agenda was one of desegregation and justice blind to skin color and ethnicity. It was an agenda that many could get behind. That agenda has succeeding in changing Americans’ consciousness but institutions lag behind. A new agenda around democratic accountability, human rights, the rights of workers and the promotion of common benefits is needed by Blacks for their own self interest.
[...] budget deficit to be in default, bankrupt, or otherwise irreparable. The Emergency Manager, as William Copeland of Dominion of New York writes, “has the absolute power to disincorporate the city, sell its assets, remove its elected leaders, [...]
[...] budget deficit to be in default, bankrupt, or otherwise irreparable. The Emergency Manager, as William Copeland of Dominion of New York writes, “has the absolute power to disincorporate the city, sell its assets, remove its elected leaders, [...]
[...] budget deficit to be in default, bankrupt, or otherwise irreparable. The Emergency Manager, as William Copeland of Dominion of New York writes, “has the absolute power to disincorporate the city, sell its assets, remove its elected leaders, [...]
[...] budget deficit to be in default, bankrupt, or otherwise irreparable. The Emergency Manager, as William Copeland of Dominion of New York writes, “has the absolute power to disincorporate the city, sell its assets, remove its elected leaders, [...]
[...] budget deficit to be in default, bankrupt, or otherwise irreparable. The Emergency Manager, as William Copeland of Dominion of New York writes, “has the absolute power to disincorporate the city, sell its assets, remove its elected leaders, [...]
[...] up to 60 students in a classroom. This was his emergency recommendation for fiscal responsibility!READ THE FULL POST AT DOMINION OF NEW YORKShare this:December 23rd,2011 | Tags:emergency manager,highland park,michigan,public act [...]
http://www.workers.org/2011/us/banks_destroyed_detroit_0407/
Thanks for writing for what many of us in Detroit and other Black cities in Michigan was/is thinking and has experienced from white supremacy in the segregated north. You put things in perspective and has educated the world of the little brother of white supremacy, which is institutional white supremacy and how it is playing itself out here in the state of Michigan.
Thanks to all the comments so far. I will speak to a few of them directly. 1. About Detroit’s problems being worse than others. This too has a racial component. Detroit was on a path towards becoming a multicultural city. White flight and depopulation has gone hand in hand with the growth of the suburbs as White business centers. For a time downtown Southfield had more office space/buildings than downtown Detroit. Northland Mall was the US’s first suburban mall which pioneered the urban development patterns that used the city for some jobs but mostly entertainment and culture where the suburbs headquartered businesses and mainstream residential patterns. In other words I think of the depopulation and lack of city services as part of a disinvestment strategy.
In response to Bill and Tom, I think that it is time that with TINA and the measures you cite, we are in a pattern of Third World within the First World. As such I think we should learn from, communicate with, and analyze the histories and struggles of the relevant Third World cultures and economies. I know there has been some work to connect Detroit and Venezuela, I know that there is connection between the Cuban Medical School program and Detroit. These efforts are vital given the disinvestment and underdevelopment (permanent) that we faced if we are to gain the power to define our own futures.
William, this is an EXCELLENT stage you have set for discussing this VERY pertinent and controversial issue. A very real issue. I was just about to comment that I have been saying for a few years now that it is really time that Detroiters specifically sit down with New Orleanians and seek some advisory on several fronts… another US city that has been dealing with a Third World within the First World for some time.. and has actually already dealt with complete City shut-down and martial law. …and then you went ahead and mentioned info exchanges btwn Detroiters and other Third World people. This is very real.
Nice job Will, especially in comparing and contrasting the political and the economic effects of this latest neoliberal assault. Today’s NYT Sunday Magazine features a long article on EMFs (Emergency Manager Fascists, for the clergy and polite churchgoing folk reading this) and Benton Harbor, with many express references and parallels to Detroit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/magazine/benton-harbor.html?_r=1
The article says “… one possible future for towns across the country, places that can no longer support their own economies or take care of their citizens and may ultimately have no choice but to turn their fate over to private industry and nonprofits. The way things are going, more and more states may start to look like Michigan, and more and more towns may start to look like Benton Harbor.”
We “may ultimately have no choice.” aka There is No Alternative (TINA)
How is it not a “choice” to cut taxes for the rich and make the poor pay for the economic crisis caused by Wall Street and used as an excuse to make the rich even more powerful and wealthy? This is a choice. An obscene one.
Maybe we should just change “Detroit” to “Kresgeville.” “PLACES THAT CAN NO LONGER SUPPORT THEIR OWN ECONOMIES” What a concept… Another low point in the article is when Benton Harbor EMF (and former Detroit Auditor General) Joe Harris brags about the new fire response vehicles that are cheaper than fire trucks, because they’re pickup trucks with foam generators in the their beds… Imagine how they would function in the face of a major fire. Think of the implications for capital’s abuse of working class communities of color.
This struggle is currently waged legal and electoral, but the days are at hand when we’ll need to put our bodies in the way for the sake of democracy. Thanks to Will Copeland for naming things clear.
The law works by precedent. Once you have a law that suspends democracy even “temporarily” for one reason, you can come up with other reasons to suspend democracy.
There is also the issue of race. Back when they ran the freeway through the African American section of Detroit destroying businesses homes etc., race was not put forward as a factor. But clearly it was. It is not as blatant as the old poll taxes of Jim Crow infamy. But these are different times.
This is another case where the law or actions of the powers that be “just happen” to negatively affect African American majorities. That, along with the precedent of nullifying elections without voter approval, should give everyone pause.
Thanks, Will, for your insights. We need your voice.
This is a great article, Will, and a timely subject.
Well, there ARE incompetently run cities of all ethnic groups.
The thing is, Detroit’s problems are far WORSE than many comparable cities because of a total lack of industry. While many US cities have crime, white flight, poverty, etc… Detroit has severe depopulation, abhorrant lack of city services, etc.
I would have to agree with you, Juutaro. I have been living and working in New Orleans since 1 month after Katrina. As a native Detroiter, I draw comparisons, on almost everything, every single day, between Detroit and New Orleans. What is the same… and what New Orleanians do differently that has allowed them to maintain much more control/ownership over their own city in the re-build than I believe Detroiters are doing. And I link one of the main factors in this to the specific industrial history and the (negative) conditioning the Big 3′s managerial style had on thousands of people…coupled with the city’s refusal to diversify its economy… this left 2-3 generations of people with literally no alternative options to switch gears (no pun intended), discover another one of their talents or abilities and begin to develop, practice and apply it for actual survival, and beyond… this is what separates Detroit from other cities that share the other exact same problems, such as white flight, destructive “urban renewal” projects, crime, etc.
However… to this end, I will also think that it IS important to reiterate that there are incompetently run municipalities of ALL ethnic groups, in fact, I would argue that MOST political offices are poorly and inefficiently run, due simply to the nature of politics. And unfortunately, Detroit is NOT exempt from this. There has been much corruption, we cannot deny or ignore that element. There is MUCH work to be done, by all of us, on EDUCATING all of our fellow Detroiters… so that folks stop voting on name recognition alone and begin to sway away from voting practices based on popularity contests. It may sting a bit for a while, but truths need to be exposed and abilities demonstrated so that people can begin to select better representatives for themselves. EM’s are just as alike to Monarchs as corrupt or unqualified ELECTED officials. Both sides need to see this. I just think it is important that we recognize and begin to truly address the very real issues with our *elected* officials of late as well. They need to be called out by the people they serve and we need to be more active FROM JUMP in the *careful* selection of our elected officials.