Segregation In Detroit?
"The idea is to build an 'AfricaTown,' similar to Little Italy and Chinatown," explained Charles Oliver in a recent issue of Reason magazine, referring to the vote by Detroit City Council to spend $30 million a year in public money to develop a blacks-only, race-based district of entrepreneurship in downtown Detroit.
"By a 7-2 vote," reported Oliver, "the council has decreed that only black businessmen and investors can qualify for the money." The concept of this black version of Little Italy originated in a $112,000 report commissioned by the council: "A Powernomics Economic Development Plan for Detroit's Under-Served Majority Population."
Detroit's population is poor, shrinking and overwhelmingly black. By official count, 26 percent of the populace is living below the poverty line and 83 percent of the city's population is black. It's this "under-served majority population," according to the "Powernomics" report, that is being passed up economically by a mixed bag of nonblack newcomers.
What in the world are these politicians thinking? Places like Chinatown and Little Italy evolved because immigrants wanted to live among people from their same background and, to a certain extent, they weren't really wanted in any other neighborhood. If one of the major ideals of today's American dream is diversity then why would anyone want to artificially create a neighborhood that is, by its very definition, devoid of diversity?
And don't even get me started on the idea of the government favoring one specific racial demographic with tens of millions of tax dollars.
If the black community is having problems with unemployment and poverty is the solution really to isolate them further from society? Unless I'm mistaken, most large cities already close-knit black communities usually located in a specific area. Is another of these communities, even if funded by tax payer dollars, going to make any difference at all?
I certainly don't think so.













