The myth of "failing Black cities" was created in Reconstruction & has persisted despite reams of evidence that disprove it. Same w/the myth of "dangerous Black people." People want to believe these things, to justify abusing POC & stealing what they've built. scientificorigin.com/do-black-peo...
Detroit is a perfect example. Its economy relied on only one industry. When that industry faltered, the city's economy crashed, ppl wealthy enough to leave moved to the suburbs, leaving those w/the least. The city got Black leadership, whites in MI predicted the city would fail w/o whites in charge.
City residents, already struggling, were preyed upon by largely white police while suburbanites crossed city lines to dump cars, hire prostitutes, buy drugs. When residents resisted, there were days of violent clashes w/ cops. Whites pointed & said, "See? They're violent & dangerous."
As the city began to recover, those who predicted that Black leadership would ruin Detroit started enacting laws to slow progress in the city. They wanted to prove that African Americans couldn't lead by legislating them out of leadership. They NEEDED the city to fail.
Meanwhile, every media report and movie showed images of ruined buildings in the city (generally the same building over and over) instead of the green spaces, thriving city center, etc. They were supporting the fairy tale of a failed Black city & cementing it in American minds.
That fairy tale about Detroit, the myth that Black leadership means more crime, less economic growth, etc., has led directly to what we're seeing in DC, with the president trying to take control of the capital, falsely claiming crime & ruin.
Americans who've been raised on this fairy tale aren't as outraged by the takeover of DC as they should be because US media, in all forms, has been telling them lies for decades-- that Black cities (urban centers) are crime-ridden & desperate, garbage strewn & falling apart.
Detroit is my favorite city in the world, no lie. The way ppl lie about the Motor City, using it as some kind of false proof that Black ppl don't know how to manage government makes my blood boil. Same for DC. It's a lie. It's always been a lie & it only persists because people WANT to believe it.
I've only been the victim of a property crime once in my life and it was in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Samesies about Chicago. My purse got snatched not on the oh-so-scary (NOT) subway or the eek-it's-awful Loop (also NOT) but in the middle of Lincoln Park. In broad daylight.
I've been listening to "Stony the Road," and the most that I've been able to accomplish is to practice my litanies of slurs against the people of the majority.
the way I felt considerably safer in Chicago than I ever did in my rural Upstate NY hometown