For many many decades racial politics has taken a front seat in Detroit.
And in this mayoral election in particular, with a white candidate running against African American, the concern about race and "black empowerment" has been all the more glaring.
Bankole Thompson, editor of the Michigan Chronicle, which has served the African American community since 1936, has written a thoughtful piece about race, black empowerment and what that means for voters and the candidates Mike Duggan and Benny Napoleon. He writes:
Because Black empowerment is the making of choices whether political, economic, educational or social that advances the quality of life of Blacks in a given environment, the elephant in the political room lately has been race and where it fits in the context of Black empowerment in the hotly contested mayoral showdown where a White candidate Mike Duggan came out of the primary heavily leading Benny Napoleon, his African-American challenger.
So if we go by the above definition, which of these two candidates is prepared to advocate Black empowerment in a majority African-American city like Detroit? Which has a plan that enhances the quality of life of people who live in Detroit and pay high taxes and insurance rates, when a few miles away it’s a different story, beyond Eight Mile, by the change of a zip code?
Thompson argues voters should ideally be race neutral and use sound judgment that will advance the quality of life of a predominantly black city that faces some incredibly challenging issues.
But he notes that, given African American history, and the decades of racial politics for most elections in Detroit, race "is bound to rear its head as we head in early October." He says:
We’ll hear from surrogates of the candidates drumming Black empowerment in the context of strongly expressing racial pride by supporting Napoleon, while others will be arguing that while it is significant to express racial pride, it doesn’t mean that supporting Duggan, a White candidate, in itself is a bad omen if he has the desire and expressed plan to address the crisis in a majority Black city.
He goes on to say:
It would be a serious error for us to ignore pragmatic and contemporary considerations concerning our present social and economic challenges...The preeminence of common sense beckons us to act with basic good sense in our best interest. And we must ask the question in this mayor’s race: which candidate has the best interest and is prepared to address the difficult needs that Detroit currently has?
