A reshaped blog post about black-on-black crime is on The Detroit News' website two days after the managing editor yanked an earlier version.
"Negro . . . was a black man’s way of saying I am of Africa, but not an African," writes Rev. Robert Smith Jr.
Guest blogger Robert Smith Jr., pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church on Detroit's west side, rewrote his provocative essay at the paper's request. It no longer begins with this eyebrow-raiser:
The Negro, as I prefer calling the people that are commonly called blacks or African-Americans today, are more than willing to kill each other for any cause. At least it seems that way.
The new 400-word version, published Friday afternoon, starts:
I am disturbed by the reasons for the rash of killing in Detroit. The killings are not a new thing in Detroit or any other American city of 50,000 or more.
News managing editor Gary Miles tells Deadline Detroit the paper welcomes the clergyman's voice and a staff member worked with him on polishing the post.
"Rev. Robert Smith Jr. has valuable insights into Detroit’s challenges," he says via email. "We’re happy to publish his blog entry, which was revised in consultation with his editor to be more clear."
Other coverage: Detroit Pastor/Blogger Robert Smith Is Irrelevant, Or He Should Be Anyway
In his fourth of eight paragraphs, Smith now explains why he prefers a throwback word rather than "black."
Before the civil rights marches, the assassinations and the riots by the people of color, blacks wanted to be called Negro. That was a black man’s way of saying I am of Africa, but not an African, I am willing and able to become a part of the melting pot that makes all American. No matter what a person’s ancestry, they were all in the same pot making up the United States.
After Wednesday morning's now-readers-see-it, now-they-don't disappearing act drew social media attention, Jim Romenesko's national media blog reported on the situation that afternoon. One of its readers, Jim Gaines, commented: "Anybody who tries to start a discussion about black-on-black crime with a gratuitous racial anachronism is clearly incapable of the discernment necessary for such a task."
Miles, promoted Nov. 7 to managing editor, posted this response Wednesday to Romenesko and on a former News reporter's Facebook page: “I pulled the Politics Blog item by Rev. Robert Smith Jr. from our site today because I felt it wasn’t quite ready for publication."
A day later, HuffPost Detroit interviewed Rev. Smith and posted a screenshot of the original blog item, which was headlined "Why do brothers kill brothers? Thoughts on black-on-black crime." The revised headline: "Identity crisis: When brothers kill brothers."
Draft Two still has some rough patches, punctuation-wise, and wraps up with a conclusion that's . . . well, you decide:
The truth is I don’t know why brothers kill brothers, but I wish it would stop. Now.
