1967: The Year that Keeps on Giving

He sits on his porch dawn till dusk, drinking beer, petting his dog and cursing the day minorities began infiltrating his neighborhood. His arsenal of racial slurs more potent than the weapons he fired in Vietnam. The audience gasped as he pulled his beat up Ford to the side of the road and managed to ostracize three different races at once, one being his own.

Good thing he migrates to Florida in the winter, I don’t think anybody in the neighborhood can stand the guy. The real estate agent should have warned my parents about this guy before they bought a house next to him.

In “Gran Torino,” Clint Eastwood played a character very common to the Metro Detroit area. The film chronicles Walt Kowalski’s transformation from angry Bigot to angry Bigot who uses racial slurs playfully before becoming a martyr for the betterment of his neighborhood.
Whether or not Detroit’s emerging film industry can jump start the city’s economic engine, Hollywood has already provided a cinematic estimate on what can be done to get the Motor City on the road again through characters like Kowalski.

The leaders and citizens of Metro Detroit could learn something from studying the decade’s worth of Detroit based film since Martin Blank returned to his high school reunion, especially in regards Detroit’s tense and divided racial realities, as depicted in movies like “Gross Pointe Blank,” “8 Mile,” and “Gran Torino,” and its role in destroying a city once known as the “Paris of the Midwest.”

The deterioration of Detroit’s racial climate is habitually attributed to four days occurring over 30 years ago. The racially charged 1967 riots instigated a massive Caucasian migration to the suburbs, resulting in Metro Detroit’s great divide and three decades of excuses.
All it takes is a single viewing of the 1997 film “Gross Point Blank” to see the divide caused by the riots. If you can somehow keep your eyes off of Dan Aykroyd’s stunning performance and keep count of how many minority residents wander the quaint streets, your tally should match the number of Oscar’s on Aykroyd’s trophy shelf.

This lack of diversity, while distressing, is certainly not surprising as 97.1 percent of Gross Point citizens are Caucasian. Similarly, “8-Mile’s” lack of diversity is no shock considering Detroit is 88.1 percent African American. It is no wonder, then, that Metro Detroit is the least diverse Metropolitan area in nation.

A city does not become the least diverse city in the country by chance. Of the countless major cities that experienced racial riots in the 1960s, not one can match Detroit’s current racial landscape. If Southeastern Michigan wants to resuscitate communal ties and leave behind the haunting of events of 1967, someone should probably call the Ghost Busters because the regions inept leadership is not going to do anything.

Look no further than Detroit City Council. Led by Monica Conyers, renowned for calling the City’s interim Mayor Shrek during a meeting and verbally abusing an elementary school girl in a one week span, The City Council’s meetings make “8-Mile’s” gritty rap battles look like rock-paper-scissors.

In typical self-destructive fashion, the Detroit City Council has decided to follow the path made by the Walt Kowalski’s of the world rather than following in the footsteps of President Obama. In fact, the City Council has inexplicably attempted to restrict the use of President Obama’s name.

During a February 24th City Council discussion on the Cobo Center Expansion plan, a Caucasian teamster became subject to racially charged ridicule by Council President Conyers and several fellow city council members. In a last ditch effort to make his point, the teamster referenced President Barack Obama’s call for unity, resulting in Conyers response, “Don’t you say his name here.”

This is a pivotal era for the city of Detroit. It is facing its worse stretch in its history, yet the election of the first African American President has handed Detroit’s political leadership a chance to leave behind thirty years of racial tension that has been just as detrimental to the city as the failing auto industries. Unfortunately, the political leaders are wasting this valuable opportunity.
Instead Detroit’s leaders will beg the government for billions of dollars in bailout money to the auto makers, while letting the home of the North American International Auto Show decay purely because of racial motives.

Former Detroit Mayor, Coleman Young, a victim of racism himself growing up, once said.
“There are no symptoms of racism. The victim of racism is in a much better position to tell you whether or not you’re a racist than you are.”

Although not a victim, Hollywood has been trying to tell Detroit for a long time that it is a racist city, primarily to deaf ears.

Instead Detroit’s leaders are trying to figure out why it ascends to the summit of nearly every “America’s most (something you don’t want to be recognize for) City” on a yearly basis, when the answer is probably in their DVD cabinet.

The solution to Detroit’s problem is not found in the 11 figure checks sent to Ford and GM, or in explosive car chases down a Telegraph Road lined with cameras and director chairs. Industries can go out of business, companies can relocate elsewhere, but a city can rely on the strength of community through rough times. However, when a city’s sense of community vanishes in a crowd of racism, people leave, and a city cannot survive without people.

Detroit is not the next Hollywood and “The Automotive Capitol of the World” has become merely a title of seniority. For Detroit to survive these seemingly hopeless times, the sense of community that disappeared in favor of racial boundaries in 1967 must once again emerge. The Walt Kawalskis of Metro Detroit, from the politicians to the unemployed factory workers, must amend themselves before a once proud city becomes a martyr for racial unity.