Progressive Chef

Further Discussion on Race and Poverty

2008-06-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

I have been incredibly busy lately with work and travel preparations, so I have not had the time to play around with this. I will however attempt to address all of the arguments made against mine.

DetroitSucks said...

Your blindingly ignorant liberal bullshit is astounding no matter how many times I am subjected to it's idiocy.

On thomas sugrue: I believe him to be a jew. Jewish neo-marxist intellectualist theory on social issues is well documented as being skewed by ideology rather than fact or common sense. If he is not a jew he is certainly of the jewish installed neo marxist and zionist school of thought prevalent within every university in this country.

Try Dr. Kevin Macdonald as an author of the source for my above statement on Jewish intellectualism in America.

For the sake of argument...

De-industrialization:

A total bullshit theory to try and explain urban decay. There are more White People living in the suburbs NOW who make a living because of the city center, than there were living in the city back then.

How come hundreds of thousands of people commute into Detroit to work? You don't think these people would enjoy living a few minutes from work? White people moved out when blacks moved in, not because we're racist, but because blacks ruined their neighborhoods.

Racial Discrimination in the Workplace:

Whitey's fault again eh? Blacks are over represented in auto unions and with affirmative action and equal opportunity in place this argument is hardly valid at this point in time. Racial discrimination in the work place, whether valid or not, hasn't been an issue in Detroit for at least 30 years.

Residential Segregation:

Blacks were forced to destroy their own communities because it was hard for them to get out of them? What kind of logic is that?

It sounds almost as if you're saying that it takes White people to make a community a decent place to live....sounds kind of racist to me.

Even assuming this was a valid issue, it certainly hasn't been for many years now.

Slavery:

There isn't a single black humanoid alive that was a victim of slavery. In fact I would say that there are millions of White americans living in this country who were worse off than slaves. Slaves had guaranteed housing, guaranteed food, schooling in some situations, certainly more than a lot of white americans were guaranteed.

Slavery is a liberal bullshit cop-out...every race has been enslaved...every race has enslaved.

Gentrification:

Ever heard of section 8? Gentrification my ass.

Weak education:

The schools weren't weak until blacks started running them.

1 in 3 black men end up in jail:

And this is because blacks are naturally criminals which is why whites have a hard time living around them.

practically zero adequate public transportation:

You're really reaching now. I've worked closely with the recipients of welfare and section 8 and every single one of them had at least one working automobile.

Crack Cocaine mandatory minimum sentencing:

So it's the justice system's fault for trying to enforce the law? Come on...give me a fucking break. The best place to be arrested for drugs is in an inner-city area because the sentences are short and the judges are lenient....ask any criminal and they'll tell you that. Once again it's the white man's fault for punishing criminal behavior. This is an absolutely ludicrous argument.

Detroitsucks:
On Thomas Sugrue: I don't know if he's Jewish and I don't particularly care. His book, The Origins of Urban Crisis does not have an agenda further then historical education. It is not politically motivated, and only sociologically motivated to the extent of unveiling the causes and effects of history on communities of people. Regarding the "jewish installed neo marxist and zionist school of thought..." If that was some attempt at understanding where my views come from- I don't particularly care for the way Zionism has played out in the creation of Israel, (and subsequent oppression of the Palestinians) nor do I care for Marxism. I like business, if done right and with due care. I think government can only do so much in helping communities like Detroit. Business, small and big alike, can lend an equally large hand through establishing work opportunities to those who need it by installing factories and other means of employment to disenfranchised communities. I also checked up on Dr. Kevin Macdonald. It appears that no one in academia will touch him with a ten foot pole, as his arguments are weak and his theses can barely make it past a peer review.

On De-industrialization: Not exactly bull-shit. It's still happening, and ALL neighborhoods are going under. Chrysler was bought out by a restructuring firm, and GM keeps announcing ever more job cuts. Michigan has the worst economy in the country because of this. In this state, one of every three jobs is tied to the auto industry. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it happened to the blacks first, now its happening to everybody, regardless of race.

On Racial Discrimination in the workplace: Blacks aren't over-represented in the work place with affirmative action and racial quotas. There is a hiring quota based on the region of south east Michigan, and while I'm not sure of the exact number, it's between 26 and 27%, which is representational of the racial blend of the region. Other regions, such as western and northern Michigan are represented in a similar manner. I was referring to racial discrimination back then less than now, but it still exists. Whether it be the glass ceiling blacks keep bumping their heads on or hiring practices, it exists.

On Residential Segregation: It still is a valid issue, although I did not explain it well enough. It was residential segregation through the means of redlining that eventually pushed whites north of 8 mile. Southeast Michigan is the most racially polarized region in the whole country for this reason. What has since happened is a form of apartheid through local governance. South East Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) is a coalition between Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb county that oversees inter-county (regional) issues. The largest of these issues is public transportation and the roads, as both of these span multiple counties. Anyhow, Oakland has nine votes on the board to Wayne's three votes, yet their population differences are 1.2(ish) million people to 850,000(ish) people. This is not a 3 to 1 difference in population as how the voting system is structured, and so predominantly white Oakland county has much more to say about Detroit's place in the region then the city it self does. As they treat it more and more like a tumor, it gets worse and worse.

On Slavery: I enjoy your out dated pro-slavery John C. Calhoun style defense. Next I'd like to hear of the Christian need of caring over the savages. They were rarely taught to read, what schooling they received was through church, and I certainly would not call that schooling. It taught them to accept their place. Slavery, through the constant trading and acquiring of people as chattel destroyed the concept of family at the time. Every race has enslaved and been enslaved, from Africans to Europeans to Arabs and so on, but it is blacks that were the most widely distributed slaves in the history of the world. They are also the race to have most recently felt the negative repercussions of slavery, and they are still feeling it. 150 years ago is not long- blacks now are any where from two to six or so generations of family removed from abolition from 300+ years of slavery. And even after slavery, blacks did not receive any type of equal rights until 1964. This stuff takes time to level it self back out on to an even playing field.

On Gentrification: Detroit does not experience this so much as neighborhoods of New York, parts of California, Portland, and other cities. Gentrification does not only have to do with housing, but other aspects as well. There are many factors to a community besides just houses. These are communities that have survived just fine for many years, through which people have established their livelihoods. When the wealthy move in and start building upon it, it drives up property taxes and real estate, forcing those who have lived there to move out of the area due to sky rocketing costs associated with living there. Business owners are also effected, and forced to close down long owned businesses because of the related costs, and in come the 18 syllable Starbucks drinks and whatever other amenities are associated with the rich. And yes I have heard of Section 8. More on that further down.

On weak education: The schools became poor when money to fund them started leaving. They are using decades old text books with outdated information. They have class sizes that are too large, leaving educators with little ability to effectively manage the room. There are examples of predominantly black schools, such as the recently reported upon Ludington Magnet Middle School in Detroit, which has surpassed state averages in MEAP scores. Whites are now something of a minority at my previous high school, yet it is on US Weekly's top 100 schools in America, and top 10 in Michigan. This, as well as most other issues of race, is less about race, and more about economics and poverty.

1 in 3 black men end up in jail: Your explanation does not justify why whites can be criminals too. While the incarceration rate definitely shows a disparity between the amount of blacks versus the amount of whites sentenced for crimes, there are still whites committing these crimes too at an alarming rate. Crime is most often motivated by financial conditions. Theft does feed drug addiction; crack in the inner cities, and crystal meth in the far exburbs and rural communities- but it also feeds families. Violence occurs across all races, sure there are plenty of inner city murders, there are also plenty of white murders in the suburbs- Mark Unger in Huntington Woods murdering his wife, Christopher Dankovich stabbed his mom 111 times in Rochester, Stephen Grant dismembered his wife in Mt. Clemens. Not to mention the now countless school shootings that have plagued America by disgruntled suburban teenagers, the Oklahoma City bombing, crazy serial killers, and so on. Theft occurs with poverty. Murder occurs with sociopaths. Both are regardless of race. The purpose of leading statement is that crack sentencing laws are inherently racist, as no other drug is charged in a similar manner. Heroin, oxycontin, crystal meth, cocaine, and so on all get you, gram to gram, much less of a sentence then crack cocaine will. This explains a very large part of the racial disparity in America's prisons.

Inadequate Public Transportation: One out of three Detroit households does not own an automobile. Detroits suburbs are exponentially the fastest expanding in the country. These newly created and further expanding suburbs bring with them new ugly strip malls, but with them- new jobs. The SMART bus does not yet make it this far from Detroit, and even if it did, the ride would take several hours. A regional mass transit train system similar to Chicago's, Washington D.C.'s, or Minneapolis, would address this problem. The mayor of Southfield is currently running for Oakland County Executive with this goal in mind.

On a side note. I work closely with recipients of welfare and section 8 housing as well. They win because they're able to get housing that enables them to get on their feet and get a job, if possible. There are definitely some individuals who abuse their situation, but for those who do, there are many that do not. We who work on section 8 construction projects usually get prevailing wage, so, if for even selfish reasons, there's not much to hate on here.

Crack Cocaine sentencing law: I sort of addressed this above. But in response to lenient sentencing in inner cities, I agree- it sucks. Sentencing needs to avoid these short jail sentences followed by no probation. I think more creative sentencing should be instituted to help reform criminals of all walks. That is the purpose of the CORRECTIONAL system: not to lock one away for a few days, but to correct behavior, which our prison system has utterly failed in its task.

Joe B said...: I am curious chef of what story you can cook up for the destruction of places like Gary, Indiana or Oakland, California; or better yet, Harare, Zimbabwe and Johannesburg, South Africa since they ceded their White rule to the savages. None of these places had any industries that moved out so what is the cause of their demise? They all, as Detroit, were once great safe cities to live in. Your political science and public administration background should have an answer.

And a correction for you here, your statement: "Whites had a thousand year head start in the Western world." is total bullshit!
Whites did not have a "head Start" WE TOOK THE LEAD!

And Anna and Dustin it is not your place to Re-invent the city, It worked fine once before and was great but has been re-invented to a third world cesspool.

To Joe B: I honestly can't explain Oakland, I'm not familiar with what's happening on the west coast. I've only really studied rust belt cities; Gary is one of them though. The city was actually founded by United States Steal Corporation about 100 years ago. It shares a virtually identical history to Detroit in many aspects, especially regarding corporate downfall and pull out for cheaper labor which directly resulted in poverty. As far as the African countries you listed, both were under British colonial control until the 1960s, South Africa until apartheid ended in the 90s. Colonialism has been historically shown to leave complete poverty and violence in its wake everywhere it has been. Central America, South America, South East Asia, and Africa. America is an exception to this, unless you count all the poverty and violence that occurs here now. This country had large donors in colonial Europe, such as France, to aide their cause, and grease the wheels of freedom from England. About whites taking the lead. I've always considered a rising tide to lift all boats. If everybody in the world was made better off, regardless of race, violence and crime on a world wide scale would come to a minimum. In much of western Europe, where the income gap is smaller, and racial divisions are barely recognized, there is hardly the crime that exists in America.

Andy B said...: The detroitiscrap site is fantastic. I live in Mass, and there is only one small area in a city near me with a black population, and sure enough homes are boarded up, burnt down and crime is huge there.
It's almost funny to hear self-hating whites come up with reasons for the "urban decay" that follows blacks everywhere they go on the planet.
Almost makes me want to drag people like "Progressive Chef" into the blackest neighborhood I can find and let him spend a weekend with his friends.

To Andy B: All you've done is made assumptions of who I am with out offering a single valid argument. While I don't agree with the views of those above, they've at least offered arguments to contend on. You are probably wrong in any assumptions you have of me, other than that I'm white- but certainly not "self-hating." I feel pretty good about whatever I'm doing usually. I have friends in black neighborhoods. I'm also leaving to travel to one of the most impoverished regions of the world this weekend. You're a coward. Keep driving past that little town in Massachusetts, far from Detroit, and please, never get out of your car, ask around, and figure out why it is the way it is.

Anonymous said...: I'm sure you love the all the diverse cultures so when you make excuses for blacks think about thes examples Sixty years ago jews emerged from concentration camps came to america and prospered within a generation. The same can be said for Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Vietnamese. So what in the name of your esteemed job at a public university do you think is the reasons blacks have been stuck in the mud for 160 plus years? I would say in this country the problem is one of illegitamacy. Mr. social scientist, turn on the radio and listen to some jig music and you will find it is designed to facilitate their breeding. Illegitimacy seems like a good explanation until you look at Africa and then it seems that maybe blacks are just of a lower level. I mean blacks there have yet to embrace the technology of the wheel as witnessed by the women who carry jugs on their heads. by the way it then becomes the job of lackeys like yourself to polisdh the turd by explaining such backwardness as "culture and diversity." So go on with your bad self Progressive Chef. Serve up some more shit. Just stay out of Detroit lest you become an article on Detroit is Crap.com.

To Anonymous: "Jig music": like jazz, blues, and rock? Jews also prospered long before concentration camps- definitely a tragedy, but they have history beyond those years of the Third Reich, specifically dating back to the rise of mercantilism in Europe, which established them as a powerhouse. The birth of capitalism and states in Europe and the subsequent fall of the various European churches power was one of the most forceful examples for Hitler's scapegoating of the Jews. Cubans, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans have always held an elevated position in American society, as their willingness to work for cheaper labor has made them special in the eyes of employers. Puerto Rica, as a territory of the United States, does not share the same immigration policies that Latin Americans from other areas are subjected to. I don't know what you're talking about with the Vietnamese. They fought a war with the Japanese, were subjected to colonialism under France, then bloodied by the Americans. After the communist powers took control, "re-education" camps were facilitate that tortured and killed much of the population. They're still reeling from this, and it will be much time yet before they join the other newly industrialized countries of the region. African's certainly know of the wheel. I carry stuff all the time to all sorts of places, I don't know what that stuff may be or where I'm going, but for all intents and purposes we'll call it a jug. A jug is much easier to carry over the shoulder then it is at your side by hand, and while goofy looking, it's even easier to carry that weight on your head because you have your whole body's frame supporting it. If someone in Africa had multiple jugs to carry at one time, I bet they'd probably take a dolly, or shopping cart, or any number of other wheeled objects for such a task. I would also argue (and generously at that) that blacks have only been "stuck in the mud" for 44 years, as that's when the Civil Rights Act was passed. When you've been buried that deeply in mud, it takes a while to climb out. I also don't work for a public university. And stay out of Detroit lest I become an article? Please, I know this city like the back of my hand.

Rick said...

"Fiscally, they comprise the same percentage of those receiving welfare as blacks."

And how many more whites are there than blacks?

I think the people who defend this city never actually live it. Try walking around even the 'safe' areas everyday and have blacks try to start fights with you, insult you, all when you don't even look at them. These are the stupidest people on earth. You just drive everywhere and avoid dealing with the people who actually live here. Try riding the fucking bus and listen to some ignorant black spew racist bullshit and not even the driver says anything to him. I live and know this city more than any of you, so you can go fuck yourselves. Defend the people that hate you all you want.

To Rick: My intention here was just to point out that whites consume welfare as well. Poverty happens to anyone, regardless of race, and it's something that really needs to be fixed. Whites can draw some tension from the inner city, but try being black and driving through the suburbs, getting pulled over for DWB, or eyed on in any store. It's just as bad. Once again some one has offered more assumptions against my self that have no basis what so ever. As much as I dislike our transportation system, I do ride the SMART bus. It cuts down on gas, I don't have to pay for parking anywhere (not that you really have to in Detroit anyhow), and I support the idea of public transportation. Nobody has ever spat on me or called me any names on or off the bus, and occasionally, I find some pretty interesting conversation. I also don't care if some blacks hate me based on my skin color, because I understand why. Hopefully, after many years of work, I can have an impact on healing this rift. You may call it white guilt, I just call it consideration for the people around me. If you live in and know the city so well, and are still completely disgusted with it, you should consider moving.

Jack Casey said...

It's as simple as this: name one place - a city, a country, anywhere, that is majority black or black controlled that isn't a cesspool of crime and poverty. Name one. Good luck.

Black culture is poisonous, rewarding and encouraging illiteracy, illegitimacy and crime. Until that's addressed, all the liberal platitudes in the world are only obfuscating reality.

To Jack Casey: Liberal platitudes obfuscating reality? What? Try the inherent liberal bias OF reality. Unfortunately there are not many big cities or countries I can list. Colonialism has directly affected all of Africa, where most Black countries are. Countries in the Caribbean that are predominantly black were used as staging grounds for United States slave trade- same argument applies. D.C. and Baltimore, while both have high crime (as do most large cities)- about 95% of it is contained to certain areas. Those are both prosperous, largely black cities. In metro Detroit; Southfield and Oak Park are both fine places to live.

DetroitSucks said...

Chef...you're welcome for the most blog traffic you've ever had.

To Detroitsucks: Fo sho. Three weeks and six posts later, having never had a blog, guess I'm doing pretty well.

I guess the idea behind my arguments, is that it is not race that creates the problems you describe in blacks- but poverty. Poverty can be found in all races, and in all corners of the globe. It has always existed, and is the primary force that keeps very few people so rich. This is the problem we need to fix. For those of you that live in Detroit and hate it; why don't you try taking pride in your community and make an attempt at fixing some small part of it? Meals on Wheels, homeless shelters, and community gardens are great places to start. Big brother/sister programs are great too- if you get the youth of poverty before age takes them, you can really make a difference. If you get the right education or have that certain charisma, you can change policy through government, or influence economics through business. Black, white, Native American, and Hispanic communities are all in need of people to give a hand.

On that note, I won't have access to a computer for a couple of months, though I suppose even impoverished Latin American countries have internet cafes. Maybe I'll be able to get back to this before the end of August, but we'll see.

I Usually Don't Like to be Called an Asshole...

2008-05-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

...but I'll make an exception in this case. It gives me great joy to be chastised by someone so ignorant. From the guy who runs Detroitiscrap.com...

You try and blame ME for alienating Detroit? Are you fucking serious?

I report the fucking news the way it is. Nothing more. I don't make shit up, I don't fabricate stories, I don't destroy anything.

The racist attitudes of blacks have destroyed detroit, that along with their crime, drugs, and abuse of public welfare.

Nice try asshole.

Well, I wasn't blaming YOU personally. Just people LIKE you. There are many. Get over yourself.It would be great if certain people opened up a book and poked around in some history once in a while, you find out the most interesting things. Though there are many books that focus on urban decline, I recommend Thomas Sugrue's "The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit"(1996, Princeton Classic Edition, 2005). He's the most prominent Detroit historian around. Though painted in very wide brush strokes, Detroit's decline can be summarized in three major steps:

De-industrialization. Detroit was once a great city, and that was because of a booming auto industry, which employed many people. Come the 1950s, in an attempt to reduce labor costs, auto jobs were progressively outsourced south to Ohio and Indiana, then further, where labor was cheaper. This sudden shift left many in Detroit jobless.
Racial discrimination in the workplace. Guess who was to be fired first during this outsourcing. This was before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Think that sudden loss of jobs for a whole community of people, right at once, might have some thing to do with current economic conditions among Blacks in Detroit?
Residential Segregation. New neighborhoods were being created northward from the city to support the influx of returning WWII veterans. Whites were pressured in to moving to these new neighborhoods by greedy real estate agents under fear that the blacks were moving in to their current neighborhoods. This is a form of redlining, a practice that is now obviously illegal. This is a large part of why the Detroit region is the most racially polarized in the country.

Coleman Young certainly influenced this too, and I won't deny that. The great white flight was the culmination of 25 years redlining, and would not have occurred had this practice not set precedent.

Now, those are the particulars to Detroit. The justifications for the prevalence of poverty, and subsequently drug use and crime among black communities around the country are too numerous to list, but here are some:

Hundreds of years of slavery.
The Civil Rights Act was only instituted 44 years ago, and equality is only now STARTING to appear. Whites had a thousand year head start in the Western world.
Gentrification.
Weak education through inner city schools.
1 in 3 black men end up in jail at some point in their lives through systematic racism, leaving less stable male role models in the house hold.
At least with Detroit- practically zero adequate public transportation.

No, the SMART bus does not make it to where most new job growth is.

Crack Cocaine mandatory minimum sentencing in the 1980s that directly targeted inner city blacks.

Don't you think it's funny that 5 grams of crack gets you the same sentence as 500 grams of cocaine? I don't even know how much crack 500 grams of coke makes, but I'm pretty sure it's a hell of a lot more than 5 grams. Who's got half a key of coke? I bet he's probably the same color as that bag of powder he has

I blame not just YOU, but everyone like you for destroying Detroit and other urban areas by dedicating so much of your time to bitching about it. I blame corporate negligence for establishing so strong a presence in Detroit and Flint, only to pick up and leave for a wider profit margin. I blame a government that imposed centuries of slavery and 91 years of Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised a whole race of American's. I blame a public transportation system that exacerbates the racial polarization of South East Michigan. I blame every thing else I bulleted above too. Blacks in Detroit are not creating the problems so much as they are responding to them, and often not in the best of ways. Rural white Americans all over the country are responding in similar fashion. Fiscally, they comprise the same percentage of those receiving welfare as blacks. Alcoholism and drug use, poor education and crime- just like the inner cities, are eating their communities as well. This isn't a race issue so much as a poverty issue. If given the same tools as white Americans in affluent suburbs, blacks wouldn't face nearly the same problems seemingly particular to their race as they do. So perhaps you should expand your horizons and just hate on all the poor, regardless of race.

So yes, I guess I do, at least in part, blame YOU, with capital letters. If you took all that time and energy running your site, and instead of bitching about black Detroiters "chimping out," you tried to figure ways to fix the city, we'd be in a lot better shape. But then you could only complain about rural white Americans' "crime, drugs, and abuse of public welfare," and I know that just doesn't sit well with ignorant racism.

ON another note, DEMF was off the hook this year. Girltalk, Cool Kids, and Moby were the highlights for me. Excellent after parties. I can't wait for the riverfront air race this weekend. Go Pistons. Go Wings. Detroit is being put on the map like none other.

What You Doing England?

2008-05-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Predictions of the future concocted in the books of 1984 and Brave New World are now being made reality in England. The tale of "Big Brother is watching" has occurred in 20 cities through out England, where CCTV security cameras watching the publics every move are now equipped with speakers to "scold offenders." According to Home Secretary John Reid,

There will be some people in the minority who will be more concerned about what they claim are civil liberties intrusions. But the vast majority of people find that their life is more upset by people who make their life a misery in the inner cities because they can't go out and feel safe and secure in a healthy, clean environment because of a minority of people.

He also exclaims that the cameras do not constitute "secret surveillance." While this may be true, Big Brother did not exactly hide all of its surveillance measures either. Remember the talking TVs? This sounds kind of familiar.

If this manifestation of Orwell's gloomy prediction of the future were not enough, Members of Parliament lifted a ban on human-animal hybrid creations. The aim is for scientific research on life threatening illness. I know it's not exactly the baby-making factories depicted in Brave New World, but it's a good start.

While now the embryos are to be destroyed in 14 day cycles, this could eventually create a scenario much like that depicted in The Island, where genetically grown "spare parts" will be stored in case of an accident- like insurance policies for your body.

Seriously England, are you really trying to re-enact every single "escape-from-dystopia" plot? I've seen these stories play out in the pages and film of science fiction, and it seems a short time away before seeing them in reality.

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead...

2008-05-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

As the ways in which Hillary Clinton could win the democratic nomination become more incredulous, there is little left for her but to fire bomb her way out of the race. Her scorched earth masterpiece of an election has all but the final touches of paint, and I expect to see yet a lasting rift in the party, at the behest of bitter Clinton supporters.

What they saw in her, I'll never figure.

The media mayhem surrounding this democratic debacle has largely shifted focus in recent days. Barack Obama attacked Republican presumptive nominee John McCain on his lobbyist ties, and McCain hit Obama on foreign policy, while Hillary Clinton, the wicked witch of the west, appears to have removed her fake blue contacts, put on her reading glasses, and actually read the writing on the wall.

Perhaps now politics can proceed as intended with topical discourse on serious issues pertaining to the direction of our country, rather than the trivial and inconsequential matters birthed out of the take-no-prisoners methodology the Clinton Camp has undertaken.

It is understandable that women who supported Hillary feel a sense of loss at the outcome of current events, and to them I say this is unjustifiable. This loss will be vindicated when there is a reasonable woman candidate to take charge of the United States, as opposed to one that has had every accomplishment and promotion brought upon by her husband- including that position on the board of directors at Wal-Mart, and her botched attempts at health care reform in 1992. Is this way of gaining credentials, and not even good ones, using her husband as a vehicle, not against the most obvious tenets of feminism? The man is not holding you back, your own chieftain is.

The time is near where a woman President will come to be elected, and through the infinite compassion and morality that women seem to posses over men, I have no doubt she will be among the greatest Presidents of our history.

But Hillary is not that woman.

Kwame Down With Reputation, Detroit Down With Techno.

2008-05-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hell yeah!

I can get away with murder!

The crown jewel of the murder mitten is glimmering in the spot light as brightly as ever. Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor of the city that puts the mire in quagmire, has helped once again to hurt Detroit's ailing image. We knew all about the dead stripper, a 9 million dollar affair, and the cherry red Lincoln Navigator. Now, hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money designed to "enhance the arts, culture and quality of life across Michigan" has been routed to the Mayors pastor and friends, who in turn funneled more then $100,000 to U.N.I.T.E., which is an incorporated consulting firm presided over by none other then Kwame's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick. Unite me with some of that money too Mr. Mayor.

Aw, no more party in the smarty pants...

As if the national headlines regarding Kwame were not bad enough, Detroit leap frogged once again to the top of another miserable city's list, this time by Forbes. They credit the decline in the city's well being to the economic down fall of the auto industry. Like it started with Bush. It has been asphyxiated from every imaginable force for the last 50 years. It wasn't always like this though, and it can be better. Unfortunately, douche bags like Detroitiscrap help undermine generating any sort of support for the city that really is the life blood of the state. People need to
realize that the economic growth of the city is the growth of the state, and to cut it off like a tumor will only serve to kill the host.

Not all is doom and gloom however. Movement, Detroit's Electronic Music Festival is this upcoming weekend, and that's always a rip roaring time. It also serves to boost businesses and hotels downtown for the weekend, as devoted fans from all over the world come to experience this kind of music in its heartland. Here are some Soviet Red Army B-Boys paving the way for such festivities...

This city has a powerful beating heart; countless progressive and optimistic youth within it and outside are rising up and getting the education needed to fix the blunders of previous generations. I only hope the pessimism that so many are enveloped with in regard to Detroit does not wear down on this renewed hope.
It can be better.
Don't let the Kwame Katastrophe hold you down.

I Forgot. Why do we go to college again?

2008-05-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

It has been more then a week since graduating college, and a relevant conversation featured on Talk of the Nation on NPR caught my ear earlier today. Marty Nemko, a career coach featured on the program, regards College as "a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it." I guess from a career coach oriented perspective, this makes sense, as later he compares a college degree to a hunting license- that which gives you the capacity to look for a job, but not the guarantee of success.

Fortunately I have no plans for serious employment in the very near future, and am welcome to the notion of an undemanding job. However, it is distressing to see universities discussed in such a way that devolves them in to little more then staging grounds for the next step in life. As if getting that position at Quicken Loans should be your life's ambition. My Grandfather graduated college at 57 years old with the intentions of becoming a more intelligent and well rounded person. It seems that most often, this notion of college is reserved for the wise, or certainly those at least older than myself. Those graduating high school and considering college now rarely have this thought process rolling, and instead view higher education as little more then job training.

Oddly enough, I do not often hear of any testing that had you staying up all night cramming in college in the work place. Besides drug testing. Time for a urine sample.

Anyhow, a shift in the paradigm held by our budding high school graduates regarding the role of college in their lives is in order. America is already filled with bland, prescription pill popped, financially stressed individuals, and I feel that the shifting role of college in a world enveloped in commodification only aides this dilemma. Career counselors such as Marty Nemko, as well as high school counselors should stress that the university is a place to help enlighten both yourself and the world around you, not just the means to a dollar.

It's Officially Official.

2008-05-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

It's official. I have dug my own hole in the blogosphere to stick my head in. I endeavor to treat both readers and myself with exquisite rants of the most unnecessary kind. These will be of all matter, however topical news and politics will most often dominate. As this is my first post, I find it a tad hasty to jump in head first, and would rather just talk about myself. I gather that bloggers enjoy doing this.

I have recently graduated from Northern Michigan University with a degree in Political Science and Public Administration. There, I was involved with a progressive political publication, which I had some articles published in. I love outdoor activities of all kinds, and NMU granted me the opportunity to really get dirty and play in the woods whenever I wanted. I have since moved from Marquette to Detroit to kill some time before venturing even further south to Central America for the summer.

This transition has brought me from here,

to here:

Obviously, I'm still adjusting to this suburban Detroit slab of fun.

I will try to update this thing as frequently as possible with nifty stories and thoughts regarding such uplifting topics as political deviance, corporate fuckery, Detroitology, the environment, awesome liberal actions, and all else that is detrimental to the world.

Catch you on the flip side.