Detroit possesses an immense historical background, filled with its famed music traditions, long lines of hardworking labourers crafting the grandiose mid-20th century dream vehicles, and the remains of its decadent glory days. The story of this city includes the Golden Age and subsequently their fall from grace marked by dwindling profits in the auto sector, increasing racial unrest, a defining uprising in July 1967, suburban emigration of Caucasians, a soaring homicide count, rampant criminal activities, and prolonged degradation as a place notorious for its downfall.
However, come the tentative autumn of 2024, Detroit represents an ethos more than just a city. It is omnipresent in the recently constructed residential buildings and apartments, and the burgeoning enterprises sprouting in age-old edifices. The evidence of previously desolated streets and the symbols of resilience and determination exhibited on the cement exteriors of their revived city centre embody its intention to transform into a prosperous city without forsaking their history. Even the city’s cherished but often unsuccessful football team, the Lions, are starting to chalk up victories.
Kamala Harris visited the city on a Tuesday for a live interview with Charlamagne tha God on his widely followed podcast. The interaction was an ideal fit for Harris, combining meaningful dialogue and in-depth engagement, along with a clear strategy of reaching out to the African-American male voters who hold significant influence over Michigan’s – and potentially the national – election results. Despite Detroit having 78 per cent of African American residents, it wasn’t so apparent while strolling around its tranquil city centre on a frosty Tuesday evening whilst the Harris interview played in the backdrop.
In the lead up to the election, Detroit is receiving immense attention as both the competing candidates strive to win this swing-state. Donald Trump caused a stir among Democrats when he belittled the city during a live interview at the Detroit economic forum just a week ago. However, he declared his intentions to revisit the city for a rally on Friday evening to court the disenchanted Arab-American community residing in the Dearborn suburb, the locale of Henry Ford’s former enterprise and residential mansion. This week, Kamala Harris intends to primarily stay within Michigan and has planned a rally set near Detroit come Saturday.
Meanwhile, on a Tuesday evening, the trendy dining locales and pubs located on Woodward – the downtown district’s primary thoroughfare – geared up for business whilst Harris and Charlemagne conversed.
Detroit has an uncanny aura, its roads appearing excessively broad and domineering for the limited foot traffic seen. However, this is no surprise as the city was intended to be an automotive hub with a thriving populace, which in 1950 stood at 1,849,000. Today, however, only 633,000 individuals consider it their home. A relic from the past, Kerns’s Clock, reclaimed from a long-destroyed department store, graces the city as public art, symbolising that era.
During a radio interview, Harris gave a commendable performance which was a precursor to her potent appearance on Fox News the subsequent evening, known for its adversarial environment. Nevertheless, it were the unfiltered queries that unveiled the worries and attitudes of young, black Detroit residents, potentially the future bearer of their city’s fate.
Zeke, the head of New Era Detroit, a civil movement, began the exchange by querying if the vice president concurred with the notion of recompense for black Americans. He emphasized, “Despite being continuously relied upon for their vote by the Democrats for the past 50 years, black Americans perceive little in return.”
Another listener questioned about Harris’s past record of convicting black men in San Francisco. During the conversation, Charlamagne alluded to the recent remarks from Barack Obama, reprimanding black American men for a potential unwillingness to support Harris due to her gender.
Charlamagne pondered, “When will Liz Cheney or Hillary Clinton admonish white women, or when will Bill Clinton and Joe Biden reproach white men? Particularly when 52 per cent of white women supported Trump in 2016.”
The program was a far cry from the superficial discussions that infuse late-night chat shows, and Harris navigated it proficiently, albeit prudently. She responded to the reparation discussion with a lengthy answer starting with, “Yes, I am contending for the presidency to serve all Americans. However, I am also aware of the disparities that exist and their historical context. Reparations would need to be thoroughly studied. There’s no disputing that.”
In reflecting on his upbringing within a middle-class family, the man spoke of his mother’s strenuous work to provide for him and his sister. She was able to secure their first family home by the time he was in high school, giving him a firsthand understanding of the significance of securing one’s own living space. However, he also recognises the harsh reality of history, noting the absence of the promised 40 acres and a mule, a metaphor expressing an unfulfilled promise of the American Dream, especially for marginalized racial and ethnic groups. He pinpoints the practice of ‘red-lining’ – the racial and ethnic-based refusal of essential services such as loans and insurance – as an added disadvantage. This is something the city of Detroit is well acquainted with, where the likelihood of homeownership among Black families, as compared to others, is less by 40 percent.
Meanwhile, recent records show that around 49% of Detroit’s Black populace do own their own homes. Additionally, a study conducted by the University of Michigan divulged that, cumulatively, property owned by Black proprietors appreciated by a massive $2.8 billion in value – an 80 percent swell in the past nine years alone. According to Detroit’s city mayor, Mike Duggan, this surprising growth can be attributed to the tireless efforts of around 600 block clubs and associations striving to regenerate their local communities.
Detroit’s progression is very discernible. The data from 2023 records a 57-year low, recording only 253 homicides. Additionally, about 25,000 unoccupied residences have been demolished in the last decade, with another 15,000 having been revamped. Detroit locals overwhelmingly express optimism about the direction the city is headed. A major symbol of this turnaround is the rejuvenation of the Michigan Central Station. Once the tallest train station globally, it was inaugurated in Corktown in 1914, only to shut down in 1988 due to Amtrak’s relocation, resulting in years of abandonment and dilapidation. Today, under Ford’s proprietorship, the station has been brilliantly refurbished and was open for public tours throughout the summer.
John King, a local, fondly recalls the days when the train station was operational. He watched it deteriorate into a state of ruin, only to be renovated and displayed to visitors over the summer. Improvements to the surrounding park added to its allure. Detroit, much like any other city, had its heydays, only to deteriorate. Yet, the city, like many others, is also ensuring that it rises from its past.
John King, an icon hailing from Detroit, operates a unique second-hand bookstore filled to the brim with books and other rare objects, housed in a former glove-making facility and lift storage building on Layfayette Boulevard. The moment I turned up, he appeared, seemingly out of thin air, and cheerfully greeted me from the epicentre of the entrance – a desk abundant with a miscellany of objects. As he navigated the labyrinthine layout alongside me, he remained amiable, although his attention was intermittently demanded by radio transmissions from staff members. The building resembled an interconnected web of corridors, almost as if one were meandering through the combined creative consciousness of a rockstar and renowned physicist.
Throughout our journey, he shared insights about the Detroit he knew intimately – the city he’d spent his formative years in. He spoke about the critical juncture triggered by the ’67 riots, when property agents would intimidate homeowners with forecasts of a racial shift in their neighbourhoods’ demography. Whispers of encouragement to flee had caused communities to switch demography overnight, a phenomenon he found disheartening. He resented the exploitation by real estate hypotheticians, playing their race card, which led to deep-seated segregation in certain areas.
However, he admired Southwest Detroit’s resilience especially, particularly the Polish population who refused to yield to trickery and ultimatums. Consequently, they preserved the composition of their locality, which later welcomed Mexican immigrants into its folds.
In Corktown, attempts to destabilise the neighbourhood by tearing down residences thrived. Under the pretence of urban renovation and industrialisation, large swathes of accommodation were cleared. The city demonstrated its lack of concern by bulldozing the neighbourhood, decimating the close-knit community of Black Bottom on the eastern side, oblivious to its inner-city charm. They further scarred the neighbourhood by driving through it, building a freeway.
King’s interest in literature was fostered by his academic advisor, Elsie Freitag. He developed a profound fascination with books while frequenting coin and stamp shops, and second-hand bookstores during the city’s heyday. “It was the unique personalities and peculiar characters running these shops that sparked my interest. I must say I revelled in their eccentricities”, King confessed.
The establishment of his bookstore in Detroit coincided with a period of immense socio-cultural unrest. Despite the majority of businesses relocating, King decided to set up shop in an abandoned factory. “I had made up my mind. I was determined to stay, no matter what obstacles came my way. While other shops were closing their doors and leaving, I was just settling in.”
John K King Books, acknowledged as a local institution, is now as notorious as Michigan Central in its own manner. King can recount times when celebrities such as Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling visited his store whilst on a filming break. Treating everyone with the same level of respect, celebrity or not, is a principle King holds dear.
Born to newly immigrated parents, King only spoke Ukrainian until he was four. However, he has long since forgotten his native tongue as well as become indifferent to ethnicity or race stating, “we are all human, after all.”
Believing there is a widespread sense of rejuvenation in Detroit, King expresses, “I sense a burgeoning positive energy under Biden’s administration especially with the implementation of the Recovery Act. He’s investing all across the United States, Detroit is benefiting as well. I sense a marked difference. I cannot say the same for Trump.”
Speaking on Trump, King draws attention to the international news headlines he made with his disparaging comments about Detroit at the Economic Club. Trump had boldly asserted, “If she becomes president, Detroit’s dire state will be America’s future.”
Republicans cried foul immediately, decrying how a sentence from a deeply nuanced speech was manipulated for political purposes. The beginning of Trump’s speech was nostalgically fixated on his younger years, when he rode in Michigan’s iconic cars.
“Lines and lines of timeless American cars. That GMR truly made me feel invincible… the feeling was overwhelming. Sadly, I never had the chance to drive a Corvette; I was left in the dust. But what a sight I was, particularly with the top down – back then, the wind in my hair didn’t bother me.”
Fast forward to now, Trump is resolute in his familiar negative narrative about immigration. In 2016, he won Michigan – a state with a population of 10 million – by a mere 11,000 votes, whereas Biden flipped it back to Democrat territory in 2020 with 154,000 votes in his favour. However, the apparent dissatisfaction among Arab Americans remains a challenge for the Democratic party.
Harris’s last-minute focus on her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” is perceived by some as a sign of troublesome polls within that group. Despite concerns, approximately 70 percent of black male voters remain loyal to her. However, even a meager shift in the voting behaviour of this demographic could produce a significant ripple effect, especially if they view Trump as the one to restore cheaper living costs.
On the eve of his interview with Harris, Charlamagne tha God informed his listeners, “When Trump warns that America will metamorphose into Detroit if she is elected, he is fundamentally baiting them with the fear of the entire country becoming excessively black. It’s now become a white supremacy clarion call. Nobody exploits white racial dissatisfactions as skillfully as Donald Trump. Siuggesting that US would turn into Detroit under Kamala Harris is essentially a veiled language aimed to fuel racist sentiments.”
Still, Detroit’s complex and continuing struggle with racial issues is unparalleled. This city was once labeled as the ‘chocolate metropolis,’ where the ‘mother ship’ settled, according to the late, great poet David Blair. It’s become evident to both Democrats and Republicans that Detroit’s distinct characteristic possesses a strong independent bent. How the upcoming election will play out is uncertain, but one thing is clear: Detroit will always march to its own rhythm, unswayed by the ebbs and flows of politics.
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