The Black Liberal Boomer Blog

Whenever a rich, white, Republican governor of a state like Michigan says that he only wants to help a predominantly black, predominantly poor city like Detroit by setting the wheels in motion for a state takeover, I'm reminded of a certain Penn State football coach who only wanted to 'help' poor, underprivileged kids by raping them  in the shower.

Power is as power does.

And what Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is doing is going for the trifecta; he already removed all community control from the largely black and poor Michigan cities of Benton Harbor and Pontiac, so now he's gunning for The Prize. Detroit, the largest city in Michigan which also contains the largest African American population in the state (not to mention being the largest predominantly black metropolitan area in the country), is bleeding dollars like someone with their throat slit laying sprawled on the sidewalk. To be sure, Detroit's elected leadership going back decades is hardly blameless for the financial dilemma the city currently finds itself in, but the crash and burn now being experienced by Detroit was hardly a suicide. We had a lotta help getting here, but now it seems like the only ones who remember the whole story are us Detroiters. Everybody else gettin amnesia.

To detail all of Detroit's woes would make for way too long a post, so let me just boil it down to this; Detroit is currently spending more money than it is taking in and that has to stop otherwise it is predicted we could be out of money by as soon as April 2012. No joke. Hundreds more city employees are about to get layed off, those still remaining are likely to have their salaries chopped even more, not to mention pension and benefits. There's a lot of talk of privatization of certain city services such as the lighting department.

And on and on and on it goes...

 But what I want to know is why isn’t more being done to force Lansing to make good on the $220 million in revenue sharing that was promised to Detroit in 1998 by then Gov. John Engler when he struck a deal with former Mayor Dennis Archer? Nobody who opposes this rather obvious request to make good on that promise can offer even a remotely credible reason why this promise was not honored, and whenever anyone presses the point the only response seems to be that we might as well give that up because that was a promise made by another (Republican) governor at another time and why should the State of Michigan honor its commitment to Detroit if it wasn't made during this administration? Because if you really want a lesson on how good certain governments are in keeping their promises to minority groups, just ask the Native Americans.

But if this is so, then why is it so? I still say why should Detroit be expected to simply roll over and excuse a broken $220 million promise when the fulfillment of that promise would effectively wipe out the city’s massive $200 million accumulated debt? The deal was that if Detroit steadily lowered its income tax rate then we would receive the $220 million in revenue sharing. Detroit kept up its end of the bargain at the risk of collecting less income tax revenue for itself, and this was back when we still had a noticeable number of middle class residents living here whose income taxes actually amounted to something.

But now we're supposed to be OK with this and just suck it up and walk away?

Oh hell no.

The ongoing war against illegal immigrants by Republican governors in Indiana, Georgia, Alabama, Utah and Arizona is one clear and present indicator of where the Republican strategy is headed, namely toward the creation of  an America where bigotry and intolerance will become the new national anthem. To view an equally integral piece of the strategy that is targeting us 'legal' Amerkans, one need look no further than my home state of Michigan where Gov. Rick "the Nerd" Snyder is successfully implementing his strategy of  suppressing and/or otherwise erasing the vote of  a significant number of his predominantly poor and working class African American population.

Although purposely distancing himself from the Tea Party faction of the Republicans - a smart move - Snyder's recently approved Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) legislation (enabling him to essentially swallow entire municipalities whole without even burping) makes it questionable whether his willingness to keep the Tea Party wingnuts at arm's length should automatically earn him consideration from Democrats as a supposedly 'reasonable' Republican. Currently there are three Michigan cities operating under the iron thumb control of a Snyder-appointed emergency financial manager - Pontiac, Benton Harbor, and Ecorse - and all three of those cities are largely black, poor, and working class. Snyder has also appointed former General Motors executive Roy Roberts, an African American, as the new EMF for Detroit Public Schools. Robert Bobb, the previous (and first) EMF was appointed by the previous Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

From Huffpost:

Emergency managers are currently in place in the cities of Pontiac, Benton Harbor and Ecorse. Detroit's public schools have been run by an emergency financial manager since 2009, when the earlier law put Robert Bobb in charge of the city's schools. Public Act 4 made Bobb and now his successor, Roy Roberts, emergency managers, with even more power over the district.

"When the recent legislation was signed in March to change [the DPS emergency financial manager] to an emergency manager, that just made matters even worse," said Edith Lee-Payne, a Detroit civil rights activist signed onto the suit. "Then the elected school board had absolutely no voice."

The suit comes two days after Snyder and Roberts introduced sweeping reforms that would siphon off the city's worst-performing schools into a special state-run district. That special district, Snyder said, would eventually expand to include low-performing schools throughout the state.

"In my opinion, the [schools] plan is an opportunity to do more privatization -- which is what this legislature would like to see," Lee-Payne said.

Let me say at the outset that Roy Roberts is highly respected, so credit should be given where credit is due.  It was also a slick move by Snyder to employ yet another brother to put a comforting face on the front lines of Snyder's war against the rest of us. I will also confess that when Granholm originally appointed Robert Bobb I was one of those who thought it was the right thing to do because DPS was such an incredible mess that an extremely radical solution was required and I thought this just might be it.

I still believe radical measures will be necessary if DPS is to survive, but converting the EMF approach into a semi-permanent thing while expanding this approach to entire cities is terrifying. Apparently I'm not the only one terrified by this, which is why 30 Michigan residents filed a lawsuit last week on June 22 to overturn the EMF legislation and naming Gov. Snyder as a defendant. Additionally, the Rev. Jesse Jackson is calling for an attack on the EMF legislation  as a blatant attempt to disenfranchise voters.

From MLIve.com

Pontiac being under the control of an emergency financial manager is a small piece of a bigger puzzle to take away an individuals’ right to vote, according to the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

That’s what the controversial pastor told more than 100 people Sunday during a special meeting at Pontiac City Hall, according to reports.

“It is right to have the right to vote,” Jackson said. “It is wrong to take away the vote.”

The failure and dysfunction of Detroit - and other predominantly poor, black areas - is being manipulated by Gov. Snyder and his crew into an opportunity to 'save us' by silencing us while stealing our city from us. I've heard many folks say this was coming down the pike for years and I could never bring myself to believe it because it  seemed to far-fetched. Too much like one of those crazy conspiracy theories.

So maybe this isn't a conspiracy, but whatever you wanna call it, it's happening now in Detroit.  Gil Scott said "we almost lost Detroit", and that was awhile ago. If we don't pay attention, the 'almost' will have to be amended.