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The Issues
The quality of life is rapidly deterioriating for African people in Detroit. Unemployment (recently lost a
job) and joblessness (unable to find work) lead to the inability to meet the most basic needs that people have--food, clothing,
shelter, and transportation and utility costs. The convenience of cheap fast food businesses, corner stores and gas
stations--which are stocked with junk foods and drinks--contribute to poor nutritional health, which in turn leads to health
problems and obesity.
When people do not work, they cannot pay their bills. When tens of thousands of people
cannot pay their city taxes, because they have lost their jobs, then the money that supports Detroit city services gets cut.
When this money decreases, then the mayor and council members have to cut back services, which means that city workers lose
their jobs. The situation continues to spiral downward.
It is important not to get things mixed up.
Many people do not have jobs in Detroit because the technology has replaced them. In other words, it is cheaper to replace
a human worker with a computer automated worker. And where a human worker is still needed, it is cheaper to move the
factory to a place in the world (such as China), where the human worker costs less than a U.S. worker. Regardless of the car
plant--Ford, GM, Toyota, etc.--all receive manufactured parts from a foreign country.
Also, it is important
to note that in Michigan, jobs, taxes and investment follow white people's movement. When whites left Detroit
in the 1950s and 1960s, so did jobs. The decaying infrastructure, old houses, aging schools and left over
service and city jobs that remained were inherited by the black Detroit population. New investment and developments
that have taken place over the past few years are not tied to the recognition of the need to make improvements to meet the
needs of long-time Detroit residents, who are overwhelmingly African American. Rather this investment is tied to luring
a middle class white population back into the city.
What is to be done?
First of all, a correct analysis of the situation confronting black Detroiters is needed. Secondly, and for many the
most important, is to identify short term solutions to food (feeding one's family) and shelter (keeping a roof over
one's head). NBUF Detroit intends to summarize these issues and offer strategies that we see working in the city
and in other urban areas.
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