Recently, I have realized that the mainstream portrayal of Detroit is staggering in its scale of hypocrisy and incoherence. I have been always bombarded by the view that Detroit was extremely wealthy in the first half of the 20th century. However, little is ever said of the racism, inequality, and corporate predominance at the time. Little is said about the 1967 protests and what led to them, and rarely do they say how the automobile corporations purposefully damaged the Detroit public transit system.
Today, the view of Detroit is that of revival, but that view, as previously, is being presented by people who in no way represent the whole of Detroit.
The most unfortunate thing is that life-long residents are rarely given a chance to write and present their own narrative of the city; it is all imposed on them by people who do not know the history and the dynamics of the city.
That is a very interesting perspective, I have never really thought about that as a long time native of Detroit. You often here the phrase that Detroit is coming back and growing into the power house it once was, but now that I think about it, is that really what happening or is it just a marketing gimmick to bring in big chunks of revenue. Is all of Detroit “coming back” or just midtown and downtown? Great post, really makes you think in a different way and look at the other obscured side of the coin.