Super Bowl City on the Brink

Forum posts

• 5 February 2006, 19:36

  So..this is Bush’s America...!

  • 7 February 2006, 03:29

    Detroit is anything but Bush’s. The black politicians have owned and destroyed it for a generation.

    Housing prices are deflating in Detroit right now, and will soon affect the entire US. A deflationary depression is coming soon. No more extortion by blacks because we won’t be able to afford any more welfare.

  • 7 February 2006, 08:14

    I’m sorry, but Detroit was already destroyed before African-Americans gained political power. They gained political power because of "white flight". As is always the case, once the whites leave so do jobs, decent schools, and the entire infrastructure that follows them. This is due to power not "black destruction". The welfare comment makes no sense when you consider that the majority of welfare recipients are white americans (check your facts before making such comments in the future).

  • 18 February 2006, 19:33

    "The black politicians have owned and destroyed it for a generation." and "..extortion by blacks.." ?! Wow - what inspired commentary!

    The truth is, one major reason for the U.S. being in the dire shape it’s in, is due to all three branches of the U.S. government being essentially run by wealthy WHITES - and predominantly wealthy white MALES at that. You want to talk about destroying American cities like Detroit? All right - how about the following theory for you?

    1) Rich white folks don’t truly want equality in our country, because that would upset the status quo, under which the small number of rich whites (mainly Republicans, of course) are able to control the majority of financial assets, most of the factors of production, the political system, and the media. There is NO reason for wealthy whites to reform the current system - after all, they derive most of the benefits from it, so why kill the golden goose? A lot of those wealthy whites feel as if they can simply ignore those on the other side of the street, so long as "they" don’t start any riots or strikes...

    2) Rich white folks don’t want young people of color (in Detroit or elsewhere) to get the same quality of education as their own children get, because that would make them dangerous to the status quo (and maybe even endanger their children’s jobs). Oh, of course they’ll help some token numbers of kids, but there’ll never be nationwide equivalency. That would create more problems for them than it would solve. So, how to maintain the current unjust system? Hmm... thinking... I know! Help ensure that:
    1) poor, minority children get insufficient health care when they’re born/growing up; 2) the poorer kids are raised in the most violent-prone neighborhoods; 3) these poorer kids are never taught by the ablest teachers, nor do they ever have access to the best teaching materials; 4) military recruiters spend the majority of their time in the schools of these kids; 5) these kids have limited employment opportunities outside the aforementioned military; 6) wars "break out" frequently enough that the young ’volunteer’ military men and women get sent to various battlefields in various countries, and thus end up wounded, traumatized, or dead.... That ought to do it - now another generation of rich white folks can rest easy knowing that their social privileges will remain secure, their children won’t have true competition for the best private-sector jobs, and their bank accounts will remain abundant, yes?

    3) Rich white folks, while they often profit from the conflicts (see Dick Cheney & Halliburton for an extreme example of war profiteering), will very rarely have to worry about their own children being in harm’s way (remember Michael Moore’s "Bowling for Columbine"?). The attendant costs of war - in terms of poor & middle class families’ childrens’ lives, tax dollars, and increased military spending - are almost entirely paid by us middle class and poor Americans. The rich hire accountants and attorneys to help see to it that they don’t have to pay the same tax rates - but then again. you already knew that, right? Oh, and in case we forget... The rich own the bonds which pay for wars, and of course reap the interest. So they don’t really want those bonds to get paid off - heck, so long as stupid Americans keep paying their (unconstitutional!) income taxes, it’s FREE cash flow for the bondholders... It gets better and better!

    4) Rich white folks, through their control of the "mainstream" media in the United States, keep the U.S. people focused on war - thus diverting our attention from how we might solve our multitude of domestic problems, including the problems in our cities. This diversion helps ensure that cities with a large proportion of minorities will probably never be able to ’catch up’ to their white neighbors. Rich, mostly-white politicians (seen any destitute politicians lately?) divert money that would, in a truly just and democratic society, be spent for schools, hospitals, libraries, cultural facilities, etc. - and instead use our hard-earned tax dollars to fund the bloated organization of evil AKO "the U.S. military", and/or send those dollars abroad (e.g., to Israel, so that it can continue its Apartheid-like policies against the Palestinians). But of course we can’t afford to fund U.S. city renovation/ create jobs in our own cities - nope, there’s just no money in the budget for that... And what good would that do, anyway? After all, the beneficiaries of such socially-beneficial policies would only be TAX-PAYING AMERICAN CIVILIANS ...

    In summation, virtually every single major fiscal & political problem in this nation has been the fault of WHITES. Every war this country has ever started, has ever been involved in, and has ever suffered from, was started by whites in charge (heck, we’ve never even had a white female run for President!); Watergate was the fault of white criminals; Enron was run by whites; etc., etc. Of course, some crimes are carried out by non-whites, but the scales of the crimes are different. So anyone who blames the failure of a city like Detroit on "extortion" by blacks is not looking deep enough. We must see the REAL causes of our problems!

    – a white male in Redford, MI (next to Detroit)
    raysnew@yahoo.com

• 5 February 2006, 19:42

  It’s Oaklyn, not Oakland and when you say things like "lily white" you reveal your own race hatred for those of the lighter hues.

  The administration and residents of Detroit are almost completely homogenous in their racial makeup and that is African. When the city was "lily-White" it featured a thriving economy, safe streets, successful schools and well maintained infrastructure. Now that it isn’t, it resembles a post industrial African economy and political environment; corrupt, crime ridden, broke.

  I agree with your other observations, just not the unrealistic, knee jerk anti-White screed so typical of the - get ready for the irony- the MSM/current administration.

  • 5 February 2006, 20:55

    You are correct: race hatred towards whites is quite acceptable, especially among the Left. The one-two punch of Ford/GM layoffs and the housing market collapse will lead to a deflationary depression. The solution is, as always, less government, but we’ll get more. I can’t imagine why any business would still be in Detroit (or Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Baltimore, Buffalo, etc.)

  • 5 February 2006, 20:55

    Question should be why do we watch this stupid sport in the first place. Inequality is nationwide and football much like the Games in Rome are there for the masses if only to forget things like the wars impending wars illegal imegration and the fall of the buying power of the soon to be worthless dollar. Yes America loves football and the Fall of Rome is not to far away.

  • 18 February 2006, 20:37

    The reason football is so popular is that it reenacts the European conquest of the North Anerican continent, that long lived event who’s mythos has burned itself so deeply into the Western psyche.
    Not convinced? Notice the highly symbolic number 50 in the center of each field.(Canadian gridirons have been redesigned to feature a large C).
    Notice the arrangement of the end zones right where the Atlantic and
    Pacific should be.
    How about the hotly contested rivalry anually contested between the Cowboys
    and the Redskins!!!!!
    After territory has been conquered, actual survey teams record the progress
    made.
    Does this make it right? Well no, but that is why we watch this stpid sport.
    Now baseball is a somewaht different story......

  • 28 June 2007, 09:24

    It’s interesting how you mentioned lily white Detroit’s: thriving economy, successful schools, and a well maintained infrastructure. But what you and others like you, fail to mention is how and why Detroit had those better amenities when Detroit was mostly white. First thing that needs to be understood is that when Detroit was mostly white, the population was close to two million. with that being said, ofcourse, your going to have better schools, infrastructure and a thriving economy with less crime and safer streets because you have many more people working and paying taxes. This was the golden era of Detroit’s Automobile Industry and there wasn’t any foreign competition at that time and not to mention post WWII good times economy the nation was in with the G.I. bill, which Blacks didn’t have access to, even the black WWII Vets.
    Now what you need to understand is..lets say, 500,000 of the 2,000,000 living in Detroit are Blacks, now remember we are talking about the early 1950’s right? Ok AT&T didn’t hire Black phone Technicians until 1967, blacks didn’t have equal housing opportunities, there were laws on the books in Detroit which prohibited whites from selling any of their property to blacks and some of those laws were on the books up until the 1970’s, Banks for sure didn’t give many blacks access to capital for startup businesses, blacks were subjugated to menial jobs with little hope of ever advancing, even if they were qualified. Blacks rarely ,if ever saw themselves protrayed in the local or national media in a positive light. And when blacks did get into positions, they were treated much worst than their white counter parts. I could go on for days writing about all of the racist injustices that were prevalent during those times and many still are today.
    With all of those factors that blacks had to deal with and still do in many respects, When whites moved out, ofcourse they took with them many of those resources that you mentioned with them. The 500,000 blacks left in the city and their offsrings where light years behind competing with the white establishments. This was kind of like a rich family with 10 kids, two of those kids are step children who joined the family later on. This family had a very successful business for years. the Dad and Mom were the founders of the business and there 10 kids
    all had a part in participating in the business. Eight of the Kids were given love, nurturing, access to whatever schooling was necessary to become a productive member of the business with all the rewards afforded to them. The two step kids from the moment of there arrival were never accepted as real full members of the family. They were treated like 3rd class family members not given the same love nurturing and access to the family business knowlege inheritance and its resources, they could only work in menial jobs sweeping, driving a truck. and doing back breaking dangerous jobs with little or no pay which ofcourse the family business benifited from greatly, not having any access to the inner workings of the family business. For years the two step kids are demeaned, demoralized, putdown,
    on an emotional & phycological level. Then one day the Family decides to move the business upstate leaving the two step kids to fend for themselves. Not only do both of the two step kids have inadequate resources and know-how, they have to deal with two of the other family members who own the local media, who day in & day out year in/year out run stories about how
    all of the short comings of the two step kids adding to further denigration and character assasination of the two step kids causing all members of the family and others outside the family not to trust them. In essense the world that has been created for the two step kids is an
    enviorment which has limited resources and fosters a very real sense of hoplessness and a feeling of being castrated from the rest of society. I remember watching a PBS documentary on
    how Nazi Germany before they put the jews and others in concentration camps and gased them, they first stripped them of ther citizenship possesions and then stripped them of their dignity by forcing them to live in Ghetto neighborhoods created by the Nazi government where there were very limited resources. This particlular Jewish survivors comments of the conditions paralleled some of the same conditions in Urban city Ghettos. Any trained phycologist will till you when human beings are put under certain types of constaint stresses where there is no hope of escaping, the human coping mechanism takes over. This coping mechanism can manifest itself
    in many ways. I am under the belief from my own observations, research and experincing being black in America that this is part of the causes of Blacks behaviour patterens that have become part of our culture or subculture. Look at what happened to many parts of the former Soviet Union. They experinced a mega boom in crime and proverty, why because they were subjected to limited resources after the break up of the Soviet Union much like Blacks in America. And have you ever even factored in the massive Ghetto’s of London England during the 18th and 19th centuries and how many of those people lived impoverished beyond belief where it wasn’t uncommon for babes and kids to be left in the streets with the garbage, rats and filth, naked to die and or fend for themselves. Even India has a system where certain groups of their people can never by law, be allowed to move up in society..many people don’t know that or they have not bothered to mention it when discussing such issues here in the US. Most if not all of Blacks self destructive social behavour can be linked to the coping mechanism cause directly or indirectly to the United States historical racist policies and institutions being perpetrated upon blacks. Blacks are in a constant state of balancing out the endorphins in our brains which control many emotional and phycological feelings of self-worth and happiness. It’s no wonder why blacks spend more money on liquor, entertainment, cigarettes, clothes..and all other things bling. I mean come on folks! this thing is so simple and blatantly obvious that a fifth grader should have been able to figure it out. This is not to say that all blacks are affected by in the same way oe on the same level. But this does shed a bit of light on some of those 6 oclock News headlines such as teen shoot dead over a pair of gym shoes or a club got shot up because of an domestic argument. the pair of gym shoes to that teenager represents a constant endorhine rush or a method of balancing out his or her endorphines which are under a constant state of attack. It has become part of that persons character persona and self worth to the point where resulting to violence to protect your gymshoes or obtain another pair of someones elses gymshoes is acceptable defacto behaviour. With the club getting shot up issue, let me digress for a moment,
    if I may, I recall several years back a relative told me that she and a few friends went to a mostly white club in the suburbs and to her surprise, she notice that the whites did not have any fancy dress at the club they were in jeans t-shirts and the like. I responded to her, "Oh yeh! don’t you get it, they don’t have to dress up to go out to party because they don’t have a pressing need to balance their endorphins by receiving praise and, they get treated like first class citizens in America everyday and there selfesteem and selfworth is intact so there fore they don’t have to spend extra money on flashy clothes, they can just concentrate on the partying.

    Anyone who thinks blacks folks problems are only cause by blacks your very misinformed.

    good day

    Lee

• 5 February 2006, 20:38

  As a convert to Islam of many years, I just continue to be amazed at the protestations regarding Islam; ’oppressive’, ’unjust’, ’spread by the sword’, etc., etc...., while all of these statements are false. And it is often the same misguided fools clamoring about Islam and ’our way of life’, that plan such disgusting displays of decadent consumption in the back drop of an ever worsening social wasteland. A friend of mine was a paramedic in detroit and told me detroit medics got higher salaries something akin to ’combat pay’ and now lobster is flown into the stadium with ’vodka pissing ice statues’ on hand to please and delight the invited elite. Reminds of shiva, the hindu god who is worshipped as a penis. This from people who attack Islam and Muslims... Go figure.
  With that said, as a health care professional who does not first check ones religious or ideological status before treating, this is just another show of the true social beligerance that is still a strong part of the fabric of our society. Oh, one other thing, how can an american football team be ’world champs’ when no one else in the world is involved?
  abooismail

  • 5 February 2006, 21:01

    Hindus worship Shiva’s penis while Muslims worship violent death to "infidels". I have no problem with Hinduism.

  • 5 February 2006, 22:14

    I enjoyed the article. It is accurate and if anything it does not portray the harsh conditions present in Detroit strongly enough.

    I recently worked in the VA MEd Center for a vendor there before the holidays and some of the things I saw both at the MEd Center and in the city in general were worse than depressing. Sure it may be true that the population is mainly African American and most of the elites have moved away. But it is not because of the racial demographic shift that the city has plunged into the desperate state that it is in. The articloe touches upon the cause of this. The unequal distribution of wealth and power in our society. Those with the means to create opportunity left nad among those who remain there are too few with the discretionary income to support new enterprises.

    I am white, I realize that it is hard to hear that whites have historically used the communities of other groups as they saw fit to amass their wealth and prestige and then abandoned them. Bu tit is none the less true. I am not proud to be white and almost daily I find fewer reasons to be proud of my race and for that matter this country.

    We will all be lining up in the alley waiting for the crumbs thrown casually in our direction soon.

    As for the comments dengrating anothers religious beliefs I am not surprised but I apologize on behalf of the heathens who inhabit this continent they have not evolved.

  • 5 February 2006, 22:50

    A lot of white people hate themselves; nothing new there. I’ll be one of the ones throwing crumbs, but it won’t be to any of the criminals in Detroit or any other inner city.

  • 6 February 2006, 16:50

    The worship of a penis in hinduism is fact. The worship of violence and death is ignorance. Employing your logic, catholics worship pediophilia, evangelicals worship govt. sanctioned assassinations, jews; oppression and occupation, and so on.... But, that is absolute nonsense, at least to a right minded Muslim. If you have no problem with hinduism then enjoy the phallic symbols to your hearts delight.

  • 6 February 2006, 20:23

    If you are ashamed of your race, then I am ashamed of you.

  • 6 February 2006, 21:43

    Any white person who isn’t ashamed is a racist, and any person who clings onto beliefs in "white bashing", doesn’t understand racism at all. I am a white person, too. I am ashamed, too. And, I thought your point about us all begging in the streets soon enough is timely and true. How much will our newly equal brown and black brothers and sisters want to help us then? Nada. White people are going to be in for a big reality check, and I think soon.

  • 7 February 2006, 03:23

    I am ashamed that there are white people who think like you and who allow criminals to run amok. But you are correct, a big reality check is coming, and those with money and firearms like me will be doing the checking.

    A deflationary depression is coming. Be prepared.

  • 27 March 2006, 03:55

    I wish more honest decent White folks would stand up like yourself, but you know all people have things about their race that they are ashamed of and thats just part of the get through life thing the best we can...I trully think What really needs to happen with respect to racial issues in this area and the country is what we are doing right right now on this message board. Sure there well be militant blacks who hate and racist whites along with them. I do enjoy honest dialog with
    other cultures about our differeces and opinons. That is how we all can learn from each other and make this country a better place. I can’t defend all of the crap that I know the politicians in Detroit have done. I can only try to look at reality as it is presented to me. My honest opinon on things of race in this area is that both white and blacks are to blame but you can’t have reconciliation and begine to heal the open wounds of the race card until there is honest communication. Even if, you have to check your ego at the door and humble ourselves and not get so emotional about the truth. There is a big picture and that big picture is that the power’s to be are making fools out of all of us Black and white. While some of these racist whites have been so much about keeping the blackman down they allowed millions of jobs to go oversea’s to China, Mexico, India and elsewhere. Without much of a whimper from them. What is up with that? And for my people, Blacks, we have been walking around like braindead comatosed zombies caught up in some type of a mass-hypnotic-only-seek-pleasure trance letting every ethnic group use us to get over in this country. I don’t have the time to go into all of the reasons why I believe black folks are contining to have behavior patterns which cause us to stay on the bottom rung of American society and I do mean the buttom. I will say that many of those patterns have their orgin in how we are treated and the sub-cultures that we have created to try to escape some of the realities of being black in America. I also don’t really think the average white person has a grasp of how their history and culture in this country negatively effects
    African Americans on a day to day basis. Here is a big part of the race card game that has been played of most whites. White owned media keeps continual negative stereotypes and stories about blacks in the forefront of the American consciousness. Let a veiw blacks move into a predominately white neighborhood and watch the forsale signs go up. this is currently happening in the western suburb of Canton Michigan. Most properties out there are going for 250,000 and up. Excuse me! But I don’t ever recall hearing about any drive by shootings or any other type of crime problems in that upper middle class community but the whites are jetting out of there big time. I was always told that blight, a deteriorating school system, crime and other ills of the inner city was the cause of white flight. In the case of Canton, non of those conditions exist.
    You see the whites moving out have been so conditioned by America and it’s racist propaganda media to think so negatively of African Americans that all commonsense just goes right out the window. And guess what happens as a result. New homes get built, the mortgage companies get paid, Utilities and SBC get paid, new road construction, new retail in the area, new gas stations, more miles on the car, a second or third car is needed. I wonder what the a American landscape would look like, if there was no blacks in America to create this paranoia which in turn fuels Urban sprawl. It appears that
    this a a self generating cycle; as long as blacks are treated a certain way, the masses of them will react in some ways that will make other’s in America not want to be around them. So there you have a self generating money making machine. Sure whites are on the better endn of this game But nontheless, they are also ponds to make the super rich even richer while giving them a sense of entitlement and a feeling of superiority over the blacks and hispanics. And for years this game has played out, now the powers to be have even taken it up to another level. They are pitting liberal whites and blacks angainst conservative whites and blacks and while we are all trying to one up the other, via Rush L. and others, guess where America’s wealth is heading.
    Pensions are going away, a white guy who put my garage door in said that Sears cut his pension and healthcare benefits out to be able to compete, I guess Walmart, Macey’s or Target. I didn’t
    know Target repaired refrigerators. Well that is it for me for now folks.

    Take care now,

    Lee

• 6 February 2006, 17:17

  Circuses, but no bread. Makes Tiberius look like a class act, this modern America. does indeed, does indeed!

  • 7 February 2006, 03:26

    There is too much free bread, i.e. welfare already. When GM and Ford bankrupt and housing prices collapse, the US and the world will see a deflationary depression. No more welfare. I can’t wait, what fun we’ll have!

• 7 February 2006, 00:24

  I boycotted the Stupid Bowl because of all the hoopla around it being so sexist. When people are so indoctrinated with sexist images of women in commercials and elsewhere during this Stupid Bowl, the increase of violence toward women skyrockets. I use to work at a domestic violence shelter. During Sexist Stupid Bowl, there were more women coming through the shelter that evening then any other evening. Women are half the human race, but are objectified for corporate interest. So many women put up with the Stupid Bowl because they suffer from internalization of oppression. They cook and cater to these super bowl moron fans and subjegate themselves to sexist ads. They are truely oppressed. I will never put up with Stupid Bowl sexist crap. I will always bocott this decadent event along with other decadent events. I will not allow Capitalism and patriarchy take away my freedom, my precious time like that. The Stupid Bowl crap is invasive and intrusive in many of our lives, but not mine. I chose to boycott TV that day in general. The only stuff I watch is Amy Goodman on Democracy Now and the like.

  Andrea

  • 8 February 2006, 16:34

    I didn’t watch it either, and I used to play it. It’s a bunch of steroid-fueled carjackers playing a children’s game.

• 27 March 2006, 02:16

  Many of those comments are somewhat true. Detroit has a long history of race problems. As an African Americam who has lived in this area for over 39 years, I can say that some things are getting better but some things are getting worse. I often hear about all of they abandoned buildings within the city but I very seldom, if ever, hear a truthful explaination as to how, who and why that situation exist. Many folks around the country think of Detroit, and when I say "Detroit" , I am also including the surrounding suburbs as a waste land of crime, proverty, despair, unemployment and hopelessness. What do folks around the country say about other area’s such as Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago and even New Orleans. Even New Orleans seems to get positive responses in the national media and they are a much poorer city and region that Detroit. I would love to ask the question, How is it possible for An area which has had 3 of the top five richest furtune 500 Corporations for the past 50 years being headquartered in its backyard- How is it possible for its central city to be in such a state. Does the average person realize that the population of Detroit’s suburbs is greater than combined population of Cleveland, Atlanta and Chicago. If you add all of those people with the population of the City and then added all of their wealth and influence. I wonder what the numbers would refect then.
  Another not often talked about Detroit statistic is that Detroit has the highest wages per capita than any other African American community in the United States. With all of those facts, something does not make any sense. Let me give a little insight here; the Red Lobster Restuarant Corp. has a policy that they will never put one of their chains within the city of Detroit for whatever reasons. Everytime I visit a Red Lobster in the Suburbs, its packed with African Americans of whom, I know for sure don’t all live in the suburbs. The profit and tax revenue of that suburb is being supported by Detroit residents. I know there are many white suburbanites who work and visit Detroit where they spend money but the huge difference is the businesses for the most part are owned by other white suburbanites. Its almost as if there is some type of unspoken decree amongst white folks not to patronized African American businesses: a built-in preprogrammed psychological predisposition. While I am on the subject of psychology, I wonder what the psychological and emotional affects of a person being treated like a 9th class citizen in America all of their life would have on that individual. You know things like your co-workers not wanting to work with you on job assignments because your black. People hitting their automatic locks on their car doors as you walk by, not getting invites to weddings because your white friends mom or dad does not want any blacks at their sons or daughter’s wedding, being followed around in department stores, asked for 5 or 6 pieces of ID when using a credit cards, seeing your white next door neighbor who never speaks to you, go out of there way to bend over your yard gate to say hello to a new Dog or pet in your yard; essentially showing more respect for a dog than you and not to mention seeing years of every type of negative stereotype imagined of African Americans in the media all of your life.....etc. I just wonder, you know just maybe and this is a long shot....that type of treatment just might have sometype of negative affect, I am just thinking....you know I am no Expert. Maybe I am just crazy for even bringing it up. Yep! I must be crazy cause I remember reading an article in the Detroit News or freepress about a guy who was a Murderer, arsonist, pyschopathic-suicidal lunatic and child abuser. He murdered his wife, set his house on fire and then set himself on fire infront of his children. Now within the body of this news article were descriptions of how nice this guys front lawn and scrubs were along with Martha Steward like comments about how nice the brick decor of the front of the house was.
  I must have be nuts when I read that right? Because such sidebar issues never get writen about when a black crimminal from Detroit is covered in the papers. I hope that I have opened up a few eyes with my perspective.

  Take care,

  Lee