ITIZE
P e 2 MICHl A
oc
c
,
cidal cuts
in gov­
ernment
aid to the
cities.
Detroit now gets less back in
federal monies that it pays
out in taxes.
It was the suburbanites
who elected those monsters
Reagan and Engler. Black
people voted 90% against
Reagan. My point is that it is
not on Detroit to build
bridges to the suburbs, as
Archer put out. The suburbs
owe us an apology. We are
the victims of their racist vot­
ing. They should be extend­
ing the olive branch, not us.
Show me one thing that Cole­
man Young did to materially
hurt the suburbs. What a ca­
nard!
th race card ..
cism.
(Editor: Following is a
copy of a letter written in re­
sponse to (In article by Free
Press editorial writer Keith A
Owens that appeared in Nov.
8. issue and was titled, "To
keep promises, Archer needs
Detroit's help. " The letter has
been edited for the sake of
breoity.)
Readers Wr'ite
BLACK MILITANCY,
Maleolm-Xetyle, pro explicit
Black self concern are not
y strategies Just as aboli­
tionism was no easy. Black
militancy is no really anti­
white, except for those who
get confused bout who
started all of this and can't
that it is a defense neces­
sary for survival.
The only ultimate solution
is unity of B a K nu hite
masses, but the first major
step must be whites' divest­
ing of racism. Black mili­
tancy will not die as long as
there is racist repression,
from slavery, to Jim Crow to
Reaganism (which w� are
still in despi te the end of the
Reagan-Bush regime).
McPhail won the youth
vote, too. That bodes well for
the future being ours. There
is another militant genera­
tion a coming. That reminds
us of part of the demogogy of
Archer's "let the future be­
gin." That slogan implicitly
proposes that we be passive
with respect to the future.
We will be self-detennining.
Let us, we the people not cor­
porate elites and'toms, make
the future. .
Dennis Archer will be part
of the future if he does a 180
degree turn from the hat in
hand approach to the powers
that be that he presented in
his campaign. Power con­
cedes nothing without a de­
mand. It never has and it
never will. There is no pro­
gress without struggle, espe­
cially class struggle.
An overwhelmingly Black
city has worked. But you ain't
seen nothing yet.
. These are
terms devel­
oped in Rea­
ganite thinking to repres
the legitimate protest
against racism of the corpo­
rations. The use of these
tenns to censor debate dur- .
ing the election 1 compara­
ble to the novel.l.aM, where
Big Brother's "War is Peace."
were so overwhelmingly for
Archer. .
CERTAINLY, WE need
to break the blockade-sanc­
tions, but will an uncle tom
strategy work?
Black history' teaches us
that it doesn't. This is what
Frederick Douglass was
dealing with in his famous
quote that power concedes
nothing without a demand
and there is no progress with­
out struggle.
The uncle tom strategy is
not likely to work because
corporations are exploiters
not santa clauses. They don't
go in somewhere to net give
money, but to net take
money, to exploit, to profit
not give gifts.
The uncle tom strategy
has an underlying assump­
tion that without Coleman
You ng's "meanness" and
with Dennis Archer's
"niceness", the corporations
will become" generous. "
This is naive, to say the
least. Black Power gives the
best basis to resist exploita­
tion and develop economic
self-determination. Corpora­
tions need to break Black
Power to make us more ex­
ploitable, to maximize their
profits.
Corporate fear of Black
economic self-determination
is behind no loans for local
development. As far as they
are concerned we can become
like Haiti. (By the way,
through all Young's 20 years I
the white power structure
still held predominate power
over Detroit. This is indirect
colonialism.)
Given all of the above, it
was especially egregious that
the Free Press put out demo­
gogy concerning so-called
"racebaiting" and "playing
Detroit has done extraor­
dinarily well considering the
25 years of economic sanc­
tions, blockade, scorched
earth policy toward it by Wall
Street, the banks and the
large industrial corporations
since it became majority
Black.
In other words, Coleman
. Young and the Black De­
troiters are not the main
source of Detroit's problems,
Archer's monied backers are.
I t has not been the strong,
Black rhetoric of Coleman
Young or the inability of
Black people to run a city or
make a city that works, but
the racist policy of big busi­
ness that generates the dis­
proportionate amount of
joblessness, poverty, disease,
crime, drug problems, poor
education, etc.
The Black family did not
spontaneously fall apart; it
was bludgeoned by institu­
tional racism.
But, of course, the real cul­
prits need a scapegoat for the
results of their racist divest­
ment, With the help of the
media, including the Free
PteS8, they have worke<l20
years to portray Coleman
Young as a ·B lack Devil."
The overall oortraval is to
blame the victims -of racist
divestment-blockade policy
-typical Reaganism.
. BLACK SELF-DETER­
MINATION, militancy,
Power and Malcolm X termi­
nology such as "uncle tom"
and "house negro" are legiti­
mate strategies and usage in
Black history. Slandering
these. as racebaiting, and
worse, censoring their ex­
pression, shows that the Free
Press understands freedom
of press as freedom of press
for them that owns Pre8:Se8.
The liberation struggle
will never die as long as there
is repre ion. Even in the
election the majority of Black
people voted for McPhail.
The overwhelming majority
of whites, who are more sus­
ceptible to the 20 years of rac­
ist propaganda scapegoating
Coleman Young for the ill re-
ults of big business-Reagan­
ism; voted for Archer.
This is the a prima facie
case and even more, probable
cause to believe that Archer
won by a racist vote. This re­
peats the pattern of L.A. and
New York. No wonder the na­
tional media bends over
backwards to convince every­
body that race was not an
issue and not a legitimate is­
sue in the campaigns, to lie
and cover up the crime that
they were part of. Hal racism
was the main issue.
By the way, funny how
"racism" is a term papers use
rarely nowadays, and when
they do most of the time it is
applied to some Black person
who is protesting against ra-
FURTHERMORE, IT
was white flight to the sub­
urbs that set up the current
segregation of populations.
How is it that Black people
are put in the position of hav­
ing to initiate reconciliation?
They still slander us by say­
ing they fear us and that's
why they don't come to De­
troit. We should fear them
given history: slavery, lynch­
ing, police murders, last
hired-first fired, etc.
Overwhelmingly in long
and short term history the
crimes have been by white
against Black, not Black
against white. How do we
reach the insane mentality
that it is on us to build
bridges to them? They have
spit on our extended hand for
centuries.
The problem with Archer's
campaign was that it pan­
dered to the lie that most of
Detroit's problems are the re­
sult of Coleman Young and
other Black people's mili­
tancy, whenthose problems
are actually the result of the
actions of the groupings in
business and subur who
SPEAKING OF Reagan,
it was not Detroit that
elected Reagan and Engler,
who complementary to the
big business genocidal block­
ade have hatched the geno-
J. Henry
. Detroit
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