Keith A. Owens
You can’t value Black culture if you don’t value Black people. That may sound like a simple statement, but it’s really not.
I wrote a column this summer about the need to create a music district, or even districts, in Detroit, because it makes absolutely no sense that we don’t already have such a thing in a city that is without question the music capital of the entire world. In addition to the legend of Motown, Detroit also created Techno. These are two of the most internationally recognized, revered and influential musical creations in the history of the world – and they were created by Black people. But in addition to Techno and Motown, Detroit has given birth to so many other musical giants, some of whom I list in the piece:
“And then there’s the list of musical royalty, ranging from rock legends Alice Cooper and the MC5, to jazz giants James Carter and Ron Carter (no relation) to rap kings Eminem and Big Sean to the genius of Stevie Wonder to the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, to the powerful gospel offerings of the Wynans, The Clark Sisters and Fred Hammond, to the late great blues great John Lee Hooker.”
Granted, Alice Cooper and the MC5 are not Black – but there wouldn’t be an Alice Cooper or an MC5 without the pioneers of rock music, all of whom are Black (Big Mama Thornton, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard). And none of them would have made their mark without the global footprint of the blues, also founded by Black people. As for Eminem, one of the biggest stars in rap music, he has always given credit to where credit is due (Black people) because he knows there never would have been such a thing as an Eminem without Black culture and creative innovation.
So Detroit, one of the Blackest big cities in America, has given all of this to the world. And yet Detroit also remains one of the poorest cities in America, despite our big comeback. Apparently, hosting the NFL Draft can only do so much.
According to the city’s 2023 Economic Indicators Report:
“In 2022, Detroit had a poverty rate of 33.8%, approximately 2.5 times higher than Michigan’s poverty rate of 13.4%.” Furthermore, Detroit has a larger percentage of residents living below half the FPL (Federal Poverty Level) than either Michigan or the United States have living below the standard FPL. Unfortunately, this pattern persists across all subsequent thresholds, extending to 300% of the FPL, highlighting the substantial economic disparity experienced by residents of Detroit.”
Considering these bleak statistics, not to mention the extensive and brutal history of racism in Detroit, it would be hard to make the case that Black people have ever been properly valued here. Paradise Valley, at its height one of the most vibrant musical scenes in the country, and Black Bottom, the nearby densely-populated Black residential neighborhood, were paved over to make way for a freeway in the ‘50’s, because that’s what white people wanted and because Black lives most certainly did not matter – nor stood a chance – in the face of white desires.
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Elsewhere around the country, throughout the early to mid-20th century (not to mention all the horrors that came before), there were repeated examples of successful and self-sufficient Black communities burned to the ground by angry white neighbors who simply could not tolerate all that Black contentment. Black Wall Street. Rosewood. Just to name a couple.
In Andre M. Perry’s book, “Know Your Price,” he makes the very-hard-to-refute case that the perpetual devaluation of Black lives and property have created a perpetual condition of playing catch-up for Black people that causes devastating consequences which are so hard to miss that they tend to be missed all the time. This holds true whether the subject is the brutalization of George Floyd by police officers that gave energy to the Black Lives Matter movement, or how Black homes and property are systematically undervalued simply because Black people are living in them (well-documented in Know Your Price but easily verified elsewhere such as in a Brookings report, also by Perry, which found that “owner-occupied homes in Black neighborhoods are undervalued by $48,000 per home on average, amounting to $156 billion in cumulative losses”).
Chapter 7 of Perry’s book – no joke – is entitled, For the Sake of America, Elect a Black Woman President. Published in May 2020 B.K. (Before Kamala), Perry goes beyond the well-known observation that Black women have been the salvation of the Democratic party and speculated that it might be about time to hand a Black woman the reins to jump-start a next chapter in American history that would more directly target the specific issues and barriers that have been hampering Black progress – progress that would actually benefit the entire country, not just Black folk.
“The 2018 American Values Survey explores overall political attitudes and how increased diversity among elected officials could impact the country,” says Perry. “On the question of what issues are the most important, Black women cited racial inequality as most critical, at 29%, followed by health care at 21%, and the growing gap between rich and poor at 18%.”
The nonstop assault of racism on the simple desire to survive by Black people has essentially kept us treading water since 1619, never able to gain a full foothold on the American dream.
“But there is nothing wrong with Black people that ending racism can’t solve,” says Perry.
Despite what we have had to endure, Black people have somehow managed to create a culture and a soundtrack that has shaped the rhythm and heartbeat of America, and much of the rest of the world. And Detroit, perhaps the Blackest and poorest big city in the country, is at the dead center of that heartbeat.
So as Detroit continues on that upward trajectory toward its desired comeback (because I think those earlier statistics kind of show we ain’t there yet), it is critically important that the culture and lives of the people who made this city the envy of the world in so many ways be not only preserved, but valued and treasured. Detroit needs to make the point that being a Black city is not a bad thing; rather it is the thing that has set us apart as a cultural force to be reckoned with.
Black culture is not the city’s decoration, it is the city’s engine.
Keith A. Owens is a local writer and co-founder of Detroit Stories Quarterly and the We Are Speaking Substack newsletter and podcast.
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