Kayla's Question

I had a students ask me why Detroit is seemingly singled out for being the worst city in the United States when there are plenty of other cities with high crime rates, sky high unemployment rates, thousands on government assistance, and a large amount of homeless milling about.  There are cities that are poorer or worse run.  There are cities that are being totally left for dead with no hint of a revitilazation effort.  Why is this, she asked?  I thought about it too.  It seems pretty unfair...

I think, as I seem to do so often, think the blame lies with the media and the media's perspective of what the paying public wants.  In the U.S., we always want to be doing better than someone else.  It contributes to the sense of pride and haughtiness that is so pervasive in the country.  If people in Cleveland can look at the news and see that Detroit is portrayed so negatively, they will feel good about themselves...and so will all the other cities and people in the country.  There always seems to be a need for a scapegoat.  It's sort of like the 99% vs. the 1%.  The 99%, because they were the majority, felt that they were the "more right" ones, the ones who deserved more spoils, and the 1% were a bunch of jerks who hoarded money.  This narrative caught on with the general public and the news media, prompting an economic culture clash of sorts.  The 99% picked on the 1% because they knew that they could without fear of getting hurt in return.  There was, so the thinking goes, safety in numbers.  I think that may be what's going on in Detroit.  Detroit hasn't fought back for years; what would they do to show that they're worthy of being anything more than the butt of jokes?

Another thing is that Americans love causes, mostly for the cache and street cred that goes along with helping a cause.  And what cause got more publicity than the plight of Detroit.  News outlets sent reporters to the city and all sorts of entertainment crews have been in the city, supposedly working to restore it to its former glory.  But rather they spent their time focused on the decay, resisting the myriad great things.  Unfortunately, when one (or a large group) gains a certain narrative, it's hard to erase it.  We've been told by the media for such a long time that Detroit is dead or dying that we start to believe it.  The media knows what sells, and apparently it's a midwestern manufacturing hub going extinct.

I hope that makes sense.  I'm very tired.