"Freeze, Niggas..."

Frankly, I'm tired of this shit.

I'm tired of everybody who seems think that black men's lives just don't matter. I'm tired of a justice system that can know that a(nother) young black man was shot down like a dog by trigger-happy police for doing nothing more than "looking suspicious" and still utterly exonerate the cops who slew him. I'm tired of feeling like there's absolutely nothing I can ever do to stop this bullshit.

What to do in the wake of this horrific miscarriage of justice?

"Stay calm," say the politicians, the "black leaders," the power structure itself.

What they really mean -- what the fuck they have no other choice but to mean by so callous a demand that we tacitly comply with verdict after verdict after verdict after motherfucking verdict -- is that they want us to "stay still." Don't move. Sit there. Look on. Cry. Rant. Preach. Pray.

But don't you dare move. Hold still. That's right: Freeze, niggas...

In other words, continue to let us take target practice on you. Let us continue to stack body after body in hails of blows and bullets. Because your lives — lives like that of Sean Bell's — mean absolutely nothing to a system that has never found a cop guilty of murdering you. (And no, I haven't forgotten that too often black folks lives don't mean much to us either; but neither is the average black criminal allowed to duck the consequences of true justice by hiding behind a badge and a union? And speaking of the badges, I also haven't forgotten that )

I knew long before this verdict would be rendered that these cops would walk. Scott free. I told friends. Some people I knew were incredulous that I couldn't see this as an open-and-shut case.

And I couldn't see what they'd ever think otherwise.

We saw this coming. We hoped it wouldn't end this way. But we knew, deep down, that it almost certainly would. Same as the others, this case stuck to the script. The mainstream media smeared the victims, cast aspersions on their backgrounds, distorted the events of the night of the shooting. The justice system pretended to take in all the facts of the case, pretended to examine the cops' action deliberately and fairly, pretended to render a verdict that in any way reflected the reality of what those officers did. The politicians, the "leaders" poured out of the woodwork and asked us to "be calm." Lay down. Stop squirming. Freeze, niggas.

So what to do?

Perhaps we begin to patrol more of our own communities, reinstate citizen patrols, and keep an eye out for crackheads and killer cops alike. You see a cop in your neighborhood doing dirty shit, grab your cell phone camera on the low. Take footage of that bullshit, whether it be the way they run stop signs with no sirens and lights and no regard for pedestrians or the way they shake down the local drug dealers. It's time we started telling on their asses big time. They do a lot of dirty shit in our communities and some of these cats should be ratted out. Seriously. As Cube famously asked, "Who Got The Camera?"

We cannot continue to endure brutality, individual or institutional. We need community police review boards -- with subpoena power. We need authoritative bodies governed by the people that will help keep an eye on those who are supposed to be protecting and serving, even in black communities.

And it's still not enough. Not for me. Not for the families of all those black men and women who've been murdered by the cops over the decades with utter, sickening impunity. I wish these cops — and all the other badge-wielding scumbags who've needlessly and fatally shot and beaten black people and all the other the "blue brethren" who've covered for them— nothing but the worst of a short, miserable, pus-filled life. Fuck them. I hope they all get Ebola. They killed that man for no good reason and walked out of the courthouse looking like they could give less than a shit. In the event of your own untimely, bloody deaths, consider the feeling mutual. (And no, that's not a threat...but I damn sure wish it was.)

And it's still not enough. It will never be enough. Not as long as our communities are stalked by tax-paid, gun-wielding po-lice who think they have a license to kill black men at will. The license needs to be revoked. Murderers in blue need to be brought to heel. And politicians and leaders need to take their tired asses back into the woodwork.

Black people should never "remain calm." Should never hold still as a murderous police culture and uncaring criminal justice system take our lives even while deeming those lives worthless. Damn all this about holding still. Keep it moving, niggas.

Because we freeze at our own peril.

Bitter Beer Face

So let's see...

...Hillary Clinton lies about her trip to Bosnia, lies about her support for NAFTA, lies about her role in her husband's presidency, lies about her position on Bush's failed war of aggression in Iraq...

...but the issue du jour is Barack Obama's suggestion that white, small-town America is often embittered and driven by single issues that have nothing to do with their day to day lives??

Clinton spends a month lying her ass off about this, that and the third, but the media wants to scold (President) Obama for actually telling the truth??

As Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick might say to his ex-chief of staff: LOL.

The President (to be) was right. Here in Michigan, the evidence surfaces every day. Millions of white folks fled the cities (presumably to get away from poor black folks) and are now fleeing the bedroom suburbs (presumably to get away from middle-class black folks) for even more far-flung pastures. Tens of thousands of white state voters, stirred up by the delusional and self-loathing Wardell "I Gotta Make Sure The White Man Gets A Fair Break," Connerly eliminated affirmative action in an effort to stop even minimal black gains. Even a casual glance at the message boards for local news outlets reveals deep-seated, irrational anger and hatred toward anyone urban and/or of color.

Small-town white folks are NOTHING if not bitter.

But Barack Obama wasn't trying to attack them. He was simply pointing out that eight years of failed federal policies and plans have broken this nation, leaving its citizens adrift and bereft of any faith in government to even address their needs, let alone fix 'em. Few pundits pointed out that he also offered parallel assessments of the anger and despair that have swept over African-American young men.

No, instead, we have white folks railing on and on and on against Sen. Obama for having the audacity to suggest they might be a little mad. Truth is, though, people aren't so much mad that he told the truth. The problem is that a black man said it.

Had Hillary the $109-million woman made the same suggestion there would be no attacks, no ongoing "debate" over the veracity of her remarks. But the black man who grew up in a single-parent home and only recently paid off his student loans is somehow "elitist" for making a sincere effort to articulate what is plain to anybody who bothers to really pay attention??

Give me a fucking break.

Seems I recall a few years ago, even white folks were open and honest about their senseless rage. News outlets everywhere were serving up "the angry white male," that GOP-voting, gun-clutching genus of white man bound and determined to take back his "rightful" place in society from black and brown folks bypassing him on the thrust of federal social programs. And who can forget the white boys who rioted in Florida in 2000 right outside the local center where election workers were counting ballots? Oh, they were bitter alright.

You couldn't throw a rock without hitting some white dude who had left the Democratic party because the party no longer seemed to blatantly cater to the myth that white folks "deserved" success whilst blacks had to "earn" it. These white boys have gone by various names over the years: "Reagan Democrat," "the new Republican voter," "the white evangelical," and yes, even, "the angry white male."

Back then (yesterday?), all you heard about was the need to overturn affirmative action because it was "unfair" and no longer necessary. Blacks were now beating out the white boys for jobs, jobs that the white boys "deserved," and this shit had to stop. (Never mind the countless generations of black men and women both then and now who were passed over for jobs they'd "earned" in favor of white folks who were "a better fit for the company.") White men —buffeted by the declining economy, the evaporation of jobs and superpower America's slow but steady ride off into the sunset — were none to silent about their bitterness.

But now we're supposed to believe that that was all just an illusion? The angry white male was just a product of our elitists imaginings?

No, what's clear about this latest "furor" is the same notion that came through during the "flap" about Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Barack Obama is free to tut-tut black folks, free to bitch about the "excesses" of the 60s, free to rewrite and diminish the long sad history driving African-Americans' outrage. (Sorry, but he did.)

But white folks are off limits to Sen. Obama when it comes to criticism this presidential election. Even the most innocuous, bland and vague reference to unflattering attitudes and behaviors among whites is met with stiff resistance and ire.

For decades now, black folks have been saddled with destructive, evil and outright false characterizations of us as a group: lazy, irresponsible, dumb, criminal, unpatriotic, genetically inferior. We've had to stand there and take it, too, even from so-called "sympathetic" politicians like Bill Clinton, who for eight years alternately wooed us and tossed us under the bus when convenient as though we were just another White House intern. We hung in and endured the worst portrayals, hopeful that "our candidate" was just "playing the game," believing that he'd "be our best friend" once he'd been elected after convincing enough white folks that he'd be sufficiently tough on us.

Now, along comes Sen. Obama, far and away the better of the two Dem choices, and many white folks get downright apoplectic if he does anything but kiss white ass and say it tastes like vanilla fudge.

To his credit, Obama has defended and elaborated on his comments. But still, Clinton, her minions and media lapdogs and the bigots in the GOP continue to falsely accuse him of elitism and to try to undermine his campaign with lies and racist overtures to the worst in human nature.

To me, Obama sounds like a man trying to appeal to the soul of this nation, trying to offer frank assessments with one hand and, with the other, a salve for the wounds inflicted by this GOP-perverted government. He sounds statesman-like, caring, genuinely concerned.

Clinton and her screeching peanut gallery? Hmph. They just sound bitter to me.

One-Hitter Quitter: Cornel on Barack

There are some things you think you really want to get deep into, only to realize that, upon further examination, they don't deserve as much as you planned to put into them.

For instance, I had figured I'd write this long column trying to decipher the nuances of Cornel West's recent statement criticizing Barack Obama for not showing up in Memphis last weekend for the anniversary of King's death.

But then I realized this didn't deserve all that. Rhetorically, this deserves nothing more than the one-hitter quitter.

Why? Because, with all due respect, Dr. West was just plain wrong. In scolding Obama for choosing to continue his historic quest for the White House by campaigning in Indiana, Dr. West accused Sen. Obama of subjugating King's commitment to "strategies for access to power." He closed by saying that "commitment to truth is in tension with the quest for power."

Please. Do you really think that Dr. King would rather have Obama laying wreaths rather than do all he could to win the Democratic nomination? And since when does laying a wreath translate into a "commitment to truth??" Bush lays a wreath and suddenly he's committed to Dr. King's dream?

Naw, I ain't think so.

I respect Dr. West immensely and, like most good radicals, certainly have my own nagging questions about Sen. Obama's willingness to embrace a truly progressive agenda (although I openly support him). I could go on and on about how Dr. West is right about a lot of things.

All there is to say about this one, though, is that he was dead ass wrong.

Be Like Ike

Long before I joined the heathen ranks of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy (or, as we affectionately call it, the EAC), there were things about churches that puzzled me to no end. Despite spending considerable time in church as a kid, I never understood wacky shit like the whole alpha and omega concept surrounding god, never quite got how he (she? it?) was supposed to be infinite and without origin. I remember more than once asking Moms how this god was supposed to have come to exist with no beginning. "Did god have a mother and father?" I'd go. "If god created everything, then who/what created god?"

She used to try to explain to me that god was never ending and had always been. I tried to grasp that, but all that ever really came to mind was a picture of a giant spiral winding continuously into itself until its tail seemed to vanish, sort of like that crappy effect on the opening of "The Twilight Zone."

These were the kinds of questions that I had that ultimately led me into the thrice-damned fold of the EAC, yes, but these weren't deep philosophical machinations I was conjuring back then. I was 8, 10, 12 years old. These were the sorts of simple-minded queries any child in his or her right mind would ask when something they were told didn't add up.

Swear to Thor, I felt like that the other day as I read about how mega-church big tymer Creflo Dollar (holla!) was refusing to cooperate with a US Senate investigation into the financial dealings of prosperity cults run by Dollar and other big-money preachers. The appropriately named Rev. Dollar lives like Hugh Hefner sans the bathrobe, having been lavished with jets, luxury cars and mansions through the donations and retail purchases of his sheeples. When Sen. Charles Grassley announced last year that he would be looking into dealings by Dollar and his ilk, Dollar said then that he'd be willing to comply with a "valid request." 

I guess he figures a Senate request ain't valid.

Now, if this Negro were doing something actually principled — were doing almost anything other than standing around lying to people about how his magic genie in the sky is going to make them all rich, if they kneel at just the right angle and break Creflo off the right amount of paper — I might commend his defiance. But he's a charlatan getting rich off a belief system that, at its core, is supposed to be centered around a guy purported to be selfless, charitable and downright contemptuous of the mega-rich. He sells god to people as a financial plan (one that includes Dollar's "brokerage" fees, I'm sure) and is among the fetid ranks of conservative-jocking black ministers prone to mimicking the sort of bigoted Bush-ian rhetoric that equates poverty (especially that of the black, urban variety) with moral failing.

Dollar's about as big a Christian as I am. Only difference is, I won't lie to you. And on the real: Even if you believe in god, why in the name of Shango should you have to make a clown like this rich just to get to know him (her/it)??

But to me, the even larger question is, why are people like the Wrong Reverend Dollar (holla!) allowed fleece their kindhearted (if desperate and delusional) members out of 10 percent of their take-home every Sunday and not be subjected to more scrutiny? I thought snake oil salesmen were no longer permitted to pump any old Python Tonic they decided to bottle?

I'm not talking about people offering a room and a hot meal to the traveling evangelist, either. Cref and his folks have private jets! Jed Clampett-style cribs! Rolls Royces! (Well, in Dollar's case, as he felt the need to tell CBS, it's only one Rolls, not two. Guess it's hard out here for a pimp.) 

For Zeus' sake, can't we start taxing these niggas? They aren't the spiritual descendants of Christ; they're the offspring of Rev. Ike.

They have no business being exempt. Seems to me they're just stealing money. Hell, I've known drug dealers who paid their taxes. (No lie; they claimed to be pro gamblers on their returns.) Why should Creflo and these other preachers, hucksters out here slangin' that spiritual sticky-icky, be allowed to skate with their bank intact??

And what's so special about religious groups that they can't be taxed? They claim all kinds of wacky shit that can't be proven. They don't even agree among themselves about what god they want to worship. And having listened to Creflo for myself, I know that this Negro is spouting sheer lunacy. (And even if you don't, why should that mean your church doesn't have to pay up? You're damn sure making income. Render unto Caesar, baby.)

So I say don't just investigate them. Start taxing them...hard.

Think of what we could do with the money. The mega-churches alone would bring in billions, money that President Obama and future politicians could use to rebuild our infrastructure and properly educate our children.

Sure, some theists might claim that the churches should be exempt because some of them perform services for the public. Bump that. Let the government -- which is to say, the people, irrespective of religion -- do it for themselves. Let the churches pitch in just like almost every other institution in this country.

I know it likely won't happen in my lifetime. Same as I know Ponzi schemers like Dollar, Kenny Copeland and others will continue to get fat off of the naive, the desperate, the narrow-minded and the primitive.

But one day, just like Grassley's doing, we're going to start looking much harder at the Creflo Dollars of the world. We're going to start asking those same sort of simple -- but infinitely powerful -- questions that even a kid would think to raise.

And when that day comes, Amen-Ra willing, those pious, fat cat assholes won't have the luxury of refusing to answer.

 
 

Dope Fiend Moves...pt. 1

A dope fiend move.

That, when I was growing up, was the saying we used to have for actions that were so head-scratchingly bizarre, so out of left field or so patently stupid that the only explanation for them we could offer was that the cats behind them had to be under the influence of weapons-grade narcotics.

"You cheated on your girlfriend and forgot to take the condom off before you got home to her? Damn, money, that was a dope fiend move."

I thought back to that old saying as I was reading about how Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Florida Democrat, popped off this week about the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mahoney took it upon himself to suggest that the contest might be in for an unexpected twist if it remains undecided by the time the Democrats' convention rolls around starting Aug. 25.

If the party hasn't picked a candidate by then, Mahoney said, both Sens. Obama and Clinton could be passed over in favor of a "compromise candidate." Further, Mahoney said, that third candidate could very well be former VP Al Gore.

Huh??

OK, for a Congressman to express so blithely an eagerness to just throw off the electoral process because he doesn't like the pace of its resolution is already more than enough to merit concerns that he might be under the influence. But to then offer up Al Gore — a guy who hasn't been approved by anyone, hasn't appeared on a ballot in eight years and whose last memorable act as a politician was folding like laundry as George W. Bush made off with his Supreme Court-appointed presidency in 2000 — is the very definition of sucking that glass dick.

I mean, who in the hell said Gore was some kind of "solution" here? And how does a vintage white male politician represent any kind of a "compromise" between the potential first woman nominee and the potential first black nominee? C'mon, Mahoney. Put down the pipe, guy.

Of course, the biggest dope fiend move would be for the Dem leadership to attempt some stunt like this. Given the historic nature of the race, the passions flowing among the swelled camps of both Obama and Clinton, this wouldn't just be a blow to the party. This would be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the temple.

Now I Know Why The Caged Bird Had Better Sing

I can't say I generally favor snitching.

And by snitching, I'm definitely not talking about the average hard-working citizen who calls the police on the neighborhood crack dealers carousing late night in front of her house. That's not snitching. That, no matter what lames like Cam'ron say, is safeguarding your home and your community from ig'nit motherfuckers.

No, by snitching I mean ratting out someone with whom you've been closely involved in some sort of criminal or wrongful activity. Nigganalysis usually compels me to subscribe to the belief that if ya'll did dirt together, you'd better be ready to go on and do that time together, too. I don't mean to suggest that this is necessarily even the right way to think. But it's a code I was taught early on -- even my mom would get on me about "tattling" -- and it's one I've pretty much adhered to for much of my life.

But when I stare out over the fast-collapsing mess that appears to be Detroit mayor KwameKilpatrick's political career , I can't help but re-examine this code somewhat as I consider the plight of his now-disgraced former chief of staff Christine Beatty, whose affair with the mayor has been put on blast by this text-messaging scandal. Despite her role in some of the mayor's biggest successes, she's been cast as a major villain in this storyline, being portrayed alternately as a home wrecker and a 'ho, a conniving careerist chicken-head who boned her way into a cushy, powerful spot in Kilpatrick's inner circle and abused her privilege all along the way.

And she probably deserves some of these characterizations.

Still, even when you remember that she's regarded as his co-conspirator in all this, you still can't help but think she sure seems to have caught more than her fair share of hell. Her marriage went down the tubes, with her husband (reportedly a very decent brother and a Detroit native who, more than anybody else in this town, deserves the right to punch the mayor dead in his fat, smirking mouth) moving their children to another state. She was forced to resign her job in the administration. A law student, her legal career may be over before it ever even began. She's been forced into virtual seclusion and has barely made a peep since this fiasco exploded. When she does surface, Beatty (who I'll admit to regarding as vaguely cute, depending on what angle you catch her at) usually looks worn, depressed and humiliated nowadays.

Oh yeah, and she's facing seven felony charges stemming from the scandal, including various counts of perjury, misconduct in office and obstruction of justice.

Meanwhile, the mayor -- who himself caught eight charges -- continues to insist on his innocence, has refused to step down, continues to show up on TV with this stupid-ass smirk on his face and continues to enjoy the support of a high-powered group of attorneys, citizens and members of his newly minted defense fund.

At some turns in all this, he and his girl Christine share the same lawyer, a white shoe legal mastermind whose exorbitant rate seems to translate roughly into about a pint of blood per hour. The lawyer, who's also repping her in her criminal trial, insists that there's no conflict of interest in representing her and the mayor. And Beatty, so far, has indicated that she intends to stick with the mayor throughout this legal ordeal.

But I can't help but wonder if the mayor is thinking the same thing. Sure, it's certainly expedient for him to say that, to convince her to take up a united front with him in much the same way he convinced his wife to endure public shame and ridicule by sitting alongside him during his televised apology to the city for transgressions he refused to name. But he's already chucked Beatty under the bus once, forcing her unceremonious resignation just as the text-messaging scandal began to unfold. And you can't help but think that, sooner or later, he's going to have to publicly assign blame to her for the blunder that started all this, the colossally stupid way his administration got rid of police officers looking into misconduct by the mayor's bodyguards.

Sooner or later, in other words, Kilpatrick will have to snitch Beatty out. And when it becomes obvious to even their lawyers that the mayor and Beatty have conflicting interests in this case, there shouldn't be any question who's going to get frozen out by the big-money attorneys and high-end backers. Christine will be ass out. I don't claim to know the woman's financial circumstances, but if the mayor is fighting to pull together his own twos and fews in an effort to pay these lawyers' $700-an-hour fees, I just don't see how Christine will even be able to pick up the tip on that kind of tab.

(And we haven't even begun talking about what she may be facing if and when the federales decide to start bringing charges against the Kilpatrick Klique.)

Ultimately, she's likely going to wind up right back where she was when she resigned back in January -- out in the cold.

If there's one thing I feel fairly certain about when it comes to Kwame Kilpatrick, it's that dude will sacrifice anybody and anything to avoid getting busted. And if Beatty can somehow be used as the scapegoat for his ass-clownery, I don't think he'll have any problem fitting her for those stubby little horns.

So I'm figuring, never mind the code this time 'round. Christine needs to start telling on Kwame Kilpatrick's ass as soon as possible, definitely before he starts running his own mouth. She needs to sprint, not saunter, into Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office and start giving up as much as she knows in hopes of cutting a deal. She knows where the bodies are buried, knows who got what and when and in what size brown paper bag. The same knowledge that could sink her just might also save her ass (or at least soften the inevitable legal blow).

I'm sure Worthy's hoping for something similar and would certainly welcome it. And even if she's not counting on Beatty's eventual cooperation, I can't help but think that she's going to apply a bit of extra pressure to ol' girl, just to see what, if anything, cracks. Again, judging by that forlorn look that seems superglued to Christine's mug these days, she's got to be struggling to hold herself together as it is. No telling what might happen if the prosecutor gets a chance to impress upon Beatty further very real prospect that she'll lose everything.

The mayor's entire family is connected, from his Congresswoman mother to his dad, a long-time political operative not above shoving his foot into his mouth. Kilpatrick's a spoiled, over-privileged elitist who utters inanities like his recent declaration that god chose him to be mayor and throws tantrums when people remind him that the scandal he wants to spin as "a personal matter" drained city taxpayers of $9 million. He may very well land on his feet once all the smoke blows over (and his sentence gets commuted).

I'm not so sure Christine Beatty will be able to say the same, though she appears not to be paying attention to her own best interests. In the same way dope kingpins try to cover their lieutenants' legal expenses in the wake of a big bust, the mayor's probably doing everything he can to keep his old flame and former chief of staff on his hip (and, thus, further his wife's humiliation). I'm sure he's spitting the same sort of game that convinced her and a whole lot of other otherwise smart, capable people to go along with his nonsense in the first place.

But Christine Beatty needs turn a deaf ear to that chatter now. And she needs to start making some noise of her own.

Fake Outrage

By now, everyone knows that Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is in scalding water and throwing seven different kinds of smoke in an effort to shield himself from the inevitable legal and political fallout headed his way. And while our region buzzes on about the toll of his bullshit behavior -- a $9-million tab in settlement and legal fees that taxpayers must foot; yet another embarrassing stain on the city's reputation; the trauma to the families involved as well as Detroiters' civic spirit — what may anger me as much as anything else is how the smokescreens he's erected have undermined, even momentarily, Detroiters' rightful complaints about the enduring legacy of racism in metropolitan Detroit.

At the end of his recent State of the City speech, Kilpatrick responded angrily to critics, calling out the City Council president, chiding the media and blubbering about how, in the month leading up to his speech, he's been called "nigger more than any time in my entire life."

Almost instantly, there was an overwhelming backlash. White media pundits and politicians expressed their own brand of outrage, angered by Kilpatrick's rather blatant (and, admittedly, tired) attempt to suggest that coverage of his scandalized ass was purely racially motivated. Admitted philanderer and state attorney general Mike Cox, already accused of frustrating earlier efforts to investigate rumors that Kilpatrick often turned the official mayoral residence into his personal version of the Rolexx Club, tagged his former crony a race-baiter and, like almost everyone else around here, asked that Kilpatrick resign.

Look, I think Kilpatrick needs to vacate the mayor's office, too -- and with the quickness. He's repeatedly proven that he can't keep his appetite from wasting taxpayers' dollars. He's shown absolutely no ability to learn from his mistakes. He clearly believes that, because he has been successful in recruiting some businesses to invest in the city's once-forlorn downtown, that this should place him above press scrutiny, above the will of the people and above the law. (Wrong on all counts, homeboy.)

But I'll be damned if I'll abide this phony outrage from white power brokers around here about Kilpatrick's "divisiveness" in using the "n-word." Let me be clear: Kwame Kilpatrick did not create racial division in metro Detroit; Kwame Kilpatrick does not further racial division in metro Detroit; Kwame Kilpatrick is not responsible for the continuation of racism in this city. White racism is white people's fault. Period. Black folks don't "provoke" or "encourage" or "inflame" or "justify" it anymore than a rape victim "asks" to be the target of brutal sexualized violence.

Kilpatrick didn't trigger the white flight into the area's northern suburbs that deprived Detroit of so much of its tax base. Kilpatrick doesn't engage in the continued redlining designed to prevent black people from moving into many of these places. Kilpatrick doesn't actively promote black economic disenfranchisement, doesn't vandalize black-inspired landmarks, doesn't harass and intimidate black schoolchildren walking through white communities.

In short, Kwame Kilpatrick's speech doesn't in any way explain the economic, social and racial divisions that plague Detroit. White people left this city because they didn't want to have to share power with black people. White people continue to encourage the racist attitudes that make the suburbs so hostile to people of color. (You really want to see racist attitudes, hateful speech and divisive thinking on display? Give white folks an Internet message board, a topic about an issue involving black people and a guarantee of anonymity.)

Even now, they are working to strip Detroit of control of its most vital asset, the city-owned water and sewage system that serves much of the metro area. Mind you, the city built and maintains the system. The white-dominated suburbs are just customers. And yet somehow they think they deserve to have more of a say in how the system is run. It's the equivalent of a customer walking into a market and demanding to be allowed to price groceries any way he sees fit. And when the merchant objects, the customer rushes out to court in an effort to sue his way into ownership of the market.

Black Detroiters came to this city en masse in the '30s, '40s and '50s to earn a decent wage and escape the Jim Crow-ism of the Deep South. They didn't come to run white people away. Hell, they didn't even come seeking political power. They just wanted to live a little better.

When they got here, they were attacked. They were smeared. They were segregated. They didn't do this to themselves. White people did this. And then, when black folks stood up, fought back and, in many ways, won, white folks couldn't stomach this. So they ran away, creating the racially hostile bedroom communities we now see in backwaters such as Northville and telling themselves (and anyone else who'd listen) lies about imaginary black sins that compelled them to flee. As Coleman A. Young once famously observed, "White people find it extremely hard to live in an environment they don't control."

Kwame Kilpatrick bears responsibility for many problems, including the paralysis that has now gripped Detroit as the city and its stakeholders wait anxiously to find out if he'll be charged for his transgressions and, if so, with what crimes. He has shown to be a man of little integrity and outsize ego. He has caused us consternation and humiliation.

But the sickness of racism and its symptoms — the rabid hatred metastasized as public policy, the arrogant refusal to share power, the insane and pathological fear of anyone "different" — these should be placed squarely where they belong: On the shoulders of the white folks who've created them.