If you abandon Detroit, you abandon black America, says writer in Atlanta Post

Writer R. L'Heureux Lewis of the Atlanta Post says that to abandon Detroit is to abandon black America.

Excerpt from the Atlanta Post:

Detroit is a microcosm of Black America. I believe if you cannot love Detroit, you cannot fully love Black people. The Detroit Metropolitan area represents the best and the worst that Black folks in this country have to offer. The Black middle class was solidified in and around Detroit with steady unionized blue collar labor in the auto industry.

The middle class expanded as more Black folks with college educations occupied managerial positions. Detroiters experienced and vigilantly fought the racisms of housing redlining, riots, as well as White and Black flight. Detroit has benefited and suffered at the hands of White and Black leadership. If there is a city that tells us about the promise and perils of Blackness, it's Detroit.  I'm so interested in what happens in Detroit because if we can turn it around, we can turn around the rest of our cities.

Read the entire article here.