Detroit, COVID-19, and The Meaning Of Community
What Will 2020 Hold For Us Ultimately

DETROIT - This year is already shaping up to be something completely unexpected for you and I. There was so much talk about Detroit 2020, and what kind of city it was going to be. The expectations for it were set so high and yet there has been little change. Crime has been just as horrible as always and our surrounding metro cities show little signs of any physical improvement. We can chalk it up to politics and now this horrendous illness that is sweeping throughout the world. Experts say that this is going to all but wipe out the business landscape as we know it. That being said things are going to change drastically. In many ways they already have.

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But there were problems long before COVID-19 and being in Metro Detroit I decided to reach out and do something about it. I am not talking about buying a piece of crude artwork from The Dirty Show but actually reach out for some community involvement. For myself, this meant heading over to Detroit Start-Up Week to see if I could lend my talents for .... anything. I walked in with no expectations. The city was putting together a week-long program to kick start community projects for the city of Detroit. When you compare that city next to Chicago one will see the many needs of goods and services. This academic themed event is held at the Masonic Temple. It is an old building built in 1922 in the Cass Corridor. My ex-girlfriend is a Detroit fanatic to the point of irrational behavior. We got into many arguments about me not being, "Detroit enough" and I still have no idea what that even means, I grew up in Ann Arbor. This is what started the whole ball rolling and what led me to my destination.

I was getting a lot of pressure too from churches I was attending at the time. They were pushing this pro-Detroit agenda. A lot of them even changed their social media status and stated they actually lived in the city of Detroit. I knew this was B.S. because these folks lived in the suburbs and towns that do not constitute as Metro Detroit. These were towns like Milford, Northville, Plymouth, and even Canton. So here I was with a notebook and pen in my hand thinking I was going to meet some movers and shakers and ready to do good. This is when I had my encounter with Marlowe Stoudamire who started many notable projects including MASH Detroit. He addressed us in one of the breakout rooms upstairs and there was no air conditioning available. Stoudamire had a very strong physical presence and spoke very sternly to us about Detroit and what our role should be.

One thing that struck my attention was his position on location. To be clear Marlowe Stoudamire preferred that if we were to help the city of Detroit then we need to be living in the city of Detroit. No outsiders. He looked right at me when he said it and I didn't know what to make of him. I believe he even used the F-bomb a few times in his speech. After the speech was over I took down his name and contact information and reached out to him. We exchanged a few emails on LinkedIn but nothing came out of it and we never even established any sort of friendship. To be frank he didn't leave me with much of an impression and I forgot about it. A few years went by and I saw his face in the Detroit Free Press about his illness with COVID-19. He had passed away very quickly and I did not connect the name until I heard something about MASH Detroit.

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While I was at Detroit Start-Up Week I participated in some group activities and I had two partners. We were supposed to come up with a business idea that would help the city. Everything went good and fine when I worked with them in person during our breakout session. We were supposed to follow up with each other after the event and continue this idea. Maybe it would branch off into something big? You never know. But I was contacted by both of my partners that we were not going to continue with one another. I think this speech that was delivered at Detroit Start-Up week set the wrong tone and created an ugly negative vibe.

I started to get involved with the community and helping out with feeding the homeless of Detroit through a non-denominational church. The agreement was that everybody brings a dish to pass and then helps set up picnic tables and even cook the food for the poor and homeless. We loaded everything up on a big bus and would hit this big park near the Motor City Casino. This would take place on Saturdays usually and we would alternate between Detroit and Plymouth. I thought it was a pretty good ministry and I wanted to get my hands dirty and really get involved. So I decided that I was going to bring the fried chicken to this particular cookout and figured that would be the easiest. I bought it from a place called Stadium Pizza which was outside of Novi because I knew the people that ran it and we were friends.

The owner was curious why I needed so much fried chicken as I cleaned out his display case. I told him I was doing community service and was going to feed the homeless. This seemed to really piss him off. The owner then says, "Well for your information this is MY community service. I do this for the PEOPLE." What? Running a business? That's not community service, that is just running a business. That is nowhere close to community service and the two things have nothing in common but I didn't feel like getting into a discussion about it and was running a bit late. This was the last time I ever this guy. Later, I found out that he had lost his business and new owners took over his location. So much for community involvement.

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So look here we are in 2020. My girlfriend is kaput and living in South Lyon, not Detroit, South Lyon. The one who gave me constant grief about what I should do for the city of Detroit is living in South Lyon which is nowhere close to the city. It is out in the boonies, the country, it's in left field. South Lyon is not even considered a part of the Metro Detroit area. Got that?

The community leader that I told you about is dead and that is very sad and unfortunate. But what irked me about that tragic event was his attitude towards me wanting to get involved, (a caucasian guy and not a life long resident of the city) and that I did not fit his description of an ideal helper. This reminds me of a scene from, "Malcom X" when a white girl asks Malcom, "What can I do to help?". Malcom looks at the girl and says, "Nothing" and walks away. He later gets shot and killed in the film. So I am getting banged around from one place to another for not being good enough.

The third guy, the fried chicken restaurant, gets wind of my will to get involved in the community and then really lets me have it. He was so animated and so upset I thought he was going to come from around the counter and get in my face about it. What is it about Detroit and the community that gets people so angry, judgemental, and creates a verbal attack?

So that is three times of getting rejected in the name of Detroit. I get it Detroit you do not want my help. But here is your problem, and this goes out to all three of these people. You guys need all the freaking help you can get and not only from me but from churches, non-profits, business organizations ---everybody. You need so much help that it is downright embarrassing and that city, (what's left of it) is in dire need of an outpouring of love.

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After Stoudamire's death, I went looking for old online videos because I just could not believe it. I was stunned that this happened. One of the videos showed him walking on the grounds of the Detroit Riots. He was looking for community involvement to rebuild that area back up to what it once was. In 1967 this area was filled with buildings and thriving businesses and bustling activity. Today it's a desolate location and in a state of erosion and dispair. There are dilapidated parks and the community of people and businesses have moved on. You can still feel the damage that was done there 53 years later.

Community isn't just about fixing up the Detroit Riot location. It isn't about faking your physical location to say you live in Detroit in your social media status. Community is about getting involved wherever you are. It's about lending a hand and showing genuine care about the world you live in. You can do this physically, monetarily, but is about getting involved and working with other people. No exclusions, working together, that is how you are going to build interactions and make the change. There are no shortcuts to doing this. I was only a year old when the Detroit Riots happened and my family had no participation with it whatsoever. My family raised me in Muskegon, Michigan which is a good four-hour drive from here. But make no mistake that the story and the events which took place in the Detroit Riots made me sick to my stomach. I saw the film, "Detroit" and sat through it with a live audience. People in the audience were crying and I was blown away with what went down. I got sick to my stomach and almost walked out but I stuck through it because I wanted to find out what happened.

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None of that seemed to matter to the people I met. It is an uncomfortable part of our history to admit or even discuss openly. But it is the reason why so many different groups of people are scattered and disconnected. Worse, as it was in my experience, it is the reason why different groups of people alienate one another. This is no good. And if you are ever going to have a thriving community in the city of Detroit, or anywhere, you will have to accept people as they are and accept the help and gifts that they bring. This pandemic will get resolved just like the one that went through Detroit in 1918. When that time finally happens what kind of community do you want to live in?

 

 

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COMMUNITY MATTERS!!   

 

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