Greg Bowens, a former journalist, served as press secretary to former Detroit Mayor Dennis W. Archer. He is a local political consultant and public relations professional who also serves as a spokesperson for the SuperPAC that supports mayoral candidate Benny Napoleon.
Greg Bowens
By Greg Bowens
Prejudice is the new fall fashion in Detroit.
Leaders are wearing it like one of a kind haute couture made famous by Carrie Bradshaw on "Sex and the City."
Detroit’s (now former) CFO Jim Bonsall favors a more urban look of joking about shooting black kids in hoodies as part of his Angel’s Night volunteer duties.
Mayoral candidate Mike Duggan sports safari as he quips on WDIV’s "Flashpoint" that he lives in the jungle of big-city fundraising.
And Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr kicked off the fashion season in pin striped, classic, Ivy League style. He sported the look on the pages of the Wall Street Journal, seeming to call citizens of Detroit dumb and lazy – more than 80 percent of whom are black.
This is the turnaround Detroit we’re aiming for today? Racist comments by our leaders?
Even the state attorney general is getting in on the trend with the well-worn look of affirmative action in the reverse racism suit before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Maybe this is all just diversity fatigue from too many HR trainings.
Or maybe this is collective indigestion from endless roundtable discussions about race.
Or maybe this is just the natural evolution of things accelerated by unfiltered comments at the end of news stories posted on the web.
Interestingly, folks like Kevyn Orr can be so clueless about what they're saying. Then they start back peddling. We saw Orr twist in the wind for weeks searching for the right apology to diffuse the pushback.
In Orr's case, we see life imitating art and art imitating life. It was reminiscent of Dave Chappelle’s comedic look at race where he poised as a black man leading the KKK:
The Chappelle episode is funny because of its absurdity. This is less true of those leading the city and the state.
They set the example. They set the tone for the rest of us. People are paying attention.
People are speaking about the pressures of gentrification in places such as Corktown and Midtown. And we know what that means: Pushing black people out of neighborhoods to make room for white people.
People are talking about the change downtown that does not include people in the neighborhoods.
People are wondering aloud how million dollar national ads by the city’s corporate community touting Detroit business that did not include people of color.
People are talking. Question is: Are the leaders are listening?
One day this fashion trend will go back out of style and into the dustbins of history. Hopefully it will stay there.
But for now, sporting prejudice seems to be the toast of the town.
