By now, we should all be used to it. Everything is racism. Everything is about race. In the most recent confirmation of this dubious truth, the NAACP is claiming that the city of Detroit is shutting off the water of racial minorities because of their race.
Why does the NAACP think this, aside from their institutional need to legitimize their own existence by creating a world of racial motivations? They claim that Detroit is not shutting off water to some corporations in Detroit (all owned by white people, mind you) while poor individuals in Detroit (most of whom are black) are having their water shut off, in spite of the fact that both the corporations and the individuals have delinquent bills.
A spokesman for Detroit explains what’s really going on here:
As for the claim that residents are being targeted, but not corporations who are behind on their bills:
“The balances they have accrued—and, yes, some of them are significant, and we’ve made that list public—had been a result of storm water runoff charges; many of which are in dispute right now,” Eno said.
Eno said corporations are being given shutoff notices, too; and some, including Chrysler, have already paid up millions in overdue bills.
If anything, this seems to be a case of classism or cronyism. But racism? I don’t think so. It’s a sad fact that the vast majority of “the most vulnerable” citizens of Detroit, to borrow a phrase from the NAACP, are black. That’s truly unfortunate. But Detroit is in the mess it’s in because those most vulnerable citizens continue to rely on federal and state subsidies to survive. And those subsidies are drying up. There’s just no great incentive to help Detroit back onto its feet anymore. And the good citizens of Detroit have no one to blame for this but themselves.
When you believe you’re a victim, you will be. This narrative of entitlement and persecution has effectively made the poor people in Detroit the same as the black people in Detroit. It’s high time the NAACP step aside. If they are really about “advancement,” why do they continue enforcing this crippling self-label of victimization? Why have things only gotten worse for the people they’re “helping”?
It’s time for black people in the US to throw off their so-called champions and start taking responsibility for their own families and their own destinies, apart from any consideration of their class or their race. The issue isn’t about race. But it is rather black and white.