Competency more important than skin color in Detroit mayor race
theGRIO REPORT - If Duggan, a write-in candidate who overwhelmingly won the primary elections in August, wins, as the polls suggest, he will be the first white man to lead the 83 percent African-American city in 40 years...
Cynicism and resilience, rather than excitement, accompanied Detroit residents as they headed to the polls to elect their next mayor Tuesday, November 5. Voters will be casting their votes throughout the day, making a choice between Wayne county sheriff Benny Napoleon and former Wayne county prosecutor Mike Duggan.
If Duggan, a write-in candidate who overwhelmingly won the primary elections in August, wins, as the polls suggest, he will be the first white man to lead the 83-percent African-American city in 40 years.
But race was on few minds in the hours leading up to the elections.
“I don’t care whether he’s black or white, Detroit needs someone who’s going to get it going again. It’s about issues, it’s about fixing the city, not about race,” William Jester, a native Detroiter and retired plumber, said.
Napoleon and Duggan have both presented themselves as leaders whose expertise could fix the city, but have focused on different issues.
Napoleon has highlighted his police background as enabling him to restore law and order in a city which homicide and violent crime rates top the nation’s rankings. Duggan has stressed his expertise in successfully bringing failing institutions, including the Detroit Medical Center, back from financial insolvency.
For Oneita Jackson, a cab driver and former Detroit Free Press columnist and copywriter, that Duggan won the primaries was no surprise: “People want stuff to work right and work well.”
“The people who are emphasizing that [race] are the people in the media, the rest of us are just voting,” she said.
Recent months have been painful for Detroiters concerned with the running of their city. In March, emergency manager Kevyn Orr was appointed by Michigan governor Rick Snyder to run the city, stripping outgoing Mayor Bing of most of his powers. In July, Detroit became the largest American city to ever file for bankruptcy.
“The power needs to come back to Detroit,” Chris Thomas, a produce loader, said. “Napoleon’s getting my vote.” Napoleon has stated he would refuse to work with the emergency management team if elected.
Duggan, while remaining critical of the takeover, has had a more pragmatic and more popular approach, stating he would work with Orr and gradually try to regain power through a show of expertise.
The hope of having the city run by an experienced manager is the main reason young people and old-timers say they are turning to Duggan, who has branded himself “a turnaround specialist.”
Kennedy Smith says Duggan represents “a reason to hope that things could get better” for people like her looking to spend their retirement days in the city.
Race may not be the main decider in these elections, but it still looms in the background.
According to Shaka Senghor, a Detroit-based writer and mentor, although not a decider, Duggan’s candidacy is partially set in a “racial dynamic” symbolized by the suburb/city divide.
Up until just over a year ago, Duggan was a resident of the 92-percent white, wealthy suburb of Livonia. He moved to Detroit in 2012 in order to meet election eligibility requirements.
With Duggan “there is an appeal to special kinds of transplanted Detroiters who are predominantly white who come from backgrounds of affluence and have been treated very differently than native Detroiters who are predominantly black,” Senghor said.
Nor is Napoleon the obvious option for citizens concerned with civil rights in the black community, Michael Sabbagh, a graduate student and member of Critical Moment editorial committee, pointed out. Napoleon headed the police department when new policies allowing for police brutality and the use of excessive force in the city were introduced, he said.
All in all, Detroiters seem eager to focus on skills rather than background. At the beginning of last decade they elected a young Kwame Kilpatrick, who sold himself as an authentic product of Detroit. Last month, Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison after being found guilty of multiple corruption charges.
Witnessing political corruption has made people weary of rhetoric surrounding authenticity.
For most, it seems not so much about full-heartedly believing in one candidate, but hedging their bets on the lesser of two evils.
“Both of them are dirty, both of them leave things to be desired but it is who can bring together people, and who can help Detroit,” Oneita Jackson said.
