In a segment on Fox News this evening, Shepard Smith made a comment about the Detroit school system that has “ignited” a wave of completely phony outrage.

Here’s the Fox2 Detroit newscast regarding the matter:

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that Detroit is my hometown.  I was born here, and I grew up around the city.  Let me tell you, Smith didn’t say anything that nearly every person who lives in the area hasn’t said a hundred times.

Yes, it’s a town that’s fiercely proud of its heritage, but it’s also frighteningly defensive if anyone outside its borders should dare to point out the decades-long decline.  Add to that a palpable and, at times, volatile racial component, and you have a city that tends to lash out when anyone on the national or regional stage paints a less than rosy picture of the place. 

Detroit is generally its own worst enemy.  It’s been plagued with mayors whose criminal activities, both rumored and proven, have been widely documented.  It boasts a city council that for years was made up of egomaniacs who beg the town for gifts, embarrasing tax cheats, and bribe taking criminals.  Don’t even get me started on Barbara Rose Collins….

Despite a brief glimmer of hope from Dennis Archer, from the 60’s up until a few years ago, Detroit was a town run by a crooked city council, crooked mayors (one of which is still in court on a regular basis), and was populated by an electorate that vehemently refused to learn its lesson.  Want to argue the point?  OK.  The city voted to elect Coleman A. Young four times, Gennifer Granholm and Kwame Kilpatrick twice.  Argument over.

As far as Shepard Smith’s comment goes, well here’s the thing.  We won’t admit it to an outsider, but when it’s just us?  When we know we’re alone?  We tend to revel in the decay.  Sure, we wish things were different, but there’s an undeniable sense of irony about the colapse.

We’re talking about a city where t-shirts bearing the phrase ”Detroit: Where The Weak Are Killed And Eaten” line store shelves and faux pride is taken in our “most dangerous city” status.  Detroiters buy, and greatly enjoy, books of quotations from Coleman A. Young and Kwame Kilpatrick.   City dwellers and suburbanites alike pass around this Youtube clip of the city council with a mixture of horror and self-depricating amusement. 

 

Finally, and maybe most relevant to Smith’s comments, during the 80’s, the holiday known as “Devil’s Night” became synonymous with arsonists setting fire to homes, businesses, and vacant eyesores.  In fact, the annual October 30th blaze became so widespread that the city renamed the day “Angel’s Night” and has spent millions in an effort to eradicate the fires.  Largely it’s worked.  Still, each year, like clockwork, local newscasts offer an almost folkloric account of the old days and salivate as they ask the question, “Will this be the year the fires return?”

The bemused fascination with living in our own little train wreck is so pervasive, that we just take it as a given. 

So you’ll have to forgive me if I find the uproar over Shepard Smith’s “burn it down” remark to be little more than posturing nonsense.  It’s a nice, quick topic for the evening news, something worth an hour on local talk radio, but not much more. 

Make no mistake, we love our town.  We love the music, the food, the people, and the history.  Detroiters are trying, but they’re also painfully aware of how bad things really are, and the knowledge has lead to a dark sense of humor.   Maybe, if people here would spend as much time yelling at their politicians as they do shouting about Smith, we’d all be better off.

You think the media has portrayed Detroit unfairly?  Sorry.  For the most part, it hasn’t.  

Screaming at Fox News makes you feel better?  Fine.  Just try to remember your oh-so-sincere outrage the next time you’re the one making the jokes.

- Robert Laurie