The top image on the book cover is of “The Spirit of Detroit,” a statue that was dedicated in 1958. In its left hand, the large figure holds a bronze sphere emanating rays to symbolize God; in the right hand, is a family group that symbolizes all human relationships.
Detroit was roughly 70 percent white when this statue was dedicated. It rests outside the city’s municipal center, which has subsequently been renamed for the first Black mayor of Detroit, Coleman Young.
The bottom picture is of the Joe Louis Statue, a giant Black fist that has come to symbolize “Black power” in a city that is 89 percent Black in 2012.
In 1912, Detroit was less than 2 percent Black. Escape from Detroit: The Collapse of America’s Black Metropolis is the story of what actually happened in a city that was once dubbed “The Arsenal of Democracy.”
Hard to believe that in the 1920s, Detroit had the tallest buildings in America and a thriving arts and culture industry. Of course, the city was more than 90 percent white. The cosmopolitan attitude cultivated in Detroit, with architects building towers that jettisoned into the sky at heights previously unseen in the entire world, earned the city the title of “The Paris of the West.” Now, those largely empty buildings stand as a monument to ‘what could have been’ in a city that wasn’t ravaged by unions, liberalism, or a natural disaster.
It was neglected by its majority population that took over the city in the wake of the 1967 riots.
“The Mogadishu of the West” offers a warning to other American cities. In Black and white, this is the story of Detroit’s collapse.
Paul Kersey takes you on a journey into the real reason Detroit collapsed.
In 1950, Detroit was known to the World as the “Paris of the West.” Boasting a thriving economy and a population of more than 2 million people (80 percent being white), the sky seemed the only limit for this city on the move.
In 1967, the “Arsenal of Democracy” would be home to the worst riot in American history as the Black population of Detroit – roughly 30 percent of the population at the time– would explode in an orgy of violence that was only stopped when the Army marched into town to restore order.
The white population of the city would flee for the suburbs, leaving the remaining Black population in political control of the city’s destiny.
In 2012, order still hasn’t been restored.
Now, a city of roughly 770,000 inhabitants (89 percent Black) has collapsed in a sea of financial mismanagement, crime, drugs, broken schools, eroding infrastructure, and hopelessness.
Detroit is the story of America’s future. Escape from Detroit: The Collapse of America’s Black Metropolis is the first of it’s kind: a book that places the blame for the complete collapse of the city on its majority population.
It serves as a clarion call – a warning – to other American cities.
REVIEW:
“Learn, Whitey, Learn!”—Paul Kersey’s ESCAPE FROM DETROIT By Peter Bradley (From Vdare.com)
In one of the best chapters of Escape From Detroit, Kersey compares the fate of Detroit to another Rust Belt city—Pittsburgh. The steel industry in Pittsburgh was hit much harder than the auto industry in Detroit in the 1970s and 80s. Yet the loss of its main industry did not cause Pittsburgh residents to riot and burn down their city. In fact, Forbes recently named Pittsburgh “The Most Livable City in America.” The Economist called Pittsburgh “The Best City in America.”
Of course, Pittsburgh is one of the whitest big cities in America while Detroit is the blackest. Whites are 65 percent of the population in Pittsburgh while blacks are only 25 percent.
Whites comprise nearly 90 percent of the greater Pittsburgh metro area.
