Ted Nugent shows his true colors.

[caraher]

7. The election of Mayor Young was indeed a pivotal moment

It's when the white-flight already in progress kicked into high gear, as the most severely racist whites fled en masse, plunging property values in the city and plunging tax revenues. It was the moment that the likes of Nugent said "fuck it" and began creating suburban bunkers, because they'd rather pull up stakes than share power as part of a larger community.

I was a 9-year-old Detroiter when this happened, yet it was completely obvious that Young's policies had nothing to do with anything more offensive to the whites who fled than standing up against the blatant racism of the police force. The election pitted Young against John Nichols, who had been in charge of the police, and I was scared to death that Nichols would win. I didn't realize this at the time, but the city was then split roughly 50/50 between whites and African Americans. Young got 92% of the African American vote; Nichols 91% of the white vote!

Any honest discussion of the decline of Detroit from the glory days of Nugent's youth must tackle the question of racism head-on. But as we all know, the Nuge would rather shit his pants than display any kind of real courage, such as facing the painful legacy of racism in Detroit would require.