Opinion: The first step in closing Detroit’s wealth gap: Dare to say Black

Imagine a city where Black businesses have equal access to capital and opportunities as other businesses.

Imagine a city where small businesses are front seat drivers of economic development because the city recognizes them not only as  homegrown employers, but as critical partners in the growth and infrastructure of the city.

Imagine a city so committed to closing the racial wealth gap, that every decision it makes analyzes racial equity impacts and only commits to policies that are unapologetic about closing it.

Imagine a city where conversations on equity include housing and jobs, but also include bold steps to build Black wealth for generations. 

Imagine a city unafraid of the word Black. 

Saying everything but Black

You'd have to imagine a different debate than the conversations around the Community Benefits Agreement for the District Detroit.

Tuesday, the Detroit City Council approved the Community Benefits Agreement that will allow the 10-building redevelopment in Detroit's arena district to move forward. Developers Olympia and Related Cos. have asked for $800 million in tax subsidies for the $1.5 billion project. In return, developers were required to negotiate an agreement to provide direct benefit to the community.

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A centerpiece of the community benefits agreement was the developers' commitment to spend $100 million of their own money with disadvantaged and Detroit-based businesses. There was also a commitment to a tenant improvement fund for disadvantaged businesses. But one of the biggest sticking points during the City Council debate on the community benefits package was the definition of a disadvantaged business.

This is important.

Detroit is the Blackest city in America, but the agreement that formalizes what these developers will do for our community doesn't say Black. It uses euphemisms like "Detroit-based" and "disadvantaged," conflating Blackness and poverty.

Words matter

The city and the developers stated that they were afraid of being sued if they were more specific in assigning a definition to disadvantaged business. 

Our state constitution prohibits preferential treatment based on race when spending public money. The exact language states: "The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."

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It is this prohibition for preferences in public contracts that the developers and the city said prohibited them from defining disadvantaged businesses — even though the contracts the developers committed to would not be public, but private. 

The goal of the Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance is to help close the racial wealth gap by creating programs and advocating for policies that result in thriving Black business. The Kellogg Foundation report, "The Business Case for Racial Equity," said that the gap it documented — a white family with the same income and education as a Black family has nine times the wealth of that Black family — is costing the State of Michigan billions of dollars. 

You can’t even begin to close the racial wealth gap if you don't acknowledge race. 

We have to try

Only those that attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible. 

I imagine a Detroit where Black is not a word we are hesitant to speak. I imagine a Detroit where the majority of the population's race isn’t a bad word. 

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I imagine a Detroit where with every single project, policy and program we have the overly ambitious goal of solving for once and for all, the expensive centuries long curse of racism. 

We have to at least try. 

We can change the world

Imagine if our civil rights leaders had only acted when they were certain there would be no litigation.

And we have done bold — absurd — things before. 

When the city had ambitious plans to bring down the cost of auto insurance for Detroiters, it knew litigation would occur, but our leaders kept moving forward. It was the right thing to do.

When the city had ambitious plans for a marijuana social equity plan, it knew there could be litigation, but kept going, because it was the right thing to do.

Being unapologetic about race and closing the racial wealth gap is the right thing to do. We can no longer stop because we fear litigation. 

There are several major projects happening downtown, not far from Black Bottom, where an entire community was uprooted and destroyed. Black families and businesses have suffered for centuries and decades due to intentional policies that stopped them from acquiring and building wealth. This has resulted in a widening wealth gap that is costing our state billions of dollars.  We are long overdue for bold steps to rectify and repair the past. 

Imagine what could happen if the city government’s economic development policies were about building Black wealth? Imagine what could happen if our economic development policies were unapologetically aligned with closing the racial wealth gap. Imagine if there was real Black power in our real Black city. What if we were the city to solve this problem for once and for all?

We could change the world. 

Charity Dean is the president and CEO of the Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance. Contact the Detroit Free Press Editorial Page: letters@freepress.com.