Here is how the Detroit News describes the scene as the council described a proposal for the Cobo Center expansion deal — advocated by white union officials:
Speakers advocating for the deal were taunted by the crowd and cut short by Council President Monica Conyers, who presided over the hearing like an angry bulldog; whites were advised by the citizens to, “Go home.”
Opponents were allowed to rant and ramble on uninterrupted about “those people” who want to steal Detroit’s assets and profit from the city’s labors.
A pitiful Teamster official who practically crawled to the table on his knees expressing profuse respect for this disrespectful body was battered by both the crowd and the council.
When he dared suggest that an improved Cobo Center would create more good-paying jobs for union workers, Conyers reminded him, “Those workers look like you; they don’t look like me.”
Desperate, he invoked President Barack Obama’s message of unity and was angrily warned, “Don’t you say his name here.”
The Detroit City Council and prior Mayor have been spending an inordinate amount of time recently dodging or answering criminal charges, here.
I have tried to find a video of this session, perhaps someone can locate it. With any other city council, this story would be dismissed as fanciful. Yet, I can find no threat of defamation from Monica Conyers or a denial of record. If this story is untrue, there should be a lawsuit. If this account (widely published) is accurate, it is not clear why there has not been a greater outcry. There may be good reasons to opposed this deal, though the mayor and others support it. The scene described above however would never be tolerated if the scene were reversed with black citizens told to go home and referenced according to their skin color.
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