All the wealth that black and white workers had created was looted from the city by the capitalists and moved out to the suburbs or down to the southern United States. Along with that went the tax base of the city, and forty years later the city is falling apart due to an emaciated infrastructure. This story is shared by other cities where brown and black folks rose up to take their city back. Gary, Indiana and Newark, New Jersey are only two more examples. I’ve heard Detroit described by visitors as resembling a war zone — well that’s what it is; it’s the American Third World.
Growing up in Detroit you learn to appreciate the hidden beauty of a city gutted by white supremacy and capitalism. The resilience of the people there, despite all we’ve endured, is one testament to black civilization and oppressed peoples everywhere. I have friends from the east coast who say that Detroit and much of the Midwest has its own unique form of scathing charm that is normally attributed to the tough personality types of New York. To survive in a war zone you gotta be tough. The working classes of New York live in a city which some of the most brutal capitalists in the world call their home, and everyday they go head-to-head with these capitalists. In Detroit it’s a little different. We were left for dead, and despite that, and all the odds stacked against us, we remind the bosses, the crackers and the cops that we’re still here.

— The Landscape of Detroit [via&via]

Interestingly enough, it seems like a large part of the reason that makes it so difficult for a disruptive response to occur is, paradoxically, the history of revolt in Detroit. In Detroit, working class conflict has entirely reconfigured the urban landscape. The riots of the 1960s were a catalyst for white flight and the subsequent loss of business investment and decline in home equity. The factory struggles of the following decade were followed by years of deindustrialization and unemployment, as factories moved to areas that lacked dedicated and confrontational workplace movements. In short, Capital responded to the popular struggles of the past decades by transforming Detroit into a desolate landscape of empty streets and abandoned buildings. In this environment it is difficult to imagine many places for people to spontaneously congregate, because people are spread so far apart, separated by blocks and blocks of vacant lots and foreclosed homes.

— Detroit, Do You Mind Dying?