Detroit skyline

[Beachbum]

I had to go to downtown Windsor on Friday, so I took shot of the Detroit skyline.



In the picture, it really doesn't look like the hellhole it really is.

On the Canadian side, the municipal government has spent years buying up as much of the riverfront as possible and making it into family friendly space.




But even then, when I got back home I was glad just to have a nice view of a squirrel in the back yard munching on a corn cob left over from the cornfield behind the house .

[ralph]

Nice Squirrel Beachbum, as is the photo of the Detroit skyline, but 'Not looking like the 'hell-hole it really is', leaves me wanting to know more. You obviously know the place, care to tell us a little about it? I always find that sort of thing interesting.

[Bushmermaid]

I always thought of Detroit as an industrial area but your photos give a completely different image to what was in my mind.
Didn't Ugly Betty come from Detroit?

[Beachbum]

Nice Squirrel Beachbum, as is the photo of the Detroit skyline, but 'Not looking like the 'hell-hole it really is', leaves me wanting to know more. You obviously know the place, care to tell us a little about it? I always find that sort of thing interesting.

Detroit used to be the automotive capital of the world, but sadly it has fallen on hard times.

With the decline of the domestic auto industry, many of the people who had good paying jobs were forced to abandon nice homes when they could no longer pay the mortgage.

In some areas, in every street, almost a third of the houses have been abandoned, have fallen into serious disrepair and are often used by the homeless and d*ug users as crash pads.

I read somewhere that the average house price in Detroit is $10,000.00 which would buy you a half decent used car and still nobody wants to buy them because the city is flat broke.

Street lighting and road repairs are almost non existent and stuff you would normally expect like garbage pickup and snow removal are spotty.

The previous mayor is recently out of prison for graft related offences and has just been further convicted of serious additional Federal charges including Racketeering for which he is to be sentenced soon.

Reports say about a third of the population is functionally illiterate.

Most years Detroit and New Orleans are in competition as murder capital USA.

I watch the Detroit TV news most days and there is rarely a day where they aren’t reporting a shooting or armed robberies.

I was going through Detroit a few years ago and took a wrong turn and ended up on one of the worst streets, which went on for miles. As a honky in a nice car, I had to be very careful to time the traffic lights so that I hit them all on green.

Yes Ugly Betty said she was from Detroit, but I’m guessing she lived somewhere north of Nine Mile Road which is the dividing point at which things get much better.

[gnads]

Hard times alright .... & the GFC outfall put the last nail in the car industry & Detroits coffin.

I have also heard it called at regular occasions that it was the murder capital of the US.

[GRUMPO THE THIRD]

Detroit has very large numbers of black people living there, a remnant from the car factories. Beachbum implies that 'Honkeys' (white people) are being preyed upon. As for the mayor, if he is letting crime go unpunished then the small minded criminals will let him get away with the big crimes.

Can anybody tell me why the name Honkey is used by some black people against some white people?

[Pilot]

Maybe if they spent a little of the money they waste in the middle east on problems at home things for poor Americans might improve, mind you they seem hell bent on selling their industries to China at the moment !

[Pilot]

honkey

Term for caucasian. Derogatory.
Origin unknown for certain.
Possibly derived from the Wolof word "xonk" (pronounced like "honk," but with a guttural H at the beginning), meaning "red." Wolof people in West Africa sometimes call white people "xonk-nopp," or "red-ears." It has been speculated that first generation Wolof-speaking slaves may have popularized this term.

Skeptics might point out that the most slaves came from south-west Africa and further east in West-Africa than Senegal, where Wolof people live.

However, many slaves passed through Goree' Island, near Dakar, the largest Wolof city. So the term could have been popularized there.
Also, the Wolof language, having developed as a trade language, is relatively easy to pick up in its most basic form. It is also a rather staccato and crisp language, which might make it easier for non-speakers to pick up on particular words. Lastly, Wolof is spoken in a way that seems unnecessarily aggressive, even when its not intended to be. (The Wolof are sometimes referred to as the "Germans of Africa") This all might tend to make make a derogatory Wolof word catch on relatively faster than a similar Mandink or Ibo word among a multilingual group like first generation slaves.
Xonk-nopp yii, dafa sajjkat. Dumu begg liggey daara, wante Man, mes na liggey bes bu nekk. Xonk-nopp, dafa begg-togg rekk. Dafa am nopp bu Xonk ndakte Yalla dumu ko begg.

Lazy thief honkey doesn't want to work, but I have to do all the work. He just wants to sit. His ears are red because God hates him.

[mr-angry]

Thay can call me a Honkey, they can call me anything they like, and I won't be offended, if anything I'll be quite chuffed if they do.

[GRUMPO THE THIRD]

honkey

Term for caucasian. Derogatory.
Origin unknown for certain.
Possibly derived from the Wolof word "xonk" (pronounced like "honk," but with a guttural H at the beginning), meaning "red." Wolof people in West Africa sometimes call white people "xonk-nopp," or "red-ears." It has been speculated that first generation Wolof-speaking slaves may have popularized this term.

Skeptics might point out that the most slaves came from south-west Africa and further east in West-Africa than Senegal, where Wolof people live.

However, many slaves passed through Goree' Island, near Dakar, the largest Wolof city. So the term could have been popularized there.
Also, the Wolof language, having developed as a trade language, is relatively easy to pick up in its most basic form. It is also a rather staccato and crisp language, which might make it easier for non-speakers to pick up on particular words. Lastly, Wolof is spoken in a way that seems unnecessarily aggressive, even when its not intended to be. (The Wolof are sometimes referred to as the "Germans of Africa") This all might tend to make make a derogatory Wolof word catch on relatively faster than a similar Mandink or Ibo word among a multilingual group like first generation slaves.
Xonk-nopp yii, dafa sajjkat. Dumu begg liggey daara, wante Man, mes na liggey bes bu nekk. Xonk-nopp, dafa begg-togg rekk. Dafa am nopp bu Xonk ndakte Yalla dumu ko begg.

Lazy thief honkey doesn't want to work, but I have to do all the work. He just wants to sit. His ears are red because God hates him.

Thank you for your answer matey, but there was no need to refer to me like that. God loves me, I am his little sunbeam.