Originally Posted by Dahon.Steve
Good one...
You might have point in that racism did play a huge part. I still believe if the manufacturing plants had stayed, you might still have a middle class white population in Detroit. I live in New Jersey and Newark had a massive manufacturing base at the turn of the century. Once these plants closed, the whites left for the burbs leaving behind a large poor black population behind. Today, Newark is poor slum but it was a combination of both that changed the city. The motorcar simply made it possible for the whites to leave for greener pastures.
GM headquarters are still in the central city. Detroit had and still has auto plants within the city limits, long after white flight is complete. Unfortunately, many jobs have left, and there is virtually no public transit for city residents to commute to suburban jobs. And there are no supermarkets within the city limits!
One of the greatest ironies of 20th century America is that the auto played a central role (along with racism) in the near death of Detroit.