As a resident of Detroit for many years, I understand the comments you get from friends outside New Orleans. I would often get the same sorts of comments from people living in the Detroit suburbs, who had internalized the myth that Detroit, an overwhelmingly Black city, is hyper dangerous. In fact, not so long ago before he died, my Black writer friend Brian Mack told me he hesitated to move to Detroit because of its high crime rate.

But the thing is, people who live in Detroit know the reality. Random violence is very rare. Violence by cop is rare too. It happens sometimes, but the Detroit Police Department is more sensitive than most to racist law enforcement paradigms, and they're usually pretty careful not to sow mistrust.

Yes, there are violence problems in neighborhoods that have been largely abandoned by white flight. But Detroiters are slowly but surely reclaiming those neighborhoods or repurposing them to nonresidential use.

Ask anyone who lives in Detroit, and they'll tell you it's a nice place to live — inexpensive, culturally vibrant, diverse, and (believe it or not) quite safe.

Detroit is poor. It's Black. Schools are in rough shape due to generations of racist neglect by the state government. But the myth that it's some kind of war zone is just so much racist hoo ha.

Neighbors in Detroit care about one another. They help each other out, even if the Other is a middle-aged gay white man like me.

The racist myth of Black on Black violence perpetuates all sorts of untrue ideas about Detroit.

The myth is hurting Detroit as badly as the white flight that emptied many neighborhoods.