Coleman Young II links Duggan to white supremacy in campaign video

DETROIT (WJBK) - State Sen. Coleman Young II has tied Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to white supremacy in a political video. The inflammatory charge comes in a music video that doubles as a campaign ad.

"We got enough of that going on, white supremacy going on in the country," Young says. "We cannot have that in the Manoogian."

FOX 2 spoke with Young's campaign manager, Adolph Mongo, about the senator's charge. How is Mayor Duggan a white supremacist?

"When you don't think that folks in the neighborhood are suffering and you say that it's a fantasy," Mongo says. "That somebody is making it up. That is what it is. It’s racism."

Mongo and ultimately Young were referring to Duggan's response to a reporter's question about the narrative of two Detroits. One thriving; the other, hanging on. One rich, one poor. One white, one black.

The question came after Duggan trounced the competition - Sen. Young included - in the mayoral primary.

Duggan responded, "I don't know what you are looking at. The margins you are seeing tonight are historic, it appears we carried every precinct. So again, I really don't want to talk about this narrative anymore, it's a fiction coming from you. It really is."

The Duggan campaign later said the mayor misunderstood the question and thought it suggested the city was divided politically.

Even so, Young's charge resonates with his supporters but for those pulling for Mayor Duggan, it rings hollow.

"I look at the fact that things are improving, things are better now that's he's the mayor," says resident Gregory Simmons, a Duggan supporter.

"No one cared about downtown and downtown was definitely not a place where you could just walk and hang out," says Kelli White, a Coleman Young supporter. "But, now that he's there, it's a place where you can walk and hang out, but, you don't see many of us."

The Duggan campaign released a statement, saying:

"We always knew our opposition would run a campaign that tried to divide Detroiters. Sen. Young's comments in this video speak for themselves. We are going to remain focused on delivering on the mayor's commitment to building one Detroit for all of us."

The Duggan campaign went on to say that while there is too a lot of poverty and joblessness in the city, the mayor has put a dent in both with employment and scholarship programs. About 20,000 more Detroiters are working today than four years ago.