An essay by a daughter of the CEO of Wall Street’s biggest bank that proclaimed Flint, Mich. “America’s most apocalyptic, violent city” has raised eyebrows in Michigan.
Laura Dimon, who describes herself as a journalist at the “news platform for millennials” PolicyMic published her story on the site last Thursday. Dimon, whose father is JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, described Flint as emblematic of “the hell that has become of much of America’s Rust Belt.” Her story went on to describe the country’s “manufacturing and industrial hot spots” as “mere vestiges of a bygone era that’s been eclipsed by new economic power centers like Wall Street and Silicon Valley.”
One local blogger called Dimon’s story as “series of hackneyed, banal stereotypes.” The column also drew an avalanche of responses from locals on Twitter, many of whom criticized Dimon for making generalizations about Flint without visiting the city. Furthermore, when Dimon’s piece first ran, it included a photo of a street in Israel that was mis-identified as depicting Flint. That picture was removed without explanation Friday evening, according to Deadline Detroit.
Dimon answered some of the criticism on Twitter Friday by indicating that a piece showing the more positive side of Flint was “in serious consideration.” When one critic of the piece asked Dimon what would delay her from visiting Flint and working on a new story she replied, “I’m out of the country right now.”
