I sat on the Fox2 soundstage Sunday prepared to talk about whether Detroit should continue to have a convention center named for a dead racist mayor who made black people's lives miserable when the host said: Next, we're going to talk about whether Kid Rock should be the first to perform at Little Caesars Arena.

And I thought: Dang. I don't want to talk about that.

When the concert was announced, I didn't get upset about it. And I know why: Little Caesars Arena is a hockey arena. Many crowds over the years, I suspect, have been fans of performers like Kid Rock. I didn’t put his concert on my calendar.

On the air, I said, truthfully, that Kid was not the performer I would have chosen. No local performer was just right, was someone who could embrace young and old, rock and soul, left and right. And I said I thought Olympia should have gone with a national performer.

I also said that Kid's recent politics were a part of the growing problem in America and a continuing problem in a city that is still majority black and where many longtime residents feel the city’s renaissance isn’t for them.

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But after Sunday’s show, I thought, waymint, here we go again:

Like President Donald Trump offering distraction after distraction from real issues, Kid Rock and his mic have been the hot topic of conversation for the past week when what we really should be talking about is the threat of nuclear war with Korea, jobs, whether our country has been sold to Russia, jobs, the status of Detroit's schools, jobs, moving the renaissance from the 7.2-mile swatch of Midtown and downtown to the neighborhoods where residents held Detroit down when it was down — and jobs, jobs, jobs.

Kid Rock's upcoming performance at the LCA shouldn't distract us from real Detroit issues such as ensuring that the city's renaissance reaches all of its residents.

Detroit is still down in many areas.

Our schools don't have enough teachers.



Our residents don't have enough jobs.



And the arena's builders aren't hiring the number of Detroit workers they said they would.

And we just commemorated a 50-year-old civil disturbance and moved on, like nothing happened.

I say we have bigger fish to fry. So why are we talking about Kid Rock?

Yes, the LCA has a big footprint, and it may represent more culturally to some folks than others. But to me, it’s a hockey arena that will have basketball games and concerts. (I set foot in the Joe three times in 20 years, once for a hockey game, once for a Justin Timberlake concert and once for a Madonna concert. I remember the concerts.)

The issue is not Kid Rock. He's a Trump tweet.

This community really is trying. We need healing. We need more collaboration. We need more understanding of diversity, in all its forms. This community, for the first time in a long time, really is attempting across all levels to change what Detroit is and prove that it won’t be what it once was.

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The issue is whether it, whether everyone, is trying hard enough: We must stop talking about it and what it takes to fix the problems that plague us. We must stop ignoring adult illiteracy, when we know it is keeping some people from jobs. We must address a leadership void that keeps annual ballots full of people with poor judgment, bad pasts or who treat running for city leadership like Uber: an easy job.

Did Olympia make a mistake? Sure. Were its officials tone-deaf in choosing the Kid to celebrate the city’s latest venue? Yes, they were.

But I don’t give a damn about Kid Rock. Anyone who thinks he’s going to turn someone racist really doesn’t get how that works.

And I’m more concerned that Olympia has not lived up to its promise to hire Detroit workers, paying chump change fines for the privilege.

Our eye should be on the real ball, the ball Detroiters paid for with school dollars, and that’s the arena construction, neighborhood construction and jobs promised. It’s time to tear up the old agreement signed for the arena and write a new one with fines commensurate with reneging on important promises. Olympia should not be spending millions on training funds because they're not hiring the number of workers the city required, but tens of millions in fines — every day it breaks its promises.

Yes, the challenge in recent months has been that Kid Rock has publicly embraced Donald Trump's defense of white nationalists and may have aligned himself with white supremacists empowered by his behavior.

But does that mean Kid Rock should be banned from claiming Detroit or a performing in a public arena? Or does the same First Amendment that protects NFL star Colin Kaepernick protect Kid? I haven't watched a single pre-season NFL game (heartbreaking for a Lions fan who founded the Coach Caldwell Club on Twitter and believes they'll go to the Super Bowl if they ever let Matthew Stafford go). I haven’t because I support Kaepernick's right to protest.

So I won't go to a Kid Rock concert or restaurant at Little Caesar's. But here's why it's important for him to play there.

The Detroit we're building, the Detroit whose renaissance is tenuous, as politics and impatience combine to threaten it every week, must be a place for everybody. It cannot be a place where we preach diversity, then ignore it when it's convenient.

Detroit must be a place for everybody. That’s why I was able to see Paul McCartney at Comerica Park and Gladys Knight at the Soundboard and Madonna at the Joe and the O'Jays at Chene Park.

We're building a big city again. We cannot be a small town where some things — and people — aren't allowed. If Kid Rock has decided to become a full-time racist, to wallow in the Trumpism that has overtaken the country and empowered white nationalists, it's his right. If he wants to run for Senate, let him, so Sen. Debbie Stabenow can wipe the floor with him. And if he loses badly enough in politics, perhaps it will end a possible stampede of unqualified entertainers deciding to go to Washington.

But we can’t make Detroit’s future about whether a loudmouth rocker who isn’t in charge of anything in Detroit takes a mic.

Unlike the debate over removing the name of the late Mayor Albert Cobo — who helped usher in an era of discrimination against black people so great that it helped caused a population loss from which the city has never recovered and helped lead to the Detroit uprising in 1967 — the debate about Kid Rock is about how it looks.

Little Caesar's is an entertainment venue whose diversity will be determined by what the market will bear. That’s why the Weeknd is on the schedule this fall. In this new Detroit we're building, there has to be room for everyone — from megastar rappers who use the N-word, to greasy rockers silly enough to hug the Trump.

I don't have to love Kid Rock. I don’t have to fear Kid Rock.

And just like Chene Park scheduling R. Kelly to perform didn't keep me from literally running over there to scream like a 16-year-old girl at Smokey Robinson, I can’t focus on Little Caesar's letting a Kid into play.

But here’s an idea: If Christopher Ilitch and his family want to make a bold statement for Detroit. They could book someone on 9/11 — what a fitting date — to open the LCA before Kid does, to christen the new arena to assuage fears that Kid is ushering in something.

Perhaps they could invite 1,000 church choirs with their congregations for a massive inauguration eve concert, or ask Louis C.K, Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld if they can spare a minute to come make sure a city stays on track.

Olympia could come up with something unifying rather than divisive.

We have to make a choice: Embrace the diversity we've championed for so long or continue to fight about everything.

I'm not interested in fighting about Kid Rock. We have bigger fish to fry and cannot afford to be distracted by the latest shiny toy.

And one day, I will go to the LCA. I know exactly when: I plan to be as close to the stage as possible when the Eagles come to town.

Rochelle Riley to interview Dan Gilbert on new radio show.

Rochelle Riley will have an exclusive interview with Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert on her inaugural radio talk show on 910AM at 6 p.m. today.The pair will talk about whether Detroit's renaissance is real. You can listen to her radio show 6 to 7 p.m. weekdays beginning today on Detroit 910AM Radio Superstation and at www.910amsuperstation.com/watch-live/#.

Contact Rochelle Riley: rriley99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @rochelleriley. You can pre-order her new book "The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery" (Wayne State University Press, 2018) from Wayne State University.