He started strong.

Coleman Young II opened the mayoral debate two weeks ago by paraphrasing Charles Dickens: “It’s the best of times for those who are privileged and the worst of times for everybody else ...”

He connected with those feeling ignored and disenfranchised by calling out their problems: residents having their water shut off, losing their homes to foreclosure and being victims of auto insurance redlining.

But then, he uttered the words that cost him the debate and sealed his electoral fate:“I’m Coleman Young the Second, and I’m asking you for your vote. It’s time to take back the Motherland for the people.”

Young may as well said “Go back to Africa.”

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It was offensive and made it easier to see why he wasn't wasn’t ready to be mayor of the nation’s 23rd largest city, which includes managing a $1.9-billion budget and 9,000 employees. As he stood there, 35 and cocky, but seeming younger, he looked exactly like what he was: a former Subway sandwich employee who came to Detroit, did two political internships and already traded once on the name of his father, the inestimable and beloved Coleman Alexander Young, to run for office.

The Second became a state senator on that name. But upon becoming term-limited in the Legislature and attempting to use that name a second time to be mayor, he failed — mostly because he forgot the most important thing about his dad: Coleman Young wasn't a racist.

I hate that The Second chose the path he did for his first mayoral run. I hate that he didn't understand that Detroit cannot be a city just for black folks, just like it cannot be a city just for white folks. That he tarnished his father’s memory with that kind of rhetoric was a shame.

Coleman Alexander Young was a proud black man and the most frugal and fiscally responsible mayor of the past 70 years. He created a city for all Detroiters even as he demanded that black residents have the same opportunities as white residents to pursue life, liberty and happiness. He was charismatic, strategically brilliant and a national icon who spurred other black leaders to run for office. Oh, how I wish he could see what Detroit has become.

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His son's loss comes as Detroit faces a crossroads bigger than any in its history, bigger than the choice after the 1967 riot, bigger than the aftermath of former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's journey to prison. Detroit, with this election, must decide what it is going to be. Tuesday’s mayoral election was a watershed moment in the city’s history. It will be seen as the moment that Detroit decided it didn’t want to be its past; it — and its residents — want to be better than that past.

The greatest shame is not that The Second ran for mayor. The greatest shame is that, had he actually built a political career in Detroit, had some victories of his own in Detroit, he might have had a shot at mayor down the road.

Instead, for the past few months, The Second was a child carrying the burden of a name too heavy for him.

"They're hoping for an upset but it’s not going to happen because he’s up against the money and the machine," Alonzo Palmer, a Democratic business owner with his finger on the pulse of the city. "He’s not ready but he could be, and I’ve been knowing him a long time, for his whole political career."

Palmer said Young was "real raw back then, but since he’s been in Lansing, he’s become a good legislator and he’s polished his skills."

Palmer said he wished The Second had run for City Council, "so he could learn the city, be on TV every day … go to all these events in these community and be up close to the people, and, in four years, be polished. … I just thought City Council would have been a better move for him at his age than to challenge Duggan."

Even a former opponent acknowledged The Second's growth as she recalled the 2006 state legislative race she lost to him.

"He said when he got here (from California) 'I worked for Subway, but the Subway thing didn't work out,' " recalled business owner and former state Rep. Maureen Stapleton. "That was his introduction to Detroit. I would take exception to the fact that he hasn't learned. He has gotten on-the-job training in the Legislature. It doesn't translate to day-to-day management of a city. I don't think (he was ready) but that is not to indicate that he isn't ready for something.

"But management of a large city like Detroit after bankruptcy, where every decision you make impacts the bottom line and matters in a way that is much more illuminated, today requires a technician and that's Mike Duggan," said Stapleton, who said she wasn't a part of the Duggan campaign "and I haven't even written him a check."

So the question now is: What's next for the son of an icon who has so closely aligned himself with his father? How does he regroup, make his own mark?

"I don’t know what he’s going to do to stay visible for four years," Palmer said. "He could be more polished. He's definitely a candidate for the future, if he stays with it. I’m just going to say his handlers probably pushed him to do this. My personal belief is, I felt that they were hoping that Duggan would stumble with some of these potential scandals that keep popping up. But Duggan is a veteran. You can’t count on that. You’ve got to get out and do the work on the street. He fell into that trap."

The Second also cannot win by trying to widen the divide that already exists in the city, further mirroring the one between city and suburb. You don't deserve to lead Detroit by exploiting its greatest weakness: its inability to move beyond segregation and a racial animus that is as strong as any in the country.

Eventually, we will all understand that the days of Detroit thriving on segregation and hate must end. Detroit’s survival and continued renaissance depend on us no longer pitting white against black. That doesn’t mean not talking about race and our racial challenges, which are numerous. It means the opposite: talking about them, confronting them and making sure that everyone who believes in Detroit embraces a united Detroit — and asking anyone else to go live somewhere else. (Yes, a year from now, someone will claim I told black people to leave Detroit, and it will be as big a lie as people saying that Coleman Alexander Young told white people to leave the city. He did not).

The decades of racist foolishness that have kept our city and region segregated have got to end.

That begins with its leaders — those seeking to make a name for themselves as well as those who think their names entitle them to glory.

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