From 1967 Detroit To 2017, What Will It Take To Hold Police Officers Accountable?
I was born and raised on Detroit’s west side for most of my life, near Central High School and Durfee Elementary-Middle school. My family has stayed in the area for over three generations. Since the Great Migration, my great grandmother passed on stories to my great aunt, and she now tells me her account of the Detroit riots that happened only a few blocks away from where we stay. My aunt recalls being a young adult, watching TV in her room as it stretched to midnight. A state trooper outside the window motioned for her to cut it off as looting and rioting ensued, and more troopers stationed at Central High School watched the night. If you pass through my area, you’ll see the effects of the riots 50 years later. Buildings look broken down, untouched. Small food places are only known to the residents. Local businesses, like my favorite 10¢ candy store, can’t survive with a nonexistent populace….and it didn’t. What stood around the corner from me 10 year ago is closed and the building demolished. It only lives on in the memories of those it touched (or at least fed cheap sugary treats).
Although time passes, technology becomes outdated, some ideas and concepts don’t. Discrimination lives on throughout society. Racism is engrained in the American system. Gender inequality has been nurtured and maintained in the family, school, workplace, etc. When you’re born in a system that sets you up to fail, you must work 10 times harder to gain recognition for your successes. This was true for MLK, Malcom X, Nina Simone, and so many others. However, when you’re born in a system that sets you up to fail, your name may only achieve recognition in a eulogy or chants at protests following a hashtag. This was true for Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Eric Gardner, and so many others who were stripped from this world.
Detroit has a history of police brutality, but also found ways to overcome it.
America has a history of slavery, internment camps, genocide, and economic exploitation. I wonder if our nation will overcome it.
