A Reflection of sorts

Looking back I have thought that the weekly group meetings would have been more formal than they actually turned out to be.  I expected to walk through museum exhibits or watch my peers do extensive research for their group meetings so that we learn about various historical events in Detroit.  Instead we got… bowling trips, team-building games, and of course the lesson on hustle dances that our team provided.  I wonder if our team had set the standard for what our meetings would be, but if anything, I like it this way.  These meetings in my opinion provided the best of both worlds, providing information about the city I live in as well as a chance to bond with my fellow DCBRPers.

The one meeting that met my original expectations was the one seminar we had at the Unitarian Universalist Church.  There we learned about a specific event that happened at the Algiers motel during the ’67 Race Riots as well as have a discussion on race relations in Detroit.  The was a time where I was annoyed at a speaker for choosing to ignore race in his discussions of oppression in exchange for talking more about class and capitalism, but I did enjoy hearing older Detroiters speak about these issues.  I have only heard bits and pieces about the race riots from my mother as she was young while these occurred.  It encourages me to look more into this part of my city’s history.  I find this to be a unique opportunity to take part in this program as the 50 year anniversary of the race riots soon approaches.  I think it gives more opportunities to learn about the nuances of the issues that our city faces in regards to race and class oppression.