I hate to take a negative article and write about it, but I can\u2019t stop thinking about the ignorant things people are saying about the shooting on Monday, so here I am\u2026<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.wxyz.com\/news\/police-woman-shot-near-hart-plaza-during-detroit-fireworks<\/p>\n
On Monday around 8pm I headed downtown with other DCBRPers to watch the fireworks\u2013it was great. We were there for about an hour before the fireworks even started but everyone was excited to see the show and it felt cool going to an event that has been a tradition in the city for so long. That said, after some time and a bit of cold rain we wanted to leave, so we headed back as the finale was starting. On the walk back I saw an article about the shooting that had apparently just happened, chose not to look too much into it, and continued back to the apartments.<\/p>\n
The next day I was at work and my dad called me worried that I had been shot. When I answered the phone and he realized I was not, in fact, shot, he calmed down and all was fine. Luckily, his concern came from being a worried parent and once I assured him I was safe he let it go. That\u2019s not the case for all of the many people who took liberty in commenting on the article. I read the article and continued to the comments on the Facebook page, and they legitimately made me feel sick. Many people suggested moving the fireworks to a \u201csafer location\u2019 so people could \u201cactually enjoy them.\u201d Others were more explicit with their disrespect and said \u201cYou can build as many hipster things you want in Detroit, but until you get rid of all the getto vagrants, Detroit is going to be Detroit.\u201d First of all, it\u2019s spelled \u201cghetto,\u201d and secondly, f*ck that. That comment is so disrespectful and unjust on so many levels: 1. The man who commented is from a suburb of Detroit and claims to know how to \u201cfix\u201d Detroit. 2. How does one determine who is and who isn\u2019t a \u201cgetto vagrant\u201d and then proceed to \u201cget rid of\u201d them? 3. What did this comment add to anything besides ignorance and pissing people off?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s throw it back to the tour we went on around Campus Martius the second week of the program. The guide told us all about how there was a policy that made it so the Detroit Free Press had to publish at least one negative headline about Detroit in each issue. The effects of this are clearly still prominent; google \u201cDetroit fireworks 2017\u201d and the first three articles are about the shooting. I\u2019m writing this and I know I\u2019m stating the obvious\u2013the world is messed up, but I want to know what we can do to change it and move forward. How do we stop people from thinking the only way to make Detroit activities safe is to move them out of Detroit? How do we get people to understand that one shooting does not speak for a city and that the way we are handling these events is divisive?<\/p>\n
I believe it has to come from the youth. I think that changing a person\u2019s belief only becomes more difficult as they grow older, so getting young people to try new things and meet new people has more potential than trying to change Rick Snyder\u2019s mind, for example. This goes back to Naim\u2019s question from Tuesday\u2013every person has a different answer for what to do, and that comes from lived experiences and personal beliefs. Rather than believing one person has the right answer I think we need to listen. Understand what makes a person believe their solution is the best, and work from there. This all sounds abstract and vague, but when the mess is as big as it is, I\u2019m not sure how to start. Overall, there is change to be made and in order to change public opinion I believe we have to start with individuals with potential to change. Bring people into programs like DCBRP to learn and experience and challenge themselves; prove to our parents that Detroit isn\u2019t innately unsafe; make conversation with people you wouldn\u2019t normally cross paths with. I\u2019ve learned more than I thought I would in half a summer here; how do we give other people that opportunity and incentivize them to take it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hate to take a negative article and write about it, but I can\u2019t stop thinking about the ignorant things people are saying about the shooting on Monday, so here I am\u2026 http:\/\/www.wxyz.com\/news\/police-woman-shot-near-hart-plaza-during-detroit-fireworks On Monday around 8pm I headed downtown with other DCBRPers to watch the fireworks\u2013it was great. We were there for about an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1669,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15716,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454\/revisions\/15716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}