Metro-Detroiters 
march against police 
brutality 

Last weekend, The Michigan 
Daily reporters went to 11 differ-
ent protests, driving 269 miles and 
speaking to almost 100 people in 
10 cities about why they came out. 
Some said it was their first time 
protesting. Many more said they 
were used to protests in big cities, 
but they never expected protests 
of this magnitude — or even pro-
tests in general — in their subur-
ban hometowns. When asked if not 
before, why now, almost everyone 
had the same answer: People are 
tired, and they want change. 
This article is the fourth install-
ment of a four-part series on police 
brutality protests across Metro 
Detroit over the weekend of June 6 
and 7. Read part one here, part two 
here, and part three here. 
Elizabeth Taylor lives in Red-
ford and has a membership with 
the Livonia Recreation Center. 
When she and her family use the 
rec center, she said multiple peo-
ple will harass them and come up 
to them asking for their IDs. Tay-
lor said she was taught not to drive 
in Livonia and not to come to Livo-
nia unless she has to.
One among thousands protest-
ing police brutality in a city that 
has been often hostile to her and 
family, Taylor said she couldn’t 
help but get emotional.
“When I first got here, I was 
moved to tears and I tried to hold 
them back,” Taylor said. “But 
just to see all of these people, the 
white people, here with us, I do 
not know anything about this. I’m 
not used to white people being on 
my side. So this is amazing to me. 
This is an experience I will never 
forget in my life.”
Over the weekend, tens of 
thousands wore masks to march 
in suburbs throughout Metro 
Detroit against police brutality, 
joining millions across the coun-
try and around the world in wave 
after wave of protests sparked by 

the killing of George Floyd.
Throughout the latter half 
of the 1900s, the growth of the 
suburbs often came at Detroit’s 
expense, as capital and white 
residents moved out of the city in 
droves while Black residents were 
prevented from following. To this 
day, Detroit is unique among other 
metropolitan hubs across the 
country in that much of the wealth 
is concentrated in its outlying sub-
urbs rather than in the city itself. 
The majority of those arrest-
ed in the first several days of 
Detroit’s protests lived in the sub-
urbs. Through the week, protests 
began spreading to Detroit’s sub-
urbs, many of which are predomi-
nantly white.
Southfield resident Monique 
Montgomery said her 12-year-old 
daughter has been upset and trau-
matized from hearing about police 
brutality in the news, as she is now 
“at the age where she gets it.” She 
said she brought her daughter to 
the Birmingham protest because 
she wanted her daughter to see 
Black and non-Black protesters 
denouncing racism together.
“I wanted her to see that not 
everybody feels that way,” Mont-
gomery said. “It’s nice to see the 
diversity, it’s nice to see that we 
have allies. I think it’s not just 
Black people that are sick of it, all 
people are sick of it. They realize 
they can’t stay silent if they want 
change. Their children are grow-
ing up in this world too.”
The Daily contacted the Livo-
nia Police Department, but they 
did not reply in time for publica-
tion.
Below are some of the protest-
ers from Sunday on their experi-
ences with racism and what this 
current moment means to them. 
2PM - Birmingham - 91.5 per-
cent white and 2.8 percent Black 
- $118k median household income
Thousands filled the streets of 
downtown Birmingham, shutting 
down a portion of Woodward Ave-
nue, walking past pretty boulevards 
and flooding nearby neighborhoods 
with chants of “Black Lives Mat-
ter.” 

2

Thursday, June 18, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS

Academia strikes for 
Black Lives Matter 
movement

In an effort to combat systemic 
racism in the fields of academia, 
professionals in the academic and 
science, technology, engineering 
and math (STEM) communities 
across the country participated 
in 
a 
#ShutDownSTEM, 
#ShutDownAcademia 
and 
#Strike4BlackLives day on June 10.
Over 5,800 members of the 
STEM and academic community 
pledged to participate in the strike. 
The shutdown also received support 
from multiple organizations such 
as Nature and the American 
Association for the Advancement of 
Science, among others. 
Brian Nord, one of the organizers 
of the strike, is a physicist at Fermi 
National Accelerator Laboratory 
in Illinois. He wrote in a statement 
explaining how this movement 
was more than acknowledging 
marginalized groups in STEM. 
Instead, this strike is to call 
attention to the racial inequities 
Black scientists and educators face 
in the workplace and beyond.
“This is not about identifying 
with a minority or marginalized 
group or diversity and inclusion,” 
Nord wrote. “This moment is about 
Black people and the conditions 
under which we live and work. 
It is about how white supremacy 
pervades my professional spaces as 

well as my life outside of them.”
Tim McKay, professor of physics 
and astronomy and associate dean 
for undergraduate education in 
LSA, participated in the shutdown 
in hopes of initiating meaningful 
change in the STEM community. 
He said scientists must pay equal 
attention to both their innovations 
as well as the implications their 
work has on supporting racism. 
“We need to acknowledge that 
a field which is not equitable and 
inclusive cannot be excellent,” 
McKay said. “Most scientists work 
hard to become deep experts in the 
subject matter they study. We must 
also work hard to understand the 
role of science in creating race and 
supporting racism, to find out when 
and how what we do is still causing 
harm, and take action to change.” 
The day opened opportunities 
for white and non-Black people of 
color to educate themselves, take 
responsibility in creating anti-racist 
actions moving forward and develop 
safe and healing spacies for those 
affected. To McKay, that starts 
with acknowledging the inequities 
and prioritizing the dismantling of 
racism in STEM.
“Racial inequities have been 
well-documented in many areas of 
science and engineering, including 
education, hiring and employment, 
research and publication,” McKay 
said. “For too long, those of us 
working in STEM fields have 
been willing to accept external 
explanations for these inequities. 

#ShutDownStem 
demands equality 

Read more at michigandaily.com

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Tens of thousands 
protest in suburbs

