A wave of protests against police brutality and white supremacy has spread across the country for two months, and metro Detroit is no different. Black Lives Matter rallies have been held in the city and its suburbs in the wake of the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd earlier this year.

These protests and conversations about defunding police departments have included people from the suburbs and have mostly happened in Detroit. Now, suburbanites are engaging with the history and policies of their communities.
Delisha Upshaw is a Black woman who lives in Livonia, a suburb that is more than 90 percent white, with more white residents than the entire city of Detroit.
Upshaw is part of the group Livonia Citizens Caring About Black Lives, which put up a controversial billboard off I-96 last week that reads: “Driving While Black? Racial profiling ahead Welcome to Livonia.”
She says she wanted to bring attention to racism in her city.


“I have an advertising and marketing background, so I thought ‘How can we force people into this conversation and how can we force people into action?’” Upshaw said. “That’s how we came up with the exact words and message of the billboard.”
Racism won’t go away if people are able to ignore it, says Upshaw who feared that would happen if Livonia Citizens Caring About Black Lives had gone for a “safer” approach.
“I have a 13-year-old daughter who is going to be driving, and the more I learned from people’s personal anecdotes and stuff about police stopping Black people more often, I knew I didn’t want that for my child,” she said.
https://www.bridgedetroit.com/detroi...sundown-towns/
As 38 year old black man I can relate to this on so many levels. I can joke about it now, getting pulled over in that shithole is almost a black right of passage. My dad worked for GM and he always had nice cars. I can remember as teenager him always giving explicit instructions anytime I wanted to borrow his car to not take out side out the city. Not that it didn't stop me from getting stopped in my car one night when I was in my early 20's, in Livonia, after hanging out with college friend over a summer break. The excuse they gave was my tail lights were "dim". I can remember one of the cops asking me if he could take a look around my car. Thankfully, my parents taught to know my rights. But I was nervous as hell telling that asshole no. Even when they asked me to step of out the car and did their bs what do have hide line of questioning I stood my ground. And I'll say even almost 20 years later I avoid driving in that city.