My money is yours.

Photo by Wayne Dabney

Rev. Edward Pinkney has been deprived of his liberty for the last six months. Among the most fearless fighters for Black people and poor people in Michigan, he sits in prison falsely accused of vote fraud in a recall campaign, separated from loved ones and community, in a blatant case of state repression. By imprisoning Pinkney, the officials of Berrien County and their corporate master, Whirlpool, hope to intimidate, subdue, and silence the people of Benton Harbor.

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On June 19, in celebration of the freedom we enjoy today and in solidarity against the oppression still present, we took to the streets of Ypsilanti. Blacks who participated held a freedom ceremony where all who were willing signed Freedom Papers, designed to reflect what freed slaves would have to carry if they lived in Washtenaw County. The point was to hand these freedom papers to many black people passing on the sidewalk and in the streets, all the while asking them, “Are you free?” and “Would you like to be?”

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Following up on the vigil and rally we held on the 18th (during which we stopped traffic multiple times on a main downtown thoroughfare) to mourn the loss of the nine lives forcefully and despicably taken Wednesday night during a church service in Charleston, SC, on Sunday June 21st, we gathered for a series of organized and unorganized actions to #StandWithCharleston and to decry the white supremacy under which we live that has made this country an unsafe place for black bodies to walk, to swim, to play, to breathe, to pray, and to survive.

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I was at the rally for Fredy Mencia of Ypsilanti on Saturday. It had a good turnout. In signs and speeches, the rally was in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. The organizers were welcoming of us inviting people to the Black Lives Matter community barbeque, and as I was inviting folks, I kept thinking that Fredy’s deportation date is the day before our event. He already has a ticket for the night of the 25th, having to leave his three children. However, the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, who organized the rally, has been successful multiple times in stopping the deportation of members of our community. I am hoping that many of us can help out by joining them in calling the following numbers:

President Barack Obama, comment line: 202-456-1111
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell in Washington: 202-225-4071
Detroit ICE Field Office, Director Rebecca Adducci: 313-568-6036
US ICE Headquarters, Executive Associate Director Thomas Homan,
  Director Sarah Saldana: 202-732-3000.
Dept. of Homeland Security, Secretary Jeh Johnson, comment line:
  202-282-8495.

Script:

I am calling to urge you to stop the deportation of Fredy Mencia, alien # 079-335-000. He has no criminal record, has held the same job for 15 years, and is the father of 3 small children all of whom are US citizens. He is an active member of our community and a local church leader. Please use your authority and grant him a stay of removal and stop his deportation which is scheduled for June 26th.

They were also urging people to use their social media and press connections for Fredy’s cause.

—S

Or: microaggression, and Microgramma.

At about the 3-second mark in the following video, we see an EMU police officer turn away from a black organizer and spit into the crosswalk. A moment later the camera moves past the word POLICE emblazoned on the side of a law enforcement vehicle.

A white person spitting in the presence of a black person is what may be called a microaggression. Harvard psychiatrist Chester Pierce coined the word in 1970 to describe denigrations that non-black Americans inflict on African Americans.

Perhaps as familiar as the microaggression of white spitting is Microgramma, the 1952 typeface we now know as Eurostile, whose bold capitals are used to set the words POLICE and SHERIFF on many law enforcement vehicles in Washtenaw County.

This symbolic act of spitting, and the particular styling of these typographic symbols, are linked as visual displays of hierarchy. In the first, a white subject communicates the disgust intrinsic to his sense of supremacy; while these thick, rigid capital letters of squadcar design are repeatedly deployed because they have become a trademark of superiority.