Southfield is a middle-class suburb directly adjoining Detroit. I lived there for the first seven years of my life, in a three-bedroom ranch with a crawl space. Growing up, it was a fairly white place, with the only “ethnic diversity” being a significant Jewish population. In the last generation, though, the area has changed substantially, and is now 70% black, as middle-class blacks have fled Detroit. Periodically on a visit to my parents, we drive through the neighborhood and it looks much the same. Like Ferguson, its officials are still mainly white — the mayor, 4 / 7ths of the councilmen, the city clerk, and the treasurer. But unlike Ferguson, the city has retained its middle-classness, and has a major retail presence as well as a substantial business area, with corporate headquarters for multiple firms. You might almost say it’s the “anti-Ferguson.”
All of which is context for a news report a facebook friend linked to: “Controversial flier causes outrage in Southfield.” The flier in question pictures the white elected officials and candidates for office* and says “let’s get the blacks out of Southfield in November.” Another report shows a further flyer, with a man in a KKK rob shooting a black child.
(*Interestingly, the flyer shows pictures of two white police deputies, not the police chief himself — because the chief of police is black.)
Is this the work of genuine — and stupid — racists? Or is this a hoax, meant to generate support by the majority black community for black candidates? The race for mayor will, in fact, be between a black woman and a white man, but I don’t have any reason to belief that race is an issue. Outside agitators are suspected — but which side are they on? If they are racists hoping to get whites to rise up, they’re the dumbest racist agitators I’ve heard of.
UPDATE: The more I think about it, the more I conclude that this second flyer makes it clear that this is a hoax meant to look like a racist threat. After all, if you were a racist agitator wanting to rally closet racists to your cause, in Southfield, Michigan, would you really choose these images? IT’s a KKK-robed man shooting a boy wearing a hoodie with Skittles in his hand, with a Confederate flag in the background. These are images meant to speak to the fears of blacks, not whites — for whom you’d choose images that speak to fears that Detroit’s criminals have “hit 8 Mile Road” and are coming to Southfield.