Billboards calling out Racial Profiling
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We need your financial support to help bring awareness to racial profiling. The racial profiling of Black drivers is a widespread problem in the metropolitan Detroit area and nationally as well. This has been a problem for African Americans since 1619, even more so with the advent of the automobile more than a century ago.
A two-hour PBS documentary released in October 2020 entitled “Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America” describes how the mass production of the automobile brought new mobility for African Americans while simultaneously exposing them to more racial discrimination and deadly violence and how it continues today.
In March 2020, the Detroit Justice Center, a non-profit law firm, released an in-depth report entitled “Highway Robbery : How Metro Detroit Cops & Courts Steer Segregation and Drive Incarceration” details the current impact of racist traffic stops on African Americans.
The DCJ report pointed out that
· Metro Detroit police and courts are engaging in what amounts to highway robbery of marginalized drivers.
· The legal system pushes poor drivers into a never-ending cycle of jail and court-involvement.
· Police have strong incentives and wide discretion to target poor and Black drivers.·
· District courts extract huge sums of money from poor, Black drivers to fund local governments.
The Racial Profiling Across 8 Mile Committee seeks to build an anti-racist coalition determined to challenge racial profiling along 8 Mile Rd. and in Detroit’s suburbs. The Committee has initiated a campaign against racial profiling that includes the renting billboards with the following message:
The purpose for the billboards is to:
• Foster awareness of the racial profiling that has occurred on 8 Mile Rd. for decades.
• Validate the fear Black drivers often experience while driving down 8 Mile Rd.
• Collect narratives from people who have experienced racial profiling while driving, walking or riding a bicycle.
• Provide support to those subjected to racial profiling who want to fight back.
• Help build a coalition to mount a campaign to challenge and change the narrative of 8 Mile as the wall of racial divide in metropolitan Detroit.
Our goal is to raise funds for the campaign against racial profiling to cover the costs of organizing public events and support for victims of racial profiling, literature, and a minimum three billboards.
Each billboard cost $2,000 -$3,800 per month depending on the location. To fund three billboards for one year will cost approximately $100,000. For this project to succeed, we need your support.
Billboarding has proven to be an effective method for getting messages out. It is critical that we confront racism. Racial profiling is the gateway for many racist brutal actions. If you would like more information about this project, please call [phone redacted], email us at
[email redacted], or visit our Facebook page Racial Profiling Across 8 Mile. The press conference announcing the billboard campaign may be viewed at https://moratorium-mi.org/press-conference-announcing-8-mile-billboard/. Let’s end racial profiling by exposing it! Your donations of any amount can help make a difference. Black Lives Matter.
Three ways to donate:
1. Mail check (with memo: billboard) to
Moratorium Now Coalition
5920 Second Ave. Detroit, MI 48202
2. CashApp: $BillboardCampaign
3. GoFundMe
Sincerely,
Kenya Fentress, Community Activist
Yvonne Jones, Community Activist
Organized by Racial Profiling Across 8 Mile.
A two-hour PBS documentary released in October 2020 entitled “Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America” describes how the mass production of the automobile brought new mobility for African Americans while simultaneously exposing them to more racial discrimination and deadly violence and how it continues today.
In March 2020, the Detroit Justice Center, a non-profit law firm, released an in-depth report entitled “Highway Robbery : How Metro Detroit Cops & Courts Steer Segregation and Drive Incarceration” details the current impact of racist traffic stops on African Americans.
The DCJ report pointed out that
· Metro Detroit police and courts are engaging in what amounts to highway robbery of marginalized drivers.
· The legal system pushes poor drivers into a never-ending cycle of jail and court-involvement.
· Police have strong incentives and wide discretion to target poor and Black drivers.·
· District courts extract huge sums of money from poor, Black drivers to fund local governments.
The Racial Profiling Across 8 Mile Committee seeks to build an anti-racist coalition determined to challenge racial profiling along 8 Mile Rd. and in Detroit’s suburbs. The Committee has initiated a campaign against racial profiling that includes the renting billboards with the following message:
The purpose for the billboards is to:
• Foster awareness of the racial profiling that has occurred on 8 Mile Rd. for decades.
• Validate the fear Black drivers often experience while driving down 8 Mile Rd.
• Collect narratives from people who have experienced racial profiling while driving, walking or riding a bicycle.
• Provide support to those subjected to racial profiling who want to fight back.
• Help build a coalition to mount a campaign to challenge and change the narrative of 8 Mile as the wall of racial divide in metropolitan Detroit.
Our goal is to raise funds for the campaign against racial profiling to cover the costs of organizing public events and support for victims of racial profiling, literature, and a minimum three billboards.
Each billboard cost $2,000 -$3,800 per month depending on the location. To fund three billboards for one year will cost approximately $100,000. For this project to succeed, we need your support.
Billboarding has proven to be an effective method for getting messages out. It is critical that we confront racism. Racial profiling is the gateway for many racist brutal actions. If you would like more information about this project, please call [phone redacted], email us at
[email redacted], or visit our Facebook page Racial Profiling Across 8 Mile. The press conference announcing the billboard campaign may be viewed at https://moratorium-mi.org/press-conference-announcing-8-mile-billboard/. Let’s end racial profiling by exposing it! Your donations of any amount can help make a difference. Black Lives Matter.
Three ways to donate:
1. Mail check (with memo: billboard) to
Moratorium Now Coalition
5920 Second Ave. Detroit, MI 48202
2. CashApp: $BillboardCampaign
3. GoFundMe
Sincerely,
Kenya Fentress, Community Activist
Yvonne Jones, Community Activist
Organized by Racial Profiling Across 8 Mile.
Organizer
Moratorium NOW
Organizer
Detroit, MI