Apparently Matt Lauer doesn’t know **** from Shinola when it comes to charter schools I happened to be watching The Today Show yesterday morning (which I have only recently returned to watching after NBC fired Billy Bush), and looked up to see anchor Matt Lauer in a hair net and booties, standing in the Shinola watch assembly room in downtown Detroit. […]

Although it often gets lost in the propaganda mania of election season, ballot initiatives that impact communities at a neighborhood level are equally as important. This is why so many folks are talking about Proposals A and B in Detroit. Some pretty heavy hitters came out against Proposal A a few weeks ago and it was very telling. This is the […]

In her recent write-up, lifelong activist and community journalist Shea Howell very clearly articulated the benefits of Proposal A and the lengths schemers will go through in order to get community members to vote it down in favor of Proposal B. Howell said, “… Detroiters are being flooded with high priced, deceptive appeals for our vote.  Expensive TV and radio commercials, slick […]

There is something to be said about youth who manage to escape harsh realities imposed upon them by inhumane systems, by imagining a way forward, a more beloved community. The children who go without water, who don’t have enough to eat, who move between homes or schools many times before they leave their adolescence, yet somehow find enough humanity in […]

Kate Levy is a documentary filmmaker, artist and media activist who teaches a class at Wayne State University called “Art and Activism“. She has been hosting a series of public conversations about Art and Activism as part of the class and the series ends this evening with a panel discussion titled “Journalism and Community Organizing”. Joining me on this panel […]

Anyone shocked by this isn’t paying attention: Instead of speaking to the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International, Mr. Trump had planned to be interviewed by its pastor in a session that would be closed to the public and the news media, with questions submitted in advance. And instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign prepared […]

Yesterday I wrote about how Donald Trump is coming to Detroit on Saturday to prove to white people that he’s not racist. Though some may feel that’s a opinion, we now have proof. While he’s here, Trump will NOT be addressing the congregation of the predominantly black church where he’s taping a television interview. According to the Detroit Free Press, […]

Republicans have been trying to sort out why black people tend not to vote for their presidential candidates since they got annihilated in 2008 and then again in 2012. Nowhere is their deficit more pronounced than in Detroit which has a population that is 83% African American. In 2008, 98% of Detroit voters voted for Democrat Barack Obama. In 2014, […]

Donald Trump’s visit to Detroit yesterday seems to have made news largely because he didn’t say anything outrageous and wasn’t goaded into lashing out at over a dozen protesters who interrupted his speech. He stood quietly during each outburst then said, “Thank you”, as if he were to be commended for not telling the crowd to beat the daylights out […]

Donald Trump is in Michigan today, sharing his two-dimensional worldview at the Detroit Economic Club. As Trump returns to the Motor City, it’s worth recalling just how little he thinks of Detroit, Michigan autoworkers, and the companies that employ them. First, who can forget what Trump said the last time he was here. He essentially told Michigan autoworkers, “You make […]

Hallelujah It’s no secret that the for-profit charter school industry is like the Wild West when it comes to being able to do just about anything they want. Michigan is one of the most permissive states in the country when it comes to oversight of charter schools and there are miscreants out there taking full advantage of that in order […]