By Bryce Huffman
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.
