Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 10, 2021

In February, anti-racism protesters marched the streets of Grosse Pointe Park, roiled by a symbol of overt bigotry and white supremacy targeting the family of one of their Black neighbors. JeDonna Dinges was living in the city for 11 years before her neighbor displayed a Ku Klux Klan flag in full view of herhome.

For the most part, everybodys pretty friendly, Dinges tells WDET. Grosse Pointe Park has had its fair share of racially charged incidents. There have been some things that have happened in the schools, some things that happened with the police department. Some things that happened after Trump waselected.

But nothing as significant as what were dealing with right now, adds the owner of Margaux and Max, a boutique inFerndale.

Courtesy of JeDonna Dinges

Earlier this year, Dinges found a full gas can in her recycling bin. Suspecting her 31-year-old neighbor, Dinges reported the incident to the Grosse Pointe Park police, who dismissed the incident shortly after the call. Weeks later,she could see the KKK flag from the side of her home, displayed prominently to cover herneighbors window. The red flag has a white circle in which the words Indivisible Empire, Ku Klux Klan surround a blood drop cross, an active hate symbol according to the Anti-DefamationLeague.

For the past century, the primary symbol related to Ku Klux Klan groups (other than Klan robes themselves) is what Klan members may call the MIOAK (an acronym for Mystic Insignia of a Klansman,)the ADLstates.

Many Klansmen came to believe that their symbol was a cross and that the blood droprepresented blood shed to protect the whiterace.

The Klan is one of thelongest enduring white-supremacist groups in the United States, emerging after the Civil War,with a long-chronicled history of murder and brutalization of Black Americans. The group is also responsible for attacks against Jews, immigrants and LGBTQpeople.

The display of the KKK flag drew the condemnation of elected officials, community groupsand residents, who rallied in support of the Dinges family, pointing to other racial deficiencies in the five Grosse Pointecommunities.

This isnt the first time something like this has happened, but the difference is this time, more than just Black people felt like it was unacceptable, State Senator Adam Hollier (D-Detroit) said at a February 21 pressconference.

The only way these things will change is when we all recognize that our laws have to change, headded.

Grosse Pointe Park has a population of about 11,050 and is 86% white and 8% African American, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The population of Black Grosse Pointe Park residents has declined 2.5% between 2010 and 2019, according to the Southeast Michigan Council ofGovernments.

If there had been someone Black working in that police department, maybe they could have impartedsome wisdom. Maybe some historical significance around a Black person finding gasoline on their propertyand then four weeks later, finding a Klan flag. Those two things go together.- JeDonnaDinges

Young Black people have accounted for most of Grosse Pointe Parks arrests in the last decade. African Americans were arrested for 63% of the citys 164 property crimes in 2019, according to the incident-based reporting from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Over the last three years, most offenders were between 10 and 19yearsold.

Since the city was founded in 1950 71 years ago there has never been a Black or brown person patrolling the streets of Grosse Pointe Park, said Greg Bowens, a writer and co-founder of the Grosse Pointes-Harper Woods NAACP Branch, in February. These policies that have developed over time have had the effect of discriminating against traditionally marginalized Black and brown people andwomen.

Courtesy of JeDonna Dinges

The Grosse Pointe community shows their support forJeDonnaDinges.

Grosse Pointe Park is considering candidates to direct the citys public safety department, which includes the police and fire departments. Bowens suggested revising the citys police hiring practices to follow Detroits qualification standards, which would lower the minimum age from 21 to 18yearsold. Grosse Pointe Park also requires officers to have an associates degree and states a preference for applicants who have other emergency servicelicenses.

I think its time that the status quo changes, Bowenssaid.

The incident is a stress test for hate speech in Michigan and the enduring protection of the First Amendment.Prosecutors in Wayne County declined to pursue thecase.

The KKK flag, while intending to be visible to Ms. Dinges, was hanginginside of herneighbors house. We could not even begin to chargeEthnicIntimidation under current Michigan law, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in astatement.

There is absolutely no question that what happened to Ms. Dinges was despicable, traumatizing, and completely unacceptable I strongly encourage the Michigan Legislature to look, revise, and create laws to protect citizens from this kind of horribleconduct.

While the decision upset JeDonna Dinges, shes been turning her attention to other injustices in Michigan, hoping that her experience will encourage others to speak out against their owndiscrimination.

I saw this story about this young lady living in Livingston County who is 18years old, a senior in high school, who is being terrorized at school because she is a Black girl in a predominately white neighborhood, Dinges explained. Im glad that she finally spoke up. I ended up calling the Michigan Department of Civil Rights when I heard about the case. It wasnt on theirradar.

Because this happened to me, they knew who I was. If this gives me a voice to be able to help somebody else, then its worthit.

WDETs Eli Newman spoke with JeDonna Dinges to talk about the incident. Read excerpts, edited for clarity,below:

Newman: When did you start to notice your neighborsbehavior?

Dinges:I would characterize him as anti-social. We knew that there was something really off and dangerous about him about five or six years ago. He went out on his back porch and had a gun and began to shoot the gun into the air, firing multiple rounds. Of course, I called 911. The police dispatcher answered and told me that I was mistaken and that I wasnt seeing what I was seeing,that the gunshots were coming from Detroit. And I said, No, its my neighbor nextdoor.

In January, my ex-husband goes out to put the recycling in the bin and finds a gas can, smells it, realizes its [full of] gas, then we call the police. The police come out. And they asked me, How did I know how it got there?I told them I did not. They made a couple of, what I think are insane assertions. Someone had to place it there. And they asked me if I had any suspicions. I told them, I thought that it was a neighbor next door. But they ended up suggesting that I get a camera. So we put the camera there and about four weeks later, my ex-husband goes outside to take the trash out and sees the flag in the window and comes in and tells me theres a Klan flag in thewindow.

And what did you take the displaying of the KKK flag tomean?

That I can kill you. I can harm you. I am a member of the Ku Klux Klan, who has lynched. Anorganization that is terrorized and killed hundreds of Black people throughout history.I took it as athreat.

Courtesy of JeDonna Dinges

Because of the way that the Grosse Pointe Park Police Department handled the situation with the gas can I did not feel confident that they were going to do anything about the flag.So I called the attorney generals office and they told me there was nothing that they could do because of his First Amendment rights. And then I call the FBI and they said they would definitely view this as an act of ethnic intimidation. But then they began to ask me if he had yelled a racial slur to me or anything else and I told him that he had not. And they said once it escalates, call us back, which I thought again, was ridiculous. Do I have to be harmed before anyone would care? I just became discouraged. But I was furious and scared. So I posted on social media, I posted a picture of the flag and did a Facebook post and toldmy friends on Facebook that my neighbor put up a Klan flag in the window. And people started to comment like crazy and people were really upset. He took the flag down. And I knew the bigger picture. Yes, it was down, but we needed to address why he felt so comfortable. Why anybody would own a Klan flag in2021?

It strikes me because despite having your neighbors and the community rally behind you on this issue, we did see that recently Kym Worthy, the Wayne County Prosecutor,stating that she wouldnt proceed with prosecuting this case, that it didnt meet the threshold of the ethnic intimidation statute here in Michigan. Im wondering what you felt when you heard thatnews.

I was really upset that he wouldnt be prosecuted. But of course, I understood because the prosecutors office was very forthcoming. They said, Ms. Dinges, its going to be tough for us to prove all these elements because he did not threaten you, he did not call you a slur,he did not put up a sign that says Im going to kill you. He didnt do any of that stuff. They felt like three elements had been met. And this fourth element had notbeen.

To be clear, that fourth elementwas?

Contact.If he had put the Klan black flag on my property, that would have been contact. If he had defaced my property or damaged my car or flattened a tire or something like thatoryelled a threat at me or yelled a racial slur to me, that would have beencontact.

Whats really stickingwith me hearing about this story is these distinctions between free speech and what constitutes a threat.And Im wondering if you were writing a law to address this kind of issue,what do you think needs to be included in thefuture?

I think the law needs to be amended because when this law was written, everybody wasnt walking around with a cell phone. Everybody wasnt walking around with a camera in their pocket. So there may be pieces of that that need to be included. Or text messages exchanged orwas there electronic communication because we need to look at ensuring that this law has teeth so that people can be held accountable. A Klu Klux Klan flag my ex-husband is Caucasian. That flag was not put there to terrorize him. It was there to terrorize me because I am a Black person. It was there to terrorize my daughter because shes a Black person. He was not putting it in the front of his house where any person driving by would see it. It was put there to terrorize me and mydaughter.

You had mentioned that since living in Grosse Pointe Park, while you hadnt necessarily experienced overt racism to this degree, there has been a history of microaggressions or racially-tinged incidents, or howeveryou might phrase it. What would you like to see happen more local toyou?

We have to have a diverse police department. When the police department came out for the gasoline incident, if there had been someone Blackworking in that police department, even as an administrative assistant, maybe they could have impartedsome wisdom and maybe some historical significance around a Black person finding gasoline on their property that they did not place there and then four weeks later, finding a Klan flag, because those two things go together. There has to be diversity in thiscommunity.

Related:What an 1870 Race Riot Tells Us About White Supremacy inAmericaToday

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"It Was Put There to Terrorize Me": JeDonna Dinges on Her Neighbor's KKK Flag - WDET

Category: Anti-Defamation League
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