Well-meaning residents gathered recently in Howell to discuss the latest ugly incident in which a handful of racists and/or white supremacists descended upon the area to broadcast their hateful rhetoric. Part of the discussion was a doleful complaint about how media coverage inevitably focuses on the area’s reputation as a racist hotbed.
Not one person at the meeting was Black. Perhaps that’s all I need to say.
But I will say more. Mostly, that the group’s reaction can be seen as less attuned to racist, antisemitic, or homophobic attitudes, and more directed to the fact that their feelings were hurt by news attention. So much so that the City of Howell is considering hiring a PR firm so that it more effectively fights back against such coverage.
Well, that should fix things.
Former U.S. Rep. Elisa Slotkin, who represented Livingston County until being elected to the U.S. Senate in November, attended the meeting. She wondered whether the Livingston County incidents would have been covered the same had they occurred in, say, South Lyon.
She needn’t have offered a hypothetical. We have actual evidence of the difference.
A few weeks apart in 2021, Drag Queen bingo fund-raisers were planned in both Howell and South Lyon. In South Lyon there was no story because there was no story. People went to the event, supported the local charity, and enjoyed a fun night out. In Howell, by contrast, the news stories told of intolerance, a threatened festival shutdown, rumors of violence, and, ultimately, the cancellation of the event. So, yes, there was a difference.
The news coverage was different because the community reaction was different.
The Howell story gained legs after a mid-level Republican politician went online to clutch her pearls because youngsters would be exposed to this travesty (even though one might wonder if the real problem would be youngsters running free late at night in a beer tent.)
Rather than ignore the complaint, the Howell city government went – and I want to use the correct technical term for this – batshit crazy. They went so far as to hold an emergency meeting – violating the Open Meetings Act – and voted not just to curtail the bingo event but to shut down the entire Melon Fest, a mainstay in the community for more than a half-century.
Some justified the panic attack by saying they were worried about violence. But what does that say about a community’s level of tolerance that a late-night bingo event at a beer tent would be threatened by local vigilantes?
The response by the city and other civic leaders is wrong-headed to the point of ludicrousness, including the reference to a silly regional report that says an impediment to our community’s growth is its racist reputation.
That report is a crock. The county does not face growth impediments. Since the late 1960s it has steadily been one of the fastest growing areas in the state. Depending on the measuring stick, it’s either first or second in personal and household income. Unemployment is almost always low. The county usually leads the state in having the fewest percentage of residents on public assistance. And so on. I’d like someone to describe the economic damage that has been done to the area because of a negative reputation regarding race.
But this misses the point. You don’t treat people well and reach out to marginalized populations because it’s good for business. You do it because it’s the right thing to do. You don’t get your knickers in a knot because some out-of-town news service takes the easy way out in exploiting a story that will get hits on the internet. Instead, you wonder why it is that the head of the major political party in the county knows she will suffer no consequences when she uses a minority population as her punching bag.
Such answers will come from talking with the people who are affected, not by getting together to make some white noise about the unfairness of media reports.
Census estimates put the county’s Black population at about 2,000. There are also gays, people who are transgender, and other minorities. Talk to them. Ask them if their biggest problem is unfair media depictions of the area. Ask them what it is like to live, work, and go to school here.
Then go to the school district and ask how they teach American history. Do they include a fair and comprehensive look at slavery, Jim Crow, voter suppression, and mass incarceration? Or have they caved to the loudmouths who levy false Critical Race Theory and DEI accusations? If it’s the latter, then encourage the school district to change course, and offer them support – both behind the scenes and at school board meetings – when the inevitable backlash surfaces.
It’s almost certain that the minority population in the county will not grow much in the foreseeable future, but we can at least try to improve the odds that the children who graduate from our schools have a clear-eyed view of the country’s history – both the good and the bad.
It is all well and good to publicly speak out when these vile demonstrations pop up in the area. But worrying about the short-term negative press is missing the point. By itself, it comes off a bit like self-satisfied back-patting.
Such a look, frankly, is bad PR.
Editor’s note: You can read all our coverage of the Drag Queen Bingo controversy by clicking here.
