Source: JeDonna Matthews Dinges / J.D.
The Metro Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe finds itself under media scrutiny after a Black resident there was reportedly assaulted with a visual hate crime. JeDonna Matthews Dinges, a Black woman, says that a neighbor at a house adjacent to hers displayed a Ku Klux Klan flag, but she’s not taking the threat lightly and has challenged the issue head on.
Deadline Detroit columnist Greg Bowens penned a new piece this week detailing Dinges’ ongoing saga with her white neighbor and the KKK flag. Dinges, who is a longtime resident of the coastal Michigan area and raised her child there, is a successful business owner in the region.
In Bowens’ piece, Dinges shared that this past Tuesday (Feb. 16), she opened the side window of her home and saw the KKK flag emblazoned in the neighbor’s window. Fearful that local police wouldn’t do much about the threat, Dinges says she reached out to her friends and neighbors who all advised that she reach out to the state attorney’s office. She was met with an expected answer that there was nothing legally they could do since the flag on the person’s private property.
However, as the column notes, there are clear rules from the federal level regarding hate crimes and this act from the neighbor was essentially that. After the image of the flag in the window posted by her neighbors went viral, Dinges spoke with two detectives from the Public Safety office regarding the incident. There was a rudimentary investigation but it was fruitless.
Bowens added that Deadline Detroit knocked on the neighbor’s door for comments but there was no answer. The outlet also contacted local police, who also seemingly treated the issue as a simple nuisance. The outlet did manage to get some Grosse Pointe Park council members to comment on the matter, one stating that “there’s no room for hate in our community.”
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Photo: JeDonna Matthews Dinges
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