Eli Day
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Articles by Eli Day
Detroit’s ‘teen takeover’ panic revives an old racist media playbook
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1996, the country was awash in panicked stories from the mainstream media about the latest supposed threat to public safety: a generation of teenage “superpredators” roaming the concrete jungles of major Black neighborhoods and cities. Cities like Detroit. “‘Superpredators’ Arrive: Should we cage the new breed of vicious kids?” said one Newsweek headline, eagerly likening Black children to uncontrollable animals.
The Progressives Propelling Abdul El-Sayed Forward in Michigan
The Progressives Propelling Abdul El-Sayed Forward in Michigan Published May 14, 2026 “It just shouldn’t be this hard,” Abdul El-Sayed, the insurgent candidate for Michigan’s open Senate seat, says to a packed Mumford High School auditorium in Detroit’s northwestern corner.
The Progressives Propelling Abdul El-Sayed Forward in Michigan
“It just shouldn’t be this hard,” Abdul El-Sayed, the insurgent candidate for Michigan’s open Senate seat, says to a packed Mumford High School auditorium in Detroit’s northwestern corner. “Shouldn’t be this hard to afford a second bag of groceries,” “to get your kid to a doctor,” or “to pay your taxes and know that that money’s gonna be spent on you and your kids instead of dropping bombs on other people and their kids.” El-Sayed is here with Vermont Sen.
The American Prospect
Posted inPolitics Activists are building a political home for the Michigan Senate candidate’s anti-corruption, anti-war populist message. Posted inPolitics Anti-war activists want to channel the pain of Arab American and Muslim communities to register a vote of no confidence in Biden’s support for Israel’s devastation of Gaza. Posted inPolitics Stacey Abrams, Raphael Warnock, and racial and economic justice groups are fighting to consolidate Biden’s 2020 victory.
The Pistons are making a run for it
Early in the season the Detroit Pistons were already widely considered the “best story in basketball.” With less than two months left before the playoffs, they now have the best record in the Eastern Conference to go with it. And it often doesn’t even feel close.
The Next Fight in the Democratic Party
Eli Day June 5, 2025 At the SAY Detroit Play Center on the city’s east side, Kendrick Lamar’s hit “Not Like Us” blasts over the speakers as Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney greets dozens of supporters on his way to the stage. It’s late April and McKinney is back in his old neighborhood in Michigan’s 11th House District, one of the poorest in the state, to declare his primary challenge to Rep.
Opinion: The case for social housing in Detroit
You don’t have to be an expert to know that the way we’ve chosen to do housing in this country is horribly dysfunctional. Rents are too high, supply is too low, banks and credit agencies are still discriminatory dinosaurs, and neighborhood segregation is still rampant. On top of all that, Detroiters were recently reminded that the status quo is also deadly.
Detroit Is More Than Just a Melting Pot
(Alex Webb / Magnum Photos) Politics / Photo Essay / October 31, 2024 Detroit Is More Than Just a Melting Pot With a storied legacy of collective organizing, the future of the working class can still be found in the Motor City. Photos by Alex Webb. Written by Eli Day Ad Policy As the election draws the country’s attention toward swing states like Michigan, eyes inevitably drift toward Detroit, the state’s population center and one of the Blackest major cities in the country. We know why.
Detroit Marriott sued over alleged sexual assault and hostile work environment
A former employee of the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center is suing the hotel chain after she alleges she was sexually assaulted by a manager and then forced to leave her job. The Dearborn woman, whom Metro Times won’t identify because she was the victim of an alleged crime, claims in the lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court that the Detroit Marriott “created a sexually hostile environment” and failed to protect her.
Despite the DNC’s best efforts to ignore Gaza, the Uncommitted Movement isn’t going anywhere
In a Dearborn cafe, weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Abbas Alawieh tells Metro Times, “We never want to go back to the version of progressive politics where we’re allowed to be progressive on everything except for Palestine.” Alawieh, who’s the co-founder of the antiwar Uncommitted National Movement, is reflecting an increasingly mainstream position, one that the movement hoped would soon build to a crescendo loud enough to force party leaders to listen.
All the news that fits
After a hot winter, Whitmer asks for more ways to get aid to businesses
The 2003-04 Pistons were the champions Detroit needed Original
If there is a Mount Rushmore for NBA teams that feel like symbolic soulmates for their city, then the 2003-2004 Detroit Pistons are on it. This was a Motown team in every sense, and they played like an orchestra or jazz ensemble that season. Everyone had a role, but a role constantly being calibrated and re-calibrated toward lifting the collective someplace higher.
Uncommitted Campaign in Michigan Uses the Power of the Vote
DEARBORN, MICHIGAN – When I met Abbas Alawieh for coffee in Dearborn, it was day 128 of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The night before we spoke, while he slept, he had a nightmare. Earlier that day, news had broken of Israel’s horrifying murder of a six-year-old Palestinian girl named Hind Rajab, her family, and the Red Crescent workers sent to rescue her. The rescuers had approval from the Israel Defense Forces, which means someone higher up in the IDF also approved their execution.
America’s Richest Men Ask the Courts to Make Unions Illegal
Uncommitted Campaign in Michigan Uses the Power of the Vote Anti-war activists want to channel the pain of Arab American and Muslim communities to register a vote of no confidence in Biden’s support for Israel’s devastation of Gaza. BY ELI DAY America’s Richest Men Ask the Courts to Make Unions Illegal Lawyers for Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon say the Court erred in 1937 by letting workers have rights on the job.
Detroiters demand Israeli ceasefire
The Israeli military is on a war crimes-filled rampage in the Gaza Strip, incinerating Palestinian civilians by the thousands and pounding their communities to dust. International human rights observers have called it a “humanitarian catastrophe.” For Gazans, who are hostages to Israel’s illegal 16-year air, land, and sea blockade, the label must feel like a massive understatement. The scenes are apocalyptic. Neighborhoods have been decimated and cut off from food, water, fuel, and electricity.
Rapper Boldy James performs first post-car crash show in Detroit
It’s Saturday night and Boldy James is two songs into his set at the Shelter, his first show since a brutal car wreck in January left him with a broken vertebrae in his neck and serious orthopedic damage. “Feels good to be back man, I swear to God,” he says to a roar of cheers from a crowd. Tonight, there are no unenthusiastic fans in the house. Everyone is happy to see Boldy on the other side of his recent suffering and absorbed by the craft he so clearly lives for.
Opinion: Inside eviction defense in Detroit
It’s a tense Monday morning in April and Taura Brown is on a roll, every word falling like a hammer. She’s standing at a microphone in front of her Tiny Home in the northwest Detroit neighborhood where Cass Community Social Services runs the Tiny Homes program. It’s day one of what will be a two-day effort to stop her eviction. “I’m gonna fight this because this is bullshit. I’m going to stay in the fight if for no other reason than principle,” Brown said.
Detroit’s long history of evicting Black people for profit Original
Treasure Jackson, who lives in the city’s northwest corner, had heard bits and pieces about Detroit’s right to counsel ordinance from a mix of news reports and word of mouth. But because the city had done such a poor job implementing and publicizing the ordinance she was confused about what it meant for her situation.
Community organizers challenged Bedrock’s latest Hudson’s site tax break in Detroit - and nearly won
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‘We Are Resilient People Who Fight For Each Other’
In a mostly Black city, residents fight for their water. Their schools. Their elected government. And organizer Elnora Gavin is in the thick of it. Elnora Gavin is a lifelong Benton Harbor resident and currently works as the West Michigan organizer with We the People Michigan.
Benton Harbor’s Elnora Gavin: ‘We Are Resilient People Who Fight For Each Other’
Elnora Gavin is a lifelong Benton Harbor resident and currently works as the West Michigan organizer with We the People Michigan. In this interview, she talks about her love for Benton Harbor, the challenges facing ordinary people there, and how they’re fighting to address everything from school closures to a disastrous human-made water crisis, and ultimately create a Benton Harbor where everyone flourishes.
Can Democrats Keep Georgia Blue?
This article appears in the June 2022 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here. With a key Senate seat and the governor’s mansion on the table this year, Georgia is again at the center of the political universe. For governor, Republican incumbent Brian Kemp is facing Stacey Abrams in a rematch of their explosive 2018 contest. Over on the Senate line, the Rev.
Review: Chicago rapper Saba at Detroit’s El Club
When Chicago rapper Saba takes the stage on Tuesday night, Detroit’s El Club is a traffic jam of bodies, with little room to maneuver in any direction before bumping into a limb whose origin you can’t be sure of. But the atmosphere is light and almost celebratory. And what else could it be?
Detroiters overwhelmingly demand reparations. What happens next?
click to enlarge Marc Klockow A protester in Detroit holds a sign in support of reparations. The most popular choice on Detroit’s 2021 ballot wasn’t the candidate you probably expected. In fact, it wasn’t a candidate in the traditional sense at all. It was an idea.
Why Detroit needs democracy
click to enlarge Eli Day Detroit People’s Platform threw a “Pro-Democracy Rally for Majority Black Detroit.” On a recent Friday, in the heart of Detroit’s New Center neighborhood, a crowd of roughly 50 people gather in a lot one block east of Pallister Park, just outside of the Fisher Building’s long shadow.
The Only Way to Stop the GOP's Democracy Doom Loop
Eli Day, In These Times July 1, 2021 (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Republicans are on a warpath against voting rights. Democrats alone won't block them—we need mass grassroots resistance. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments
The Only Way to Stop the GOP’s Democracy Doom Loop
During his Memorial Day speech on May 31, President Biden declared that American democracy is “in peril.” That claim may seem overblown at first glance. But it’s not. Across the country, 48 states have introduced nearly 400 bills placing arbitrary and senseless hurdles between voters and the ballot box, attempting to kill democracy through a death by a thousand cuts in order to impose minority rule.
The Movement for Black Lives Has Been Waiting for This Moment
When the indictments for former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and a group of his officials and advisers were announced in January over their roles in overseeing the deadly Flint water crisis, Nayyirah Shariff, the Director of Flint Rising, a progressive coalition that grew in size and influence alongside the Black Lives Matter movement, didn’t celebrate. Snyder, after all, was only charged with two misdemeanors.
That Old-Time Southern Populism
On January 5th, Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won their critically important races as populists. Within 24 hours, the recently defeated president, whom mainstream scribblers had also carelessly once labeled a “populist,” was inciting his followers to storm Congress in a bid to hold onto power as an unelected ruler. It was a stunning split screen.
Black Voters Matter, and So Do Black Lives After Elections
MACON, GEORGIA – Sheknita Davis wants her hometown to be a place where people can shape their own destinies. The obstacles are real but not insurmountable. For Davis, bringing that world to life means pouring everything into the People’s Advocacy Group, a nonprofit she directs dedicated to empowering working-class communities with political, cultural, and civic tools to improve their lives.
Labor Unions Battle for Working-Class Georgians
At a recent labor rally ahead of Monday’s first day of early voting in Georgia’s January 5 Senate runoffs, Yvonne Taylor Brooks, secretary-treasurer for the Georgia state AFL-CIO, delivered a simple message. Electing Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock isn’t simply about running up the score for a political party.
Kelly Loeffler's Familiar Dog Whistle
Her attacks on her opponent Rev. Raphael Warnock echo a 150-year history of fearmongering.
Kelly Loeffler's Familiar Dog Whistle
Eli Day, American Prospect December 11, 2020 (AP Photo/Ben Gray, Pool) Her attacks on her opponent Rev. Raphael Warnock echo a 150-year history of fearmongering. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments
Kelly Loeffler’s Familiar Dog Whistle
Sen. Kelly Loeffler has, by now, poured several million dollars into attack ads, as she attempts to save her job in the Georgia runoff election. The most memorable and cartoonish of them paint the Rev. Raphael Warnock, her Democratic opponent, as a shadowy “agent of change” who must be stopped in order to “save America.” This is, of course, a badly concealed effort to keep the flames of white paranoia lit.
Black Agenda Report
V.I. Lenin and W.E.B. Du Bois: Class Struggle and Civilization While the ruling elite is calling for a capitalist reset which could leave half the working class without jobs or adequate income, many leftists are proclaiming working class backwardness.
Left-Wing Groups Are Filling the Void Left By an "Invisible" Biden Campaign in Michigan
In Michigan’s tight-knit world of progressive politics, the most interesting aspect of the presidential contest isn’t the contest at all — at least not exactly. It certainly isn’t the two contestants — one altogether underwhelming (Biden), the other a sociopathic scam artist (Trump). Instead, the most interesting story is unfolding across the wider landscape of political organizing.
North Carolina’s Labyrinthine Voting Nightmare
Guilford County, the third most populous in North Carolina, is currently facing something of an electoral crisis. Earlier this month, data provided by the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida found that Guilford ranked first in the nation with 4.8 percent of its absentee ballots being marked as Not Accepted by the county board.
Michigan’s Left ❧ Current Affairs
A few months back, my home state of Michigan was dragged under the country’s dizzying and bizarre circus lights, with all of a circus’ terrors and none of its thrills. Conservative protesters stormed the Capitol, some of them armed for what looked to be a strangely intense video game, demanding that we “reopen” as a deadly virus was still hulk-smashing its way through largely poor Black communities like mine.
The Focus on Looting Shows How Our Systems of Power Value Capital Over Human Lives
Rather than indicting the racist police murder of George Floyd and other black Americans, our leaders are up in arms over protests and property destruction. That’s the twisted logic of U.S. capitalism. Trump’s words shine useful daylight on the depraved tendencies of the nation's ruling class. As it is with any season of protest, nothing brings out the murderous authoritarianism in the ruling class quite like the sight of disobedience by ordinary black people.
American Racism: From the Hood to the Precinct
Demonstrators, marking the one-year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown, protest along West Florissant Street in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 10, 2015. Scott Olson/Getty Images Depending on whom you ask, 2 a.m. is counted among the small hours of the day when the world’s respectable are tucked into the sleepy fold where night meets morning. But for others, 2 a.m. is when the air falls heaviest on the shoulders, thick with the threat of chaos.
A Caucus for Black Youth
DETROIT—In a gothic-inspired building on the leafy campus of Marygrove College, roughly 40 Black organizers, activists and everyday people gather on February 22 for a mock caucus. But this caucus breaks with the ones we’ve seen in 2020: It places the aspirations of Black communities centerstage. The event ignites with a chant, lit by an organizer with Detroit’s chapter of Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), a national youth-led organization against racial, gender and economic injustice.
This election season, Florida’s people’s assemblies focus on building a true democracy – Scalawag
Florida, one of the most crucial states in determining the outcome of the Democratic primaries, has hardly changed its game plan for voting today, even as the coronavirus creates major barriers to accessing the polls. Georgia and Louisiana have postponed their upcoming primaries, and social justice groups in Florida have called on Gov. Ron Desantis to make accommodations to ensure all voters will be able to cast ballots.
The Latest Perversion of Martin Luther King Jr.? Invoking His Legacy to Defend Means-Testing.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a committed democratic socialist. If you want to honor his legacy, join the fight for universal social programs. Whatever centrists pleading for moderation tell themselves, they are not on the side of Dr. King or the Poor People’s Campaign.
The Latest Perversion of Martin Luther King Jr.? Invoking His Legacy to Defend Means-Testing.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s memory casts a long shadow over the month of January, and sadly offers opportunities for the most eager of politicians to tag in one of history’s great moral heavyweights for their pet projects and causes. Whatever centrists pleading for moderation tell themselves, they are not on the side of Dr. King or the Poor People’s Campaign.
McDonald's Workers in Detroit Are on Strike for Workplace Democracy
On Tuesday, over 1,000 people gathered for astrike actionat a McDonald’s locations on Detroit’s East Side. The workers, who were fighting for basic workplace dignity, a fair wage and a union, showed that they’re ready to raise hell in the face of injustice by standing together. That’s how Patricia Moseley, who has worked for McDonald’s for 34 years, describes her experience of solidarity during the strike. “We always get each other’s backs,” Moseley says.
The strike at McDonald’s is about more than fighting abuse - it’s about workplace democracy
A McDonald's employee holds a sign during a protest against sexual harassment in the workplace on September 18, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. - McDonald's workers in 10 US cities staged a one-day strike Tuesday inspired by the #MeToo movement, alleging the fast-food giant does not adequately address pervasive sexual harassment at its stores.
The Strike at McDonald’s Is About More Than Fighting Abuse-It’s About Workplace Democracy
Friday, Nov 15, 2019, 1:50 pm BY Eli Day Striking McDonald’s workers in Detroit are fighting for more “power in the workplace,” says Rashida Tlaib. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) On Tuesday, over 1,000 people gathered for a strike action at a McDonald's location on Detroit’s East Side. The workers, who were fighting for basic workplace dignity, a fair wage and a union, showed that they’re ready to raise hell in the face of injustice by standing together.
The Right to Read: Are Detroit Students Entitled to Life, Liberty an the Pursuit of Literacy?
Jammaria Hall, former DPS student and one of the lawsuit plaintiffs who has said he was cheated of his education How many words are needed to express what you’ve experienced in Detroit’s public schools? Jamarria Hall, 19, talks about his own history with laser-beam precision. The crumbling system was “diminishing,” he says, making him less than what he might have been in an environment that actually let his curiosities roam and his intellect flourish.
The Right to Read: Are Detroit Entitled to Life, Liberty an the Pursuit of Literacy?
Jammaria Hall, former DPS student and one of the lawsuit plaintiffs who has said he was cheated of his education How many words are needed to express what you’ve experienced in Detroit’s public schools? Jamarria Hall, 19, talks about his own history with laser-beam precision. The crumbling system, he says, was “diminishing,” making him less than what he might have been in an environment that actually supported learning.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian citizens in Israel protest gun violence, organized crime
Citing years of police indifference and a state policy that has exacerbated gun violence and organized crime among Palestinians in Israel, members of the community consider boycott as a new tactic. By Suha Arraf Chairman of the Joint List, MK Ayman Odeh, at the protest against gun violence and organized crime in Palestinian communities in Israel, October 3, 2019.
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