I learned so much about the contemporary fear of Black people when I moved to Detroit Northwest, with isn't just a majority Black neighborhood, but an almost completely Black neighborhood. (Actually, it's a series of connected neighborhoods, for people who don't know Detroit.)

I moved there to write novels, motivated in part by unusually low rent, even for Detroit where the cost of housing was very low already compared to the larger region.

I rented a very nice little house, got to know a bunch of my neighbors, and settled into a daily routine as an aspiring artist — for several years.

I couldn't afford to do that forever, and none of my novels ever sold, though I came very close.

Eventually, I went back to paid work, but wow did I ever learn something during those years.

I heard the most incredibly, ridiculously fearful things from White friends and family.

"How can you live there? It's so high crime! No, we won't come over. It's too dangerous!"

None of this was true. Yes the neighborhood I lived in was somewhat impoverished. But most of my neighbors (unlike me) worked paying jobs for a living. Violence? I'm not saying it didn't exist, but it wasn't random. I never experienced any fear. Nobody was out to get me. And I learned that there's nothing like the wrath of a Black grandmother when teenagers get out of hand and do thoughtless adolescent things.

I don't want to paint a picture of an idealized neighborhood, but the reality of my neighborhood bore almost no resemblance to the fears White society projected onto it.

And when those Black grandmothers win seats (as they often do) on the city council or the Michigan State Assembly, Republican lawmakers talk to them and about them in starkly fearful, ignorant, racist ways, like they're part of violence problem — precisely the opposite of reality.

Until I read your article, I hadn't drawn a straight line from history the way you do hear so clearly.

Thank you!