Predatory Governance in Wayne County and Beyond
Professor and scholar-activist Bernadette Atuahene’s meticulous research and riveting writing in Plundered reflect decades of living in communities resisting predatory governance. Over ten years after Professor Atuahene’s powerful first book, We Want What’s Ours: Learning from South Africa’s Land Restitution Program, she turns a spotlight on a Detroit community under siege from its own county. In her heartbreaking exposé of illegal property tax assessments and foreclosures, Professor Atuahene paints a vivid picture of people fighting for the right to keep the homes that rightfully belong to them.
Focused on two families – one Black and one Italian – Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America shows how government decisions circumscribe the ability to build wealth through generations. The narrative is rife with details that each deserve a book in themselves. Ms. Mae, who Plundered introduces in its opening pages, put up with years of abuse before finally shooting her husband. “He came home and tried to jump on me. I was sitting there watching tv, and he pulled his shotgun to shoot me, and so I got it, and I shot him.” To pay her defense lawyer, Ms. Mae took out a lien on her home. She finally got rid of the lien ten years later but her luck was short-lived. Soon after relieving herself of the debt, she damaged her shoulder while lifting a resident at the nursing home where she worked. Surgery could not fully restore proper use of her shoulder. Then, holes in the roof of her house caused leaks in the kitchen ceilings which made the basement ceiling fall in, unleashing a flood. While trying to drain her flooded basement, Ms. Mae fell, permanently injuring her spine and bringing her working life to an abrupt halt. The flood also destroyed her hot water tank, forcing her to boil water for everything. Instead of coming to her aid, the system repeatedly failed Ms. Mae and families like hers and then turned around and blamed them for their troubles. Continue reading "Predatory Governance in Wayne County and Beyond"
