A Detroit television station is stoking controversy after a Highland Park water tower was spray painted with the words “Free Free Palestine” which were later covered up with the words “America First” and banners for Patriot Front.
Fox 2 Detroit claimed that the message and banners which covered the first spray painted message was “racist graffiti” that “defaced” the water tower.
Highland Park Mayor Glenda McDonald said that hate and racism is not tolerated in the predominantly black city.
“We have laws that prohibit you from destroying city property,” McDonald said. “Even if it weren’t a law to me personally, this cannot happen. We will not allow it to happen and we will prosecute anyone who is caught doing this.”
Only part of the messages that were placed on the water tower were described by McDonald as vandalism.
For some reason, the initial spray painted pro-Palestine message appeared to get a pass.
City leaders have said their attorneys are working to reach Patriot Front but no similar effort is being made to hold accountable those who first vandalized the tower.
The framing of the “America First” message as racist appears to lean heavily on the curiously defamatory Anti-Defamation League (ADL) having labeled Patriot Front as a white supremacist group.
The ADL is one of a number of pro-censorship groups that, ironically, sows division and persecution in the name of battling what it calls “extremism” and “hate.”
The concept of America First is by no means a racist ideal. It is rooted in the principle of tending to our own affairs first rather than becoming entangled in conflicts that have nothing to do with the American people.
This latest flap is one more example of how familiar ideas or symbols are being falsely declared racist and used to justify punishing those who associate with them.
But not everyone is jumping on the racism bandwagon.
WXYZ Channel 7 reports that not all Highland Park residents are bothered by the messages.
Highland Park resident Brendon Morgan said, “It’s probably meant to spark some type of controversy. It is what it is. It’s always been people like that.”