As Trump Part II approaches, eastsiders encounter harassment

(This essay was written under the nom-de-plume of an eastside Lansing resident.)

Lansing’s east side has lost big old trees lining Michigan Avenue. Torn up by bulldozers, it’s all in the name of progress, fixing ancient sewers and raunchy roads.  Michigan Avenue, the path between Michigan State University and the state Capitol, is experiencing disturbance of a different type — brought on by the election of Donald Trump.

We have a history. Caesar Chavez marched Michigan Avenue. Take Back the Night and Black Lives Matter have marched here as well. It has more liberal, progressive and radical folks than anywhere in the Lansing area. Walking the streets, I see Harris signs, Antifa flags, trans flags, and they are not coming down now. I’ve thought of moving over the years, to where there is more space, more trees, less noise, closer to a lake. I’ve stayed, while house after house was foreclosed on and abandoned, vulture landlords descending to grab houses and make money. I’ve stayed because of the community. We are part student ghetto, part working class. We work in restaurants, salons, libraries, we are nurses and techies. Lately, roofs are being repaired, houses flipped, the rents are too damned high!  New apartment buildings are lining the street, fancy and expensive.

Even the yards are signifiers, some bursting with colors of annuals and perennials, some tidy green with a few bright baskets hanging from porches. As I walk the sidewalks I’m delighted, then demoralized, when weeds crowd my path. Others are covered in black plastic; I’m hoping they are preparing the ground for native plants next year. Our gardens have flourished. The tiny business of composters, riding their bikes and collecting veggies, have grown into a citywide project. Huge garden plots feed us, some folks paint flowers on streets between sidewalks, and we have more chickens in our yards than ever. 

Days before the election, a videographer showed up in my eastside neighborhood, with his camera on a stick and his aim at a queer-owned hair salon. He stayed for hours, recording the happenings inside the shop from a legally safe position on the sidewalk. The shop’s windows were full of LGBTQ signs and symbols. My neighborhood has been and is a safe place for those of us who don’t abide by Christian nationalists’ tenets.

The photographer’s goal is not promotion, but harassment. He goes where he wants — and knows how far he can push. He knows it is legal to be on a public sidewalk, and that it is legal to film people in public spaces. They say his aim is to provoke a reaction, to film it, maybe even press charges if someone dares to push him, or try to knock his frigging camera from his hands. Is this the harbinger of an assault on our lovely neighborhood?

Disruption is local — one guy shooting video has turned into three, and the third has a gun, and rumor has it they are Proud Boys. They’ve moved to target a queer coffee shop. I checked in with Arab shopkeepers on Michigan Avenue: They were “visited” too, as was a small, independent bookstore. A Mexican Restaurant, and a Black-owned barber shop were also visited, with customers and employees videotaped from the sidewalks.

Now the coffee shop’s windows are covered with craft paper, and on some days, the avenue-facing doors are closed. Those seeking vegan donuts and fancy coffee must enter from the back. The creeps shot video of my neighbors walking down the street — caring for their baby while queer. I’m getting old, with back and shoulder issues, after a fall. I am feeling more vulnerable.

The CEO of a local nonprofit was fired. He stood up to the Catholic-derived Holy Cross Services and said the organization would continue to do outreach at Gay Pride events. The night before, he and a lawyer for the homeless services organization had been interviewed on TV, with opposing views. The organization is partly funded by the city of Lansing, which prohibits discrimination. But it is attempting to have it both ways, being a “Catholic-rooted organization” and therefore allowed to discriminate, but denying that prohibiting outreach to gay-sponsored events is discrimination, because it wants to continue to be publicly funded. It feels abrupt, like the right wing is empowered to whittle away at rights we’ve taken for granted.

I see a “God, Guns and Trump” sign nearby, a despicable landlord puts a neon MAGA sign on his apartments, the tenants who rented from afar are groaning and mad that they live in that place. And a house flipper puts a Nazi sign in a window, frightening and enraging the next-door neighbor. Our neighborhood is now up for contention.

My fear is alive as Trump names his Cabinet. I think of what happened in Iran, Germany, Chile. Will the Proud Boys march here? They did in 2020, but this time, will they just march down Michigan Avenue, or break windows and instigate fights that the police break up — and arrest the resistance? Will they come into the side streets where we live? And dare to rip out our signs of resistance in broad daylight? Or just maraud after dark, stealing flags here, kicking signs there, maybe terrorizing select residents. Will they use the videos to identify and target businesses and people?

For years, I’ve been anti-gun, anti-military. I supposed I never really thought the left would have a need, having grown accustomed, and led to slumber as the back and forth of Democrat and Republican rule.  But it is different now, right? If they really try to snatch “illegals from the streets on day one,” will those of us with privilege find a way to stand in their way? Will we face Proud Boys, the National Guard, the Army?

Who hasn’t heard of the brown shirts in Germany, identifying and sending Jews, resisters and queers to the camps?  I know it is not just me who has these fears as Trump moves into power, or me who can barely watch the news. Friend after friend tells me of their nightmares of this new regime.

in Iran it was the paramilitary Basij who patrolled, emboldened by the regime to harass and attack women who dared let their veils down. Mahsa Amini’s brutal capture and murder by the regime provoked mass protests, lifting up those who yearn for freedom.

 In Lansing, I hear high school boys in a nearby suburb are taunting their classmates with the chant “Your Body Our Choice.” With a known rapist in the White House, what does this mean for women? Trump has made it clear he will really go after the immigrants and trans folks and anyone who stands up. 

In this tiny eastside neighborhood, a microcosm of our “swing state” and the entire country,  think through and find 1,000 ways to resist.