
The Bridging 8 Mile team. Photo: R. Kamaria
Immortalized in the 2002 Eminem film “8 Mile,” Eight Mile Road remains the dividing line between the city of Detroit, which is mostly black, and the suburb of Warren, which is mostly white.
How can a region reverse race and class segregation when they’ve persisted for so long? The Bridging 8 Mile initiative has a three-year plan to bring together people from both sides of the divide.
The initiative, said member Rasheda Williams, is made up of “everyday people” who are working to transform the way residents relate to one another.
Williams, who grew up on the east side of Detroit, can remember the first time she was made aware of the area’s history of segregation and its lingering effects.
She and her mother were walking in the affluent suburb of Grosse Point, which bordered their neighborhood, when her mother asked, “Do you think it’s okay for us to be walking through here? I don’t want anyone messing with us or telling us we don’t belong here.”
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