At around 2:00 a.m. on Monday, December 9, University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker’s home was vandalized when an object was thrown through the front window, breaking it, and a family car was spray-painted with a red upside-down triangle and graffiti that stated, “Divest” and “Free Palestine.” The incident comes approximately six months after a similar act of vandalism at Acker’s place of business. The impact of such acts is to cause fear and intimidation throughout a community, and the ACLU of Michigan unequivocally condemns them.
Targeted vandalism, though alone not typically a civil liberties violation, opens the door to a dangerous atmosphere in which the diverse identities and voices that underpin a multicultural, inclusive democracy are denigrated and repressed, threatening the constitutional rights of all. In just over a month, we will face the second round of a U.S. presidential administration where racist, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, anti-Arab, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is commonplace.
The open targeting of any group of people based on their identity is abhorrent. In the course of the last year or so, we have witnessed an increase of incidents targeting Jewish, Arab and Muslim people. Throughout the presidential campaign, we were subjected to unyielding rhetoric aimed at members of immigrant communities and trans people, painting them as threats. We soon face the manifestation of that rhetoric through promised efforts at mass deportation, attacks on necessary medical care, and the silencing of those who criticize harmful government policies and actions.
This is a moment where we are called upon as a nation, state, and as individuals to hold the charge of vigilantly defending First Amendment rights alongside using that freedom to strongly condemn acts and statements that target people based on their race, ethnicity, religious identity, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Our ability and commitment to act in solidarity with one another will be critical as we contend with a second Trump administration and the steadily stronger drumbeat of white nationalism in this country and abroad.
To that end, we must collectively speak out against acts of assault or vandalism against Jewish people or institutions, we must not remain silent when Arab and Muslim people and communities are falsely and dangerously painted as terrorists, we must not enable trans people to be isolated as a political liability, we must challenge rhetoric and laws that cause Black and Brown people to be criminalized, we must not allow protest and dissent about even the most divisive issues to be silenced when what is being said makes some of us uncomfortable, we must speak loudly in support of our many and diverse immigrant communities in Michigan, and we must use our resources to defend and protect the constitutional rights of those who are vulnerable, unpopular, and marginalized. This is the crux of the first three words of the United States Constitution – “We, the people.”
The diversity of cultural, ethnic, and religious identities in Michigan makes us a strong, complex and beautiful state. We are all called upon to fiercely protect the civil liberties and constitutional rights of all people in Michigan, especially when attempts to silo and harm communities threaten the richly diverse fabric of our society.
Loren Khogali
Executive Director
ACLU of Michigan