For Rackham Ph.D. student Marquise Griffin, documenting racial inequity is a way to name the harms of systemic racism and shine a light on pathways to change. Griffin is a contributor to the Detroit Harms Report, a 2024 collaboration between the Detroit Reparations Task Force and several U-M units to document the harms caused by discriminatory urban policies to Detroit’s African American community. The task force identified five key focus areas to direct U-M’s research efforts: housing, policing, quality of life, education, and economic development and economic insecurity. Griffin’s work on the report, largely focused on co-authoring the section on education, was supported by a Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship with U-M’s Center for Poverty Solutions and the Center for Social Solutions.
The Detroit Harms Report
Approved by 80 percent of Detroit voters in a 2021 ballot measure, the Detroit Reparations Task Force officially formed in February 2023 to develop recommendations for housing and economic development programs that address historical discrimination against the Black community in Detroit.
In August of that year, the task force established a partnership with the University of Michigan to develop the Detroit Harms Report to inform their recommendations to City Council. Several U-M units, including the Center for Social Solutions, Poverty Solutions, the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being, and Rackham Graduate School, collaborated across multiple disciplines and fields of study to author the report, published in October 2024.
“It was a really interesting foray into project management, research management, and research with so many different stakeholders who are all coming at an issue with very different perspectives,” Griffin says.
The Legacy of Racism
Griffin’s section of the Detroit Harms Report details how the legacy of systemic racism continues to perpetuate harm today, taking shape in the form of unreliable transportation systems that significantly contribute to chronic school absenteeism; the severe impacts of austerity measures taken when the city’s public schools were controlled by emergency management from 2009 to 2016, leading to building closures and dilapidated buildings; an unengaging “teach to the standardized test” curricula; and low graduation rates combined with a lack of college readiness for those who do graduate.
Griffin also details how the 1974 Milliken v. Bradley court ruling—which ended racial integration bussing programs for Black students in Detroit and amplified white flight from the city—had long-lasting impacts on the entire Detroit metro area, draining the Detroit public school system of resources.
“Data show that the border between Detroit and Grosse Point is one of the most stark dividing boundaries in the country, with white students accounting for 75 percent of the population in Grosse Pointe Public Schools and the district receiving nearly $2,000 more per student in state and local funding than Detroit,” Marquis reports.
Resilience and Resistance
Griffin is also struck by the examples of resilience and resistance he learned about from members of the Reparations Task Force during their conversations, including the $94.4 million “Right to Read” lawsuit that seven students brought against the State of Michigan in 2016.
In a 136-page document, the plaintiffs of the Right to Read lawsuit documented the ways they were denied the opportunity to receive a quality education because of cockroach-and-mold riddled buildings, a shortage of learning materials, and poorly qualified teachers—all results of emergency management austerity measures.
The students successfully argued that their constitutional right to an education had been violated. In 2023, the City of Detroit saw a state injection of $21.5 billion K-12 school aid budget to support the hiring of one-to-one reading interventionists to bring students up to speed.
“It’s really inspiring to see the ways that youth activism within education has developed in Detroit,” Griffin says.
When asked if he thinks the Detroit Harms Report could be used as a model for conversations and policies about reparations nationwide, Griffin acknowledges the many similarities between different cities, but he ultimately advocates for policies informed by the unique histories of each city.
“Even though there are similarities between how predominantly Black cities have experienced housing discrimination and educational discrimination, I think that reparations have to be specific to each community,” he says.
“To do it right, and in order for there to be some redress that actually facilitates communal healing, reparations in any form have to be specific.”
Learn more about the Detroit Harms Report.
Learn more about the Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship Program.
How Rackham Helps
“Participating in the Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship has shaped my research in ways I couldn’t have anticipated, and I highly encourage other doctoral students to participate in the program. It’s critical to discover and experience the ways our research is more than just theory and writing, and how it directly affects people’s lives,” Griffin says.
A Rackham Merit Fellow, Griffin also expresses gratitude for the ways that program has allowed him to connect with peers and colleagues to build community outside of his program and field. “The work that folks that coordinate the Rackham Merit Fellowship do is so necessary and essential towards professional development,” he says.