The Misrepresentation of Eric Mays

By now you’ve probably seen videos of Flint Councilman Eric Mays going back and forth with other council members he’s referred to as evil white people and handkerchief headed negroes. But why is he so mad? 

In short, they’re provoking him, and full videos show them making fun of his teeth, diction and refusing to conduct meetings as long as he’s in the building. In April of 2022 they had him arrested for disorderly conduct. During COVID he was frequently removed from Zoom calls, he’s had to sue the city for violating his rights. But the full story is much more than that, he’s fed up, and he should be. Mays has claimed to be a victim of targeted harassment from elected officials in Flint. As crazy as it sounds, it might be true. 

It all started in 2012. The city of Flint Michigan sold Genesee Towers to a company called “Uptown Reinvestment Corporation,” for just one dollar. The sale was controversial because the city had essentially forced the owner to sell on claims the building was in terrible shape. I’ve never been in the towers so I can’t tell you if they were as bad as the city claims, but I can tell you that many people in the area felt the city had exaggerated just how bad the buildings were.   

Once the city finally got ownership of the building in 2010 there were no actual plans for it. That’s when Uptown Reinvestment comes in, and decides, they’re just going to blow it up. When do they decide to do it? On December 22nd, in the snow, right before Christmas. Forcing business owners in the area to close their stores during the height of shopping without any real warning.  

So where does Eric Mays come into this? Well, the owners of Genesee Towers, The Capitol Theater and Flint Journal buildings would receive special tax breaks from Flint for those properties and would also not have to pay taxes for 12 years on any other developments in the city. In 2012 he’s arrested for protesting this because they would never offer these incentives to people in Black areas of the city.  

Before being arrested he stated “you going to know as of today, that we from the north side to the east side, the neighborhoods, we’re not going to sit idle anymore. This is a day of change.” This prompted his run for councilman, and he won.  

He also sued the city for the sale, he was basically mocked by Judge Geoffrey Neithercut who stated, “You need to go work on the budget Mr. Mays, I don’t see anything that the court would need to decide. That building was torn down. It’s a pile of rubble that’s being hauled away.”  

Mayor Sheldon Neeley who was a councilman at the time poured more fuel on the fire calling it “a waste of time and money.” Since then, it’s been more targeted harassment of Councilman Mayes. He’s repeatedly implicated Nealy as the ringleader of the harassment but what exactly is the harassment he speaks of? 

In 2014 he was arrested, they said he was drunk, high, and driving with 4 flat tires the wrong way on the highway after a hit and run. Resisting arrest, refusal to be fingerprinted, disorderly conduct, you know, their favorite trumped up charges. 

Mays chooses to defend himself. He’s not a lawyer, the evidence just didn’t make sense. Nobody actually saw him in the car. Nobody witnessed the car driving up the highway. He was drunk, and he had a bag of weed, but they said he was in a hit and run, but had no evidence of a hit and run even happening. The judge is annoyed with Mays but throws out several charges, the jury acquits or doesn’t reach a verdict on the others. A different judge comes in and reverses the ruling because he felt the first judge shouldn’t have allowed Mays to represent himself. He gets 72 days in jail. 

In 2017 just before the election Mays was arrested again. This time for “willful neglect,” because he had pawned his work laptop three times in 2015. In reality, he admitted on camera that he pawned it nine times because he needed money to pay his bills. He pled no contest, and still got 70 percent of the vote in the election.  

On the night of February 12th, 2020, Eric Mays and some friends went to Rubes Bar and Grille, a popular spot in Flint. They ate wings, had papaya juice, sang karaoke, and played the lottery. Deputy Chief of Staff DuVarl Murdock didn’t like what Mays had said about Mayor Sheldon Neeley winning the election and decided to approach him about it. Mays said he didn’t want to talk politics, so Murdock talked about Mays missing teeth. Mays laughs and says, “I didn’t brush too well.”  

Murdock doesn’t like being laughed at, so he slaps Mays. Mays says, “please don’t touch the councilman without permission.” People laugh at Murdock and that just makes him angrier, Murdock slams Mays on the ground and beats a retired old man with ease. Police come and Mays goes to the hospital where it’s revealed he has several bruised bones in his face. Murdock just kept drinking at the bar. No charges were ever filed. Murdock would later resign from his job after being caught drunk driving. 

So why is Eric Mays angry? Because he’s been fighting for his people and has gotten no real changes. Elected officials are on the news saying he’s a scam artist. Early in 2023, Council President Allie Herkenroder made a joke and laughed at him, then accused him of gaslighting when he asked her to repeat herself. To which she responded with “go find a dictionary.” But she’s gaslighting him at that moment as if nobody else saw and heard her laugh when there is a microphone in front of her and a camera on her.

If you watch white council members rattle of a list of stereotypes of him being a drug addicted, unintelligent, alcoholic, lazy, shiftless angry Black man and applaud it, guess what? You are a handkerchief headed negro supporting white supremacy in an attempt to forward your personal position and he’s not wrong. 

People support him because he really does advocate for the people in his ward. When other politicians including President Obama were toasting Flint water like it was clean, he said, “don’t drink that,” and when the city wanted to settle for 600 million he said hell no because lawyers would get a cut, it might fix the pipes but nobody knew the long term effects and the citizens would get barely anything. The city still took the settlement and as I type this in April of 2023 the citizens have not received a dime, and Little Miss Flint is still out here raising money for water filters. She is about to be old enough to drive.  

People vote for him because he’s in the poorest district, with the least funding and the most crime, but nobody else is standing up for them and he isn’t afraid to call bullshit when the city does things like deciding to drop charges over the Flint water crisis, or wants to do quick payouts to make sexual harassment scandals in the police department disappear with one person taking the fall. Time and time again his constituents are hit the hardest and nobody else in Flint seems to care about them except Eric Mays and Little Miss Flint. He will hold that seat until she’s old enough to run for it if she wants it. 

Yes, the clips of Eric Mays can be really funny with no context. Still, it’s important to remember Eric Mays is mad for a good reason. The people he represents are mad, and they have been for a very long time. They repeatedly side with Mays and vote for him because he is just like them. He’s not a lawyer, he didn’t come from a wealthy family. He worked for GM until retirement, he’s been a community activist in the 1st ward for 30 years.  

They know him, they go to church with him, the same bars, maybe even the same weed man, but they know him. He lives there, in the same conditions they do. He doesn’t disappear until election time, they’ve never had to investigate if he actually lives in Flint. He’s put in the work when nobody else has. Agree with his positions or not, we need more politicians like Eric Mays who want to hold those that make backroom deals that leave their constituents in the rain accountable. Eric Mays is mad, but we should all be mad. 

A Few Additional Notes on Mays

– Eric Mays really has been working in the community for over 30 years. 15-20 years ago he had a public access television show in which he’d invite other community activists to discuss politics in Flint. Four episodes can be found online but they’re really low quality.

– Mays also claims to have been a union rep during his time at GM (I couldn’t verify this)

-Katie Fields has been seen going back and forth with Mays more than anyone else. She actually sides with him on a lot of things, especially when it comes to the Flint Water crisis. Despite that videos of her calling into the local news to claim Mays is a drug addict also exist.

– Mays ran against Neeley in the 2022 primary. Mays got 13% of the vote in a race with less than 4000 voters. Flint has 80,000 citizens. Never let people tell you that your vote is unimportant.

– Several times Mays has been removed from meetings because others allege he’s drunk. However, he’s never once been drunk. He was once seen on screen drinking a martini during a zoom meeting and was kicked from the call for being drunk.

– A lot of the allegations of Mays being an alcoholic and drug user are just that. Allegations that have never been proven.

– Mays was a key part of removing the Emergency Management Team made up of unelected officials from Flint and restructuring the budget.