It is not a good week for Michiganders, especially regarding any sense of environmental or climate justice. Gov. Whitmer has allowed new permits for Enbridge and she has essentially said that data centers are good for the state’s growth.
It is instructive to look at how Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has framed her most recent “plan” around data centers in Michigan. Check out the Press Release coming from the Governor’s office on July 15.
“It’s simple: any data center company that wants to invest in Michigan must ensure working families do not pay a single penny for data center development or operations, protect our natural resources, and create local, good-paying jobs,” said Governor Whitmer.
There are three main reasons why I believe that Gov. Whitmer has caved on the issue of data centers.
First, public opposition to data centers in Michigan has been incredible, as I noted in an article earlier this year. People are pushing back against most of the proposed data centers in Michigan and for good reason, yet Gov. Whitmer seems to be ignoring public sentiment. People do not want data centers built for a variety of reasons, such as the amount of land data centers would occupy, the amount of water they would use and the likely outcome that data centers would result in increased utility costs to the public.
Second, as was recently reported on by MLive, last year the Michigan Legislature passed bipartisan legislation to provide massive tax breaks to companies wanting to build data centers in Michigan. According to the MLive article:
They extended big tax breaks to the industry’s largest projects. Power-hungry data centers followed, with at least 25 major proposals now drawing increasing ire from residents pushing back against big computing facilities in their backyards.
Industry boosters say favorable tax treatment lured the projects. Others aren’t so certain. But the consequential bills made it across the finish line before many realized they could reshape the state.
This all happened on Gov. Whitmer’s watch and there was no attempt by her office to veto the tax breaks for data centers.
Third, over the past few years the cost of electricity has skyrocketed in Michigan. Anyone who sends money to Consumers Energy on a monthly basis knows exactly what I am talking about, since for many people electricity costs have nearly doubled in recent years and Consumers Energy is lobbying for another rate hike. In all of the rate hikes that have happened during Whitmer’s tenure as Governor she has not fought against these hikes. This isn’t surprising since Whitmer and the Democrats have received tens of thousands of dollars from Consumers Energy since 2018.
I don’t have any faith that Consumer’s Energy would sign the pledge that Gov. Whitmer has put forth, and even if they did they won’t honor such a pledge.
Lastly, this week we also saw the State of Michigan issue Line 5 permits to the corporate criminal entity known as Enbridge. These permits are specific to the Line 5 tunnel the company is proposing to build, despite massive public opposition. In 2017, when Gov. Whitmer was campaigning to become the Governor of Michigan she promised to shut down Line 5, yet 9 years later and that campaign promise is not come true, nor is it likely to happen.
When are we going to wake up and realize that voting for progressive candidates will not result in the kinds of structural changes we need. Instead, we need mass movements for revolutionary change that use direct action and collective resistance to create the kind of world we really want.
(Source used in image below – https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/US.html)
There is a new article that links the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US and what would be Rich DeVos’ 100th birthday. The article from Doug DeVos’ online journal Believe is entitled, Richard DeVos’s 100th Birthday: How His Vision Shaped American Enterprise.
The article primarily makes the claim that Rich DeVos “helped shape the spirit of modern enterprise and freedom.” The article also cites one of his most popular books, Compassionate Capitalism: People Helping People Help Themselves. The article makes the claim, “The book challenges readers to be entrepreneurial, successful, and compassionate while maximizing the role of the consumer in a world centered on Judeo-Christian values, the environment, and strong, successful U.S. and global economies.”
Like so much of what Rich DeVos and his family continue to preach is a narrative that capitalism makes people’s lives better. As a way of countering that narrative I want to present how Rich DeVos has actually impacted people, both through his businesses and how he has used his wealth.
When Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel founded the Amway corporation, they did so by embracing some of the most deeply entrenched lies about this country. Rich DeVos has written numerous books that promote his values. In his book Believe, DeVos, in talking about freedom, states, “that call of freedom went forth from a rugged wilderness, and Europe and Asia and Africa sent their sons of adventure to hew out a new society in a land of forests and savages.”
An early critique of Amway and their ideological stance came from a student at Calvin College in 1971, who wrote:
The most important issue in maintaining a wealthy economy is maintaining the control of the raw materials needed by American industries to keep producing the finished products. The United States simply does not have the raw materials to maintain its wealthy economy. Almost every significant raw industrial resource that American industries use is imported from poverty-stricken Third World countries in African, South America and Asia. Thus, the American Way has a vested interest in maintaining control over the countries from which the resources come. The continuation might be maintained by sheer economic brute force, by political manipulation or rewarding governments which are friendly to us, by CIA-inspired coups who are not cooperative with us or by wars to “maintain freedom” and to “prevent the spread of communism.”
Another early public challenge of the power and influence of Rich DeVos came from a Grand Valley State College student in 1977, when DeVos was a member of the Board of Control (similar to a Board of Trustees). The student called into questions DeVos and his unwillingness to allow students to have a say in school policy.
This example from GVSC continued right up until his death, since DeVos has contributed millions of dollars to the school, often with strings attached. Many people who attended William James and Thomas Jefferson Colleges before the school became GVSU, has stated that Rich DeVos lobbied heavily for the school to shed its counter-cultural history and adopt a more market-based school with an emphasis on business.
In 1994, when faculty and staff at GVSU were meeting with then President Lubbers over the university’s willingness to offer domestic partner benefits, word got out that this was going to happen. At the time GVSU was raising money for a proposed health education building on Michigan St and Peter Cook and Rich DeVos had pledged millions. Once DeVos and Cook found out about the proposal by GVSU to offer domestic partner benefits, they threatened to withdraw their financial support if the university would support a domestic partner benefits policy. GVSU acquiesced to the wish of DeVos and Cook. For further reading on Rich DeVos and GVSU check out What’s in a Name: A Popular Guide to Wealth & Influence at GVSU and our film A People’s History of the LGBTQ Community in Grand Rapids.
Anti-LGBT Legacy of Rich DeVos
The example from GVSU of DeVos threatening to withhold money from the university if they provided domestic partner benefits is just one example of Rich DeVos’ legacy of supporting anti-LGBT campaigns and organizations.
For decades, through his foundation, Rich DeVos funded anti-LGBT groups and Christian organizations that had adopted a homophobic and transphobic position, like the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and the National Organization for Marriage. These organizations identified themselves as pro-family, but what they really were promoting was a hetero-normative, patriarchal family structure, which was never tolerant of people who identified as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender or queer. Rich DeVos contributed millions to these entities, in part, because they were anti-LGBT.
Other more specific examples of DeVos and his anti-LGBT stance came in the late 1980s when he was appointed to President Reagan’s AIDS Commission. HIV/AIDS had been devastating the LGBT community for years before the federal government created this and the LGBT community was demanding that the federal government take action.
With the appointment of this commission, Reagan was able to appease those who demanded a more sustained federal response to AIDS. He also answered the concerns of the New Right by appointing an AIDS commission that included few scientists who had participated in AIDS research and few physicians who had actually treated people with AIDS. In addition, the commission included outspoken opponents of AIDS education, such as New York Cardinal John O’Connor. O’Connor was not only opposed to AIDS education, he was openly hostile to the Gay community.
Another openly hostile opponent of the LGBT community was Rich DeVos, who was also on Reagan’s AIDS Commission. In an interview with MLive a few years ago, DeVos made some pretty revealing comments about his attitudes towards the Gay community while sitting on the AIDS Commission.
When HIV first came out, President Reagan formed a commission and I was honored to be on that commission. I listened to 300 witnesses tell us that it was every body else’s fault but their own. Nothing to do with their conduct, just that the government didn’t fix this disease. At the end of that I put in the document, it was the conclusion document from the commission, that actions have consequences and you are responsible for yours. AIDS is a disease people gain because of their actions. It wasn’t like cancer. We all made the exceptions for how you got it, by accident, that was all solved a long time ago. That’s when they started hanging me in effigy because I wasn’t sympathetic to all their requests for special treatment. Because at that time it was always someone else’s fault. I said, you are responsible for your actions too, you know. Conduct yourself properly, which is a pretty solid Christian principle.
Not only does DeVos show his homophobic bias, his comments demonstrate his ignorance of the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS.
On the issue of same sex marriage, DeVos was also an active opponent, providing at least $20,000 to fight the ballot initiative in Michigan in 2004 and another $100,000 for the ballot initiative in Florida in 2008.
Some people have claimed that in his later years, Rich DeVos had a change of heart, as was demonstrated by his family’s donation to the families of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida. While it is true that the family made such a donation, there was no acknowledgement that DeVos had funded the anti-LGBT marriage proposal in 2008 and that he had given millions of dollars to John Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church for decades, a church that is based in Florida and preached on the evils of “homosexuality” for decades, thus cultivating a climate of hate directed at the LGBT community.
Funding Right Wing Organizations that do harm
Beyond identity politics, Rich DeVos was also a champion of funding what are often referred to as conservative groups. However, such a label is not adequate, since many of the groups that DeVos funded were ideologically motivated and embraced far-right policy positions and above all a neo-liberal capitalist framework.
I wrote about the funding of these organizations in 1998, in an article entitled, Giving til it hurts others. Rich DeVos continued to give to some of these same entities right up until his death, groups like the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Free Congress Foundation, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Acton Institute and a whole range of groups that sought to undermine social welfare policies, re-direct public funds to the private sector, an attack on labor unions, the privatization of education and the re-regulation of environmental laws and the financial sector.
The Heritage Foundation, for example, was a major architect of the Reagan administration’s policies to downsize government and to attempt to undermine social welfare policies.
Closer to home, DeVos has supported the Acton Institute, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce and the West Michigan Policy Forum, all of which support the same neo-liberal capitalist platform we mentioned above. What is important to note about these groups and the funding they have received from Rich DeVos, is that all of these groups are working towards a radical reconstruction of government and society, one that is based on market principles. These groups all are involved in provided research and documentation that supports their ideological positions, that are them used to influence policy makers at the local, state and federal level.
Rich DeVos bought a lot of political influence
In addition to funding organizations that fit in the ideological framework of DeVos, he made it a point to buy as much political influence as possible. Depending on the source, some claim that Rich DeVos contributed roughly $200 million to candidates or incumbents since the early 1970s. According to opensecrets.org, DeVos had already contributed more than $1 million in the current election cycle.
Rich DeVos has contributed to the Republican Party at the federal and state level, plus he has contributed to specific candidates running for federal, state and local office from Michigan and in other states. DeVos has also contributed to support or oppose ballot initiatives in Michigan and throughout the country as well.
The amount of money that Rich DeVos has contributed to buy political influence is staggering, but it is also important to note that his contributions directly influence policy. Lets look at a few examples from recent years.
In June of 2014, Governor Snyder signed into law HB 4052, a law that takes away local control. Why is this relevant, because powerful entities like the DeVos family do not want local communities adopting policies like a living wage, regulations against wage theft or adopting anti-discrimination ordinances that would include or add anti-discrimination protections for the LGBT community.
HB 4052 was introduced by Rep. Earl Poleski (R) and then went to the Committee on Commerce & Trade, which is chaired by Joseph Graves (R). Graves received $9,000 from the DeVos family for his re-election bid in 2014, along with several other members of the Committee on Commerce and Trade. This committee recommended that HB 4052 be adopted and then it was put before the Michigan Senate. The Michigan Senate sent the bill to the Competitiveness Committee chaired by Mike Shirkey (R). Rep. Shirkey received $4,500 from the DeVos family for his re-election bid in 2014, as did several other members of this committee.
A second example would be a bill that was also signed into law the summer of 2014, HB 4188. This legislation, often framed as a religious freedom bill, would allow adoption agencies in Michigan the ability to deny LGBT couples/partners/families from adopting.
HB 4188 was introduced by Rep. Andrea LaFontaine (R). Rep. LaFontaine received $8,100 in campaign contribution in 2014 from the DeVos family. Many of the cosponsors of this bill were also recipients of DeVos family funding.
A third example would be legislation that was passed in September of 2017, legislation that is sort of a Citizens United for Michigan, allowing for greater amounts of money to be contributed during elections. We documented that in the Michigan Senate, most of those who voted for the legislation had received money from DeVos.
The “benevolence” of Rich DeVos
One additional major claim that has been made is how benevolent Rich DeVos has been and how much money his foundation has contributed to charitable causes.
First, it is important to note that no matter what year one looks at the 990s from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, most of the larger donations are going to entities like the megachurch Willow Creek Community Church, the Haggai Institute, the American Enterprise Institute or Americans for Prosperity. Giving millions to groups like these are not charity, it is the funding of ideologically-driven groups that try to influence public policy or are engaged in work that does actual harm to people.
Second, the money that Rich DeVos has contributed to more traditional charity groups or service organizations, goes specifically to those organizations because they do not address root causes of problems or take a systemic approach to dealing with social ills. The non-profits that DeVos has contributed money to provide services to individuals who are looking for assistance in some way, but Rich DeVos never gave money to groups that were focused on challenging systems of oppression or those who encourage direct action to fight injustice. Contributions to non-profits helps to create a buffer between those in the capitalist class and those who could potentially be organized to challenge the wealth of the capitalist class.
For those who identify as part of the political left, progressives or those who claim to challenge power, it is vitally important that we challenge the claims of the DeVos family. For additional information and analysis check out my DeVos Family Reader.
It all can seem overwhelming: Lessons from the 1980s Central American Solidarity movement in Grand Rapids
Right now there is a lot to be worried about, with some much oppression and corruption facing us. ICE continues to arrest, detain, deport and even murder people they are targeting.
The economy primarily works for the super rich, while the masses struggle to make ends meet, and about half of the population is living paycheck to paycheck. The government continues to spend large amounts on the US military and engage in imperialist actions in places like Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. Additionally, the US continues to be complicit in Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians.
There is so much pain and suffering going on, making it easy for us to give in to despair. What I learned from the popular movements in Central America and in Southern Mexico from 1980 through the early 2000’s was invaluable. First, movement organizers in Guatemala, El Salvador and Chiapas, Mexico taught me not only revolutionary patience, but how to focus our collective resistance against systems of power and oppression by developing strategies and implementing tactics that were necessary to create change.
We can’t merely engage in actions that make us feel good, instead we must engage in actions that resist and dismantle systems of power. This means we have to get out of our comfort zones and be willing to take risks. It also means we have to stop relying on electoral cycles that have rarely led to the kind of structural changes we need.
Therefore, I want to share a section from my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids, from chapter seven, which focuses on the Central American Solidarity movement. This was during the Reagan era, where that administration was undoing some of the pervious gains made by civil rights and labor movements. Sometimes it is important to look back to what people have done collectively to make a difference.
Central American Solidarity in Grand Rapids
The late 1970’s saw a great deal of revolutionary uprisings in the Global South, particularly in Central America. In Nicaragua, the FSLN, also known as the Sandinistas, were fighting against the decades long Somoza dictatorship. The Sandinistas overthrew the government in July of 1979, and almost immediately, the United States government began to demonize the new Nicaraguan government. In El Salvador and Guatemala, two armed insurgent movements, the FMLN in El Salvador and the URNG in Guatemala, were also fighting against long-standing dictatorships that were supported by the US government.
In the fall of 1980, when Ronald Reagan won the US Presidential election, few knew how much Central America would become his administration’s obsession. The Reagan administration increased military aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras beginning in 1981. In addition, the Reagan administration began to put significant pressure on the new Sandinista government in Nicaragua, first by imposing an international embargo and then by providing military training and funding to what became known as the Contra forces. Simultaneously, the US increased military funding to support the counter-insurgency wars in El Salvador and Guatemala. Honduras, which was geographically right in the middle of all of this, was trans- formed into a US military base, thus allowing the US to directly intervene whenever it needed.
The US war against the Sandinistas and the massive US support for the counter-insurgency wars in the rest of Central America, radicalized thousands of people in the US. In fact, the Central American solidarity movement had done things that previous movements confronting US foreign policy would never have imagined.
In Grand Rapids, a great deal of the Central American solidarity was coordinated by the Institute for Global Education (IGE). In the early 1980’s, IGE had created a Central America working group, which produced educational materials, hosted speakers, films and fact-finding trips to Central America.
Starting in 1983, there was a weekly vigil held on the old Monroe Mall in downtown Grand Rapids. The vigil began as a US Out of El Salvador demonstration, but by the time Reagan was re-elected in 1984, the vigil expanded to a larger US Out of Central America position. Besides holding signs, those attending the vigil would often pass out flyers to people walking by, flyers with information on US policy in Central America and how to get involved. Long-time civil rights activist Walter Bergman, sometimes joined those vigils. Bergman was a retire professor, who participated in the freedom rides in the 1960’s and was beaten so badly that he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Another group, known as the Stop the Invasion Campaign (STIC), began organizing in 1984. STIC was challenging the growing US support for the Contras that were terrorizing Nicaraguan civilians, as well as US military support to the Death Squad government in El Salvador.
One of the earliest actions that STIC organized was an elaborate form of street theater. The Stop the Invasion Campaign staged a series of mock kidnappings throughout Grand Rapids, where hooded men would drag off someone, throw them in a van and drive off. People who witnessed the mock kidnappings were not sure what was actually taking place, but moments later other STIC members handed out information sheets ex-plaining that what people just witnessed was a dramatization of what death-squads do in Guatemala and El Salvador every day.
The mock kidnapping began on Monroe Avenue, right in front of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel cafe, where a van pulled up to a screeching halt and hooded men jumped out and grab a woman. The staged kidnappings then moved to the old Monroe Mall, where Father Paul Milanowski was taken. Milanowski was part of a regular Wednesday vigil that took place on the old Monroe Mall against US policies in Central America. After the priest was kidnapped, STIC members then went into the GRCC cafeteria and took a student, climbing over tables to grab her. The next stop was in front of a Meijer store on Kalamazoo & 28th street, where someone in a wheelchair was dragged into the van, with his wheelchair left behind and witnesses left in shock. The last mock kidnapping took place at the County building, where Kent County Commissioner Liz Oppewal was taken during a County Commission meeting. All of these actions began at noon and the STIC members and supporters ended up in front of the downtown Federal building for a protest that included about 40 people.
The street theater was an effective tool to get both the general public and other activists thinking about the daily violence in Central America that was being paid for by US tax dollars. However, after doing these mock kidnappings, STIC members found out that people were calling the local police, since they thought the kidnappings were real. More importantly, people did not completely think through the possibility that maybe someone who had witnessed these mock kidnappings could have been armed and tried to shoot one of the mock Death Squad members.
In 1984, Ronald Reagan was re-elected and that reality led to increased resistance on the part of those involved in the Central American Solidarity movement. The Stop the Invasion campaign began weekly protests in front of the federal building every Friday from 4:30-6pm, when commute traffic was at its peak. Congressman Paul Henry had an office in the federal building and he consistently voted for US aid to the Contras and to the Salvadoran military, which made him a clear target of actions.
In 1986, several people who had been involved with STIC made 100 wooden crosses with the names of Nicaraguan civilians that had been murdered by the Contras. Several activists hammered the crosses into the front lawn of the federal building, with a large sign that read: Murder Victims of US-backed Contras. The federal building security was not happy about this action, but instead of trying to stop the action, they turned the lawn sprinklers on us. The response from the federal building security was clearly passive aggressive, but the activists didn’t mind, since it was a hot summer day and the sprinklers didn’t have a negative impact on the wooden crosses.
At the same time that US intervention was escalating in Central America, there was a national call to action to resist US policy in the region. This national campaign was called The Pledge of Resistance, which was asking people to publicly commit to participating in civil disobedience until the US stopped the Contra war and the military support for the counterinsurgency wars in El Salvador and Guatemala. There were several dozen people in Grand Rapids who signed The Pledge of Resistance, most of which fulfilled that public commitment in the years to come.
A great example of people willing to do civil disobedience is based on a story that Barb Lester told about STIC in 1986.
“Another STIC action was a planned sit-in at the Gerald R. Ford Federal Building in the office of U.S. Representative Paul Henry. We had announced the plan the day before and the “Feds” were ready for us. There were fully armed U.S. marshals standing guard at all entrances to the building. Only staff was allowed inside. A group of about ten or twelve gathered at the Calder Plaza next door and milled around for a while with our picket signs and then left using the stairway down to the underground parking lot. One of our members had gone out on reconnaissance the night before to find a way inside the Federal building. She located an underground tunnel from the parking ramp to the building. The next day she led us down the steps, through the tunnel under the building and up a staircase to the office of the Representative Henry. You can imagine the reaction when our sleuth, Janet Mumaw, let the marshals know we had entered the office while they stood guard at the doors.
After an hour or two sitting-in at Rep. Henry’s office we were told to leave or we would be arrested. Some left but two of us stayed. Jeff Smith was one and I was the other. It was after 5:00 p.m. and the office staff and marshals wanted to go home. They called the Grand Rapids Police Department to come and pick us up and take us to the Kent County Jail. GRPD Lt. Victor Gillis told them he would not send out officers to do what the U.S. Marshall could do themselves. The marshals came back to the closet where they had stored Jeff and me and told us we could just leave. But we would not leave. They closed the door again and we could hear bits of conversation. After a short while conferring, the door opened again and we were grabbed by the arms. Both Jeff and I fell to the floor, limp as rag dolls. They were terribly irritated and used several methods to ‘encourage’ us to get up and walk but we deferred. They ended up dragging both of us out of the office, down the hall, into the elevator, through the lobby and out the doors of the building. One of the Marshals was kind enough to collect the lipstick and change that fell from my pocket and hand it to me before locking the doors. It was a rather ignominious end to the event but it got our message out to a few more Federal officials.”
Other actions were continuing to apply pressure to Congressman Henry. In the winter of 1986, after a major snowstorm, activists made very large snowmen and then squirted ketchup all over them, simulating blood. These bloody snowmen were placed in from the main entrance to the federal building, thus blocking people from going in or coming out. One of the snowmen had a large sign on it that read, “Hi, I’m Paul Henry and I fight God-less Communism in Central American by helping to torture poor people, rape children, burn babies and other fun & games.”
In the summer of 1987, Central American Solidarity activists began protesting in front of the LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church, the same church that Congressman Henry attended. Later that year people created a Wanted poster of Congressman Paul Henry, posted it around town on bulletin boards and telephone poles. One activist even participated in a 30-day water only fast to protest US Aid to the Contras, which included writing a letter to Congressman Henry every day.
In November of 1989, we all learned that six Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter, were murdered in El Salvador by government soldiers, some of which had been trained at the US Army School of the Americas in Georgia. Demonstrations took place all across the country and in Grand Rapids. Over 100 people showed up at the federal building, with signs and banners. Just minutes after the demonstration began, activists holding the banners began to walk out onto Michigan St. to block traffic. For nearly 30 minutes, the entire five lanes of Michigan St. were blocked, until the GRPD showed up and threatened to arrest people.
Undeterred, another six activists went into Congressman Henry’s office to make a citizen’s arrest. The staff person who greeted those coming into the office was not at their desk, so one activist picked up the phone on the staffer’s desk and called the GRPD to tell them that crimes were being committed in the federal building, specifically Crimes Against Humanity. The six activists then sat down in Congressman Henry’s office and began to read accounts of how the Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter were murdered in El Salvador. Only a few minutes had passed by, when federal building security came in and told those protesting that they had to leave. People refused, so the security guards started carrying the protestors out, one by one, and dropping them on the ground outside. However, the protest did not end there.
There was a parking ramp used by the city, county and federal building employees, just to the south of the federal building, so those protesting the US-financed murders in El Salvador, blocked the exit from the parking ramp. Cars were backed up for about 20 minutes, until the police came and physically moved people blocking the ramp exit, thus allowing cars to leave. The police made no arrests that day, but ever major news agency reported on the demonstration.
In addition to all of the local organizing and actions that took place in solidarity with the people of Central America, something else happened that had not really happened on a large scale with previous instances of US foreign policy. There were thousands of people who went to Central America during the 1980’s, including several hundred from Grand Rapids. Some of those who went to Central American from Grand Rapids were those who were part of fact-finding trips or trips that were designed to meet with those most impacted by US sponsored militarism. This kind of solidarity had not happened in previous US wars and US supported wars. There were a few people, like Dan Berrigan and Howard Zinn, who traveled to Vietnam, but never on this scale and rarely to do direct solidarity or accompaniment work.
Some of those doing direct solidarity working with groups like Brigades de Paz in Guatemala, while others worked with Witness for Peace in Nicaragua. These kinds of solidarity work involved people from the US to act as non-violent bodyguards for Central American activist/organizers who were constantly receiving death threats from military or paramilitary groups. One example of a Grand Rapidian who did direct solidarity was Bill and Sue Van Lopik. I did an interview with Bill Van Lopik years later and this is what he had to say about doing accompaniment work in El Salvador:
“When we lived in El Salvador and even when we would make occasional visits back to the States during that time of 1986-1992, we were quite conscious about staying on the periphery of the CA Solidarity Movement. Our main focus at the time was not getting kicked out of El Salvador. We knew our phones were tapped, we saw helicopters circle low over our house on a weekly basis and we saw the leaflets that military planes dropped throughout the city that said ‘if you see foreigners engaged in any suspicious activities, please immediately inform the authorities.’ We did not want to be kicked out of the country and have all the programs that were directly benefitting many of the poor in El Salvador shut down because of political opinions. We were doing solidarity work behind the scenes and out of the media.”
Back in Grand Rapids, the Central American Solidarity Movement continued to evolve and engage in organizing beyond demonstrations and civil disobedience. The IGE Central American Solidarity group was working with the group Neighbor to Neighbor on a Folger’s Coffee Boycott campaign, since Folger’s relied heavily on coffee grown in El Salvador. Several activists got numerous stores in Grand Rapids to stop carrying Folger’s coffee, while others tried to get a video PSA aired on local TV stations, a PSA created by Neighbor to Neighbor about Salvadoran human rights abuses.
Another action taken on by a friend of mine, Richa, involved a media studies project, where we looked at how the only daily newspaper in the city, the Grand Rapids Press, reported on Central America. We actually did two studies, with the first one looking at the coverage for 1988, entitled, Aggravations: A Critical Look at How the Grand Rapids Press Reports on Central America.17 The very next year, we conducted a second study of the Grand Rapids Press, with a report entitled, Mis-Information: How the Grand Rapids Press Reports on Central America. This second report involved a more extensive re-search and content analysis methodology. We distributed 2,000 copies of the second re-port and even set up a meeting with then Press editor Mike Lloyd. When we got to the meeting at the GR Press building, we were invited into the office of the editor. The meeting lasted only 30 seconds, since just after arriving in his office, Mike Lloyd looked at us and said, “This is what I think of your report.” He then proceeded to throw it in the trash and told us to leave.
His reluctance to even discuss the findings of our report might have been clouded by the cover picture we used for the report, but we didn’t really expect any other response than the one he gave us. The cover of the report had a picture of Richa and myself standing in front of the GR Press building, with a banner we made that covered their sign, which said, “Grand Rapids Propaganda.” His response also prompted us to start our own newspaper, which was published from 1992-1998.
Local news announces the Kent County Sheriff’s retirement, but fails to challenge her 8 years as Sheriff
Last week Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young announced that she was retiring in October of this year. LaJoye-Young became Sheriff in 2018 after Larry Stelma announced that he was retiring.
The local news media all reported on the Sheriff’s retirement announcement. MLive posted a short article with a few quotes from the soon to be retired Sheriff, but nothing notable about her career or her time as Sheriff since 2018.
The WOODTV8 story was longer, but also treated LaJoye-Young with kid gloves. This allowed the Sheriff space to talk about her father who was a Sheriff before her and the channel 8 reporter gave her space to talk about one memorable moment in her 8 years as Sheriff, specifically the 2020 riot in Grand Rapids. LaJoye-Young talked about how quickly her department responded to assist the GRPD and how emotional she got when talking about all the support they received the next day when they arrived in their parking lot. The Sheriff failed to mention that the GRPD initiated the violence by firing sped canisters into the crowds.
The WZZM 13 and the WXMI 17 coverage was similar to the MLive story in that it was brief with a lengthy quote from LaJoye-Young. All four of the major local commercial news agencies did report that Undersheriff Bryan Muir will seek the appointment to be the next sheriff.
What is instructive about the local news coverage on the retirement announcement from LaJoye-Young is the consistency of how it was reported. All four of the stories treated the announcement as a personality story as opposed to providing some assessment of the Kent County Sheriff’s Office during LaJoye-Young’s tenure as Sheriff. There was little said about policy and there was certainly no desire to gauge public opinion on how they see the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.
I want to provide an overview of what GRIID has been reporting when it comes to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young since she took that position in 2018.
- When LaJoye-Young came on in later 2018, she inherited the contract that the Sheriff’s Office had with ICE since 2012, which you can read here. When Movimiento Cosecha learned about the contract in 2018 they began a campaign to end that contract with the Sheriff’s Office months before LaJoye-Young was elevated to that position.
- Because there was so much going on and the County was not being very transparent, the End the Contract campaign decided to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the County regarding ICE and our campaign. You can read the 138 pages at this link, where you will see as Undersheriff LaJoye-Young was included in many of the Emails that county officials were sending out regarding Cosecha’s campaign to end the ICE contract.
- When the ICE liaison with the GRPD contacted ICE to arrest Jilmar Ramos Gomez, a former US Marine, Kent County made national news and it exposed the serious flaws with how the Kent County Sheriff was cooperating with ICE. Because of the fallout, Sheriff LaJoye-Young decided that moving forward Kent County would require signed judicial warrants in order to hold people at the Kent County Jail for ICE.
- In 2022, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office began a contract to place dozens of Flock cameras throughout Kent County, which provides additional state surveillance of the public.
- As I mentioned in yesterday’s post Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE has been challenging Sheriff LaJoye-Young on sanctuary policies and specifically on the Kent County Jail holding immigrants for ICE. This is now confirmed because of a FOIA document signed by LaJoye-Young for ICE detainers.
- The news coverage of the Sheriff’s retirement announcement also fails to mention that in January and March there were two separate protests against the Kent County Jails holding immigrants for ICE.
- In addition, the news failed to mention that Rep. Scholten secured $750,000 of public funds for the Sheriff’s Office. According to the Kent Safety Network site the Kent County Sheriff’s Office already has 182 registered cameras (residential cameras) and 2229 integrated cameras or business cameras participating in this program. This means there are an additional 2411 cameras that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office can access, which also includes the Flock Cameras they have been using since 2022.
- Lastly, the local news could have asked why is there a disproportionate number of Black and Brown residents in the Kent County Jail compared to what percentage of the population they make up in Kent County. See data collected from 2024 by Linc Up.
Lies and deception: We now have confirmation that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office is engaged in ICE detainers
Local jails and police departments are key to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda because they facilitate ICE arrests of people who are already in police custody. In the first year of Trump’s second term, the administration has intensified the criminalization of asylum seekers and immigrants, pushed immigrant detention to all-time highs, and indiscriminately raided city after city.
The above statement is from a report produced by the Prison Policy Initiative, which underscores the crucial role that local jails and police departments play in the arrest, detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants.
For the past 18 months Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been engaged in a campaign to get Kent County and the City of Grand Rapids to adopt 6 sanctuary policies, all of which were prevent both of these governmental bodies from cooperating or collaborating with ICE in their efforts to target immigrants.
Someone from another local organization recently shared with GRIID a 2-page document that was obtained through a FOIA request that clearly demonstrates that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office has been cooperating with ICE, particularly around the issue of ICE detainers or what are more commonly referred to as ICE holds.
This 2-page document shows that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) has formally been engaged in ICE detainers since March 5 of 2025. Under the heading of Purpose it states:
KCSO has established guidelines for complying with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers while ensuring adherence to Local, State, and Federal laws. KCSO is committed to balancing public safety, legal obligations, and the rights of individuals in custody.
Under the heading of Policy the document states:
The Kent County Sheriff’s Office is committed to upholding all applicable Local, State, and Federal laws regarding immigration enforcement. KCSO works closely with Immigration Enforcement and Removal officials to ensure compliance with these guidelines while maintaining the safety, security, and rights of all individuals in our custody. All interactions with immigration authorities will be conducted in accordance with legal requirements, department policies, and established procedures to ensure transparency, accountability, and due process.
The document is signed by the Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young. The document itself is not terribly revealing, since it merely confirms what members of the affected community have been telling us over the past few years.
However, the FOIA document on ICE detainers at the Kent County Jail is instructive, especially since Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been attempting to get the Kent County Sheriff’s Office to admit that their office is doing ICE holds at the Kent County Jail.
Last November, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE had been trying to get the Kent County Sheriff to admit they were engaged in ICE detainers at the Kent County Jail. On November 3rd of 2025, people went to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office to ask the simple question, “Is Kent County doing ICE holds at the jail?” People were told that the Sheriff was not in, but one of her Captains came out and said that people should submit a FOIA request to obtain that information. Someone responded by say, “You want us to submit a FOIA, which means you want us to pay money to submit a FOIA request, which will likely take months to get information about whether or not your office requires a judicial warrant to hold people for ICE?”
Not satisfied, Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE returned two weeks later to attempt to talk with the Kent County Sheriff. After a brief disruption, the Sheriff came out and was asked, “Is the Kent County Sheriff’s office cooperating with ICE, by engaging in ICE holds with immigrants who have already been bonded out of the jail.” The Sheriff said that if we wanted answers that we should set up an appointment with her to meet. Cosecha uses the tactic of public meetings/conversations to make sure that politicians do not say one thing in private and another thing in public.
The Sheriff went on to say, “this is a place of business and I have other obligations right now.” Someone asked if they could just respond to the questions about ICE holds. Again, the Sheriff said that if we want to have a conversation that we needed to make an appointment. The Sheriff then said she did not have time to talk with us right now and that she was not going to speak with us because we would just take excerpts of what she said and spin it.
Eight months later we now have confirmation that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office does engage in ICE detainers and has been doing it since March of 2025.
It should never be this hard to get basic information, information that is rooted basic human rights, where people wanted to know if the Kent County Sheriff’s Office was actively collaborating with ICE. The lack of transparency and honesty from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office and the Kent County Commission is despicable and should not be tolerated. If you want to then get involved in resisting ICE in Kent County you should definitely be part of the important work of Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE.
Monitoring the most powerful family in West MI: The DeVos Family Reader – July 2026 edition
It has been roughly 9 months since I last update the . As always, there has been plenty to report on regarding the most powerful family in West Michigan.
In Howard Zinn’s monumental book, A People’s History of the United States, he constantly juxtaposes the amazing things that people did to fight for liberation and the people behind the systems of oppression that social movements were fighting against.
This is exactly why I have spent years monitoring, investigating and critiquing the DeVos Family. They are the most recognizable and powerful manifestation of the systems of power and oppression in West Michigan. Now, I know there are plenty of people who share the belief that without the DeVos Family, Grand Rapids wouldn’t be where it is today. I fully agree with that belief, but for reasons that are the exact opposite of those who hold the most powerful family in West Michigan in high regard.
This updated version of the DeVos Family Reader includes information and analysis on a variety of local issues, even some that are not directly focused on the DeVos Family, but there are connections.
There were a total of 25 articles involving the DeVos family since the last time I updated the DeVos Family Reader, with 5 of those being my annual information on the 5 separate DeVos Family Foundations, which you can find here. The other 20 articles are listed below in chronological order. The DeVos Family Reader is now up to 888 pages.
Further evidence of how much the DeVos family has their tentacles in all things Grand Rapids https://griid.org/2025/10/26/further-evidence-of-how-much-the-devos-family-has-their-tentacles-in-all-things-grand-rapids/
Rockford (Construction) will likely get the contract for a housing development project next to the Amway Stadium https://griid.org/2025/12/12/rockford-construction-will-likely-get-the-contract-for-a-housing-development-project-next-to-the-amway-stadium/
Campesinos reclaim some communal lands in Mexico that Amway has been using for their Nutrilite product line https://griid.org/2025/12/15/campesinos-reclaim-some-communal-lands-in-mexico-that-amway-has-been-using-for-their-nutrilite-product-line/
State board OKs $561M tax incentive to billionaire Amway families for 3 tower project: Mayor LaGrand celebrates this decision https://griid.org/2025/12/22/state-board-oks-561m-tax-incentive-to-billionaire-amway-families-for-3-tower-project-mayor-lagrand-celebrates-this-decision/
Doug DeVos re-introduces his dad’s book Believe, trashes socialism and thinks the country was founded on the principles of free enterprise https://griid.org/2026/01/14/doug-devos-re-introduces-his-dads-book-believe-trashes-socialism-and-thinks-the-country-was-founded-on-the-principles-of-free-enterprise/
Griffins hockey team President who made a racist and homophobic statement works for the DeVos/Van Andel families https://griid.org/2026/02/05/griffins-hockey-team-president-who-made-racist-and-homophobic-statement-works-for-the-devos-van-andel-families/
Doug DeVos and revisionist history of Grand Rapids since 1976: How the Capitalist Class always tries to control the narrative https://griid.org/2026/02/16/doug-devos-and-revisionist-history-of-grand-rapids-since-1976-how-the-capitalist-class-always-tries-to-control-the-narrative/
New Hotel proposal for Grand Rapids once again demonstrates that expanding the wealth of the rich takes priority over housing for working class families https://griid.org/2026/03/15/new-hotel-proposal-for-grand-rapids-once-again-demonstrates-that-expanding-the-wealth-of-the-rich-takes-priority-over-housing-for-working-class-families/
AI and data centers are not a problem if God is involved, says Doug DeVos and his fellow believers https://griid.org/2026/03/17/ai-and-data-centers-are-not-a-problem-if-god-is-involved-says-doug-devos-and-his-fellow-believers/
Expanding their wealth and control over auto sales: DeVos-owned Fox Motors acquires even more auto dealerships in West Michigan https://griid.org/2026/04/09/expanding-their-wealth-and-control-over-auto-sales-devos-owned-fox-motors-acquires-even-more-auto-dealerships-in-west-michigan/
Rick DeVos and his family have been coming for you and your children for a very long time https://griid.org/2026/04/28/rick-devos-and-his-family-have-been-coming-for-you-and-your-children-for-a-very-long-time/
DeVos-led GR A250 group is offering a class from the National Constitution Center on “Happiness in America’s Founding” https://griid.org/2026/05/02/devos-led-gr-a250-group-is-offering-a-class-from-the-national-constitution-center-on-happiness-in-americas-founding/
Two speakers, two war criminals and the DeVos family: Econ Club annual dinner will celebrate members of the Capitalist Class https://griid.org/2026/05/04/two-speakers-two-war-criminals-and-the-devos-family-econ-club-annual-dinner-will-celebrate-members-of-the-capitalist-class/
Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids – Segment #11: Dick DeVos says God loves work, plus a Housing Summit featuring wealthy developers https://griid.org/2026/05/07/monitoring-the-rich-and-powerful-in-grand-rapids-segment-11-dick-devos-says-god-loves-work-plus-a-housing-summit-featuring-wealthy-developers/
DeVos acolyte justifies the Crusades, genocide and Islamophobia in an article entitled, When Did We Stop Subduing the Earth? https://griid.org/2026/05/21/devos-acolyte-justifies-the-crusades-genocide-and-islamophobia-in-an-article-entitled-when-did-we-stop-subduing-the-earth/
Deconstructing the comments from Dick DeVos after his family received an award at the Econ Club’s annual dinner on Tuesday https://griid.org/2026/06/05/deconstructing-the-comments-from-dick-devos-after-his-family-received-an-award-at-the-econ-clubs-annual-dinner-on-tuesday/
DeVos-led group GR A250 continues to want to control the narrative about the history of the US https://griid.org/2026/06/15/devos-led-group-gr-a250-continues-to-want-to-control-the-narrative-about-the-history-of-the-us/
Doug DeVos is endorsing a new book, which tells us exactly what he really believes in https://griid.org/2026/06/17/doug-devos-is-endorsing-a-new-book-which-tells-us-exactly-what-he-really-believes-in/
Resisting the narratives about Grand Rapids from the DeVos dominated GR A250 committee https://griid.org/2026/06/21/resisting-the-narratives-about-grand-rapids-from-the-devos-dominated-gr-a250-committee/
The DeVos/Van Andel Three Towers project will now get millions in public funding after a recent Michigan Legislative vote https://griid.org/2026/07/06/the-devos-van-andel-three-towers-project-will-now-get-millions-in-public-funding-after-a-recent-michigan-legislative-vote/
Pickleball tournament going on now in GR, so how is the DeVos family connected? https://griid.org/2026/07/08/pickleball-tournament-going-on-now-in-gr-so-how-is-the-devos-family-connected/
The annual pickleball tournament that began in 2018 in Grand Rapids, also known as the Beer City Open, is taking place at the Belknap Park until Sunday, July 12.
Pickleball began as a sport for older adults because it required less running than tennis, but has not become a massive billion dollar sport that has it’s own professional league.
The main sponsor of the Beer City Open is AHC Hospitality, is a management company owned by the DeVos family and includes hotels, resorts, and restaurants. On the Beer City Open website it lists AHC Hospitality as the title sponsor and the official hotel partner, with links to the four DeVos-owned hotels in downtown Grand Rapids – JW Marriot Grand Rapids, AC Hotel Downtown Grand Rapids, Amway Grand Plaza Hotel and the Courtyard by Marriot Downtown.
The the thing about the DeVos family is that they are strategic, which is why they have been a major force in the creation of Grand Action 2.0, which brought us the Van Andel Arena, the Downtown Market, the Amphitheater and soon to be open Amway Soccer Stadium. All of these projects have relied on millions of public dollars, plus they increase tourism, thus the need for hotels, like the ones the DeVos family owns.
However, this is not the only connection the DeVos family has to pickleball. In 2024, WZZM 13 reported that Ryan DeVos, one of the son’s of Dick & Betsy DeVos, is the owner of the Orlando Squeeze, a Major League Pickleball franchise. In that article, DeVos said that he was working on getting the 30 million pickleball players to watch pickleball played on a professional level. Always thinking about capturing consumers.
Then there is the DeVos-owned Michigan Sports Academies that are located throughout West Michigan. The Michigan Sports Academies offers soccer, volleyball, basketball and pickleball leagues.
Ownership of the Orlando Squeeze and the Michigan Sports Academies is just part of the DeVos family’s larger portfolio of sports teams and sports complexes that they own. Having hotels on top of that works well, since the DeVos family is constantly thinking about ways to expand their wealth by controlling more of the economic, social and cultural dynamics in West Michigan.
In August of 2024 I wrote about the newly created Thrive and Prosper group, or as they like to refer to themselves as a movement. Here is part of what I had to say:
Thrive and Prosper is just the latest iteration of the talent development and entrepreneurial pipeline that will allow a small sector of the local population to make money and be successful. The problem with this tired old approach is that it is just another manifestation of Capitalism 101, where given the right opportunity, you too can be financially successful.
Of course, the problem is that only a small percentage of Grand Rapids will Thrive and Prosper, since wealth creation under this model always requires profit making from cheap labor and the extraction of natural resources.
Thrive and Prosper will only benefit a few people, who will ultimately have to play the game created by members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. However, the few that will Thrive and Prosper will also have to abandon their communities, since you can’t thrive and prosper without causing others hardship, poverty and despair. Welcome to West Michigan Nice!
In December of 2024 I once again wrote about an event that Thrive and Prosper put on, where Doug DeVos was the MC and also presented his own perspective on Grand Rapids.
“We saw that in our own community, about 4 years ago. We saw that here, very unsettled. We started experiencing some of the mob, some of the rioting and some of the lawlessness that don’t really comport with a civil society.”
These comments from DeVos clearly demonstrate his class privilege, since what happened with the uprising in 2020 was rooted not only in how the police murder and repress Black communities, but how there is deep seated structural injustice and exploitation that people like DeVos are removed from and responsible for. The DeVos family is the best example of the growing wealth gap in Grand Rapids, where a small number of people are benefiting from the labor and suffering of the majority of the population.
In the new report from Thrive and Prosper they continue to push the same agenda. Here is a brief overview of their 2025 annual report.
Thrive and Prosper acknowledges that nearly half of the population of Grand Rapids is living paycheck to paycheck, but what they offer is more support for people who want to start their own businesses.
Thrive and Prosper highlights the partnership between the following groups – Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, AmplifyGR, Construction Allies in Action, the Center for Community Transformation, Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council, Opportunity Empowered, Opportunity Ventures and SpringGR. All of these groups are pushing for business opportunities and support for entrepreneurs, but say nothing about economic injustice or structural and systemic exploitation.
- Thrive and Prosper promotes workforce development, but only if it is mutually beneficial to business owners.
- Thrive and Prosper embraces faith communities as a necessary component in promoting wealth creation. This makes complete sense since wealth creation has nothing to do with economic justice or a radical redistribution of economic resources across the community.
- Thrive and Prosper continues their Cocktails and Cross-Pollination approach to connecting people, which provides an opportunity for people to meet and discuss “opportunities” with the very people who have created economic disparities in Grand Rapids.
What Thrive and Prosper will not talk about or not suggest are the some of the following:
- Everyone should be paid a Livable Wage.
- People should organize a union to democratize their workplace.
- Tenants should organize a tenant’s union to challenge high rental costs and exploitative landlord practices.
- How hundreds of million in public dollars will be used for projects like the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium, the Aquarium and the Three Towers Project, but no comporable investments in neighborhoods.
- If the GRPD budget was reduced to the 32% City Charter amount of the annual budget, there would be at least $10 million a year that could be spent on meeting basic community needs.
- That Grand Rapids has the largest wealth gap in the entire state of Michigan.
When are the faith leaders in this city going to start quoting Dr. King or using similar language to hold the government accountable with spending priorities, where militarism is prioritized, but not community needs? “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
Thrive and Prosper is just another economic con within the capitalist system. Some will benefit, while the masses struggle to survive.
Several months ago many news agencies were reporting that the roughly $565 million in public subsidies for the DeVos/Van Andel Three Towers project was at risk for lack of public dollars.
However, last week State Legislators passed a bill that would increase a $1.6 billion limit on post-construction tax captures in the transformational brownfield plan program to $3.2 billion.
According to an article in Crain’s Grand Rapids Business the increased transformational brownfield tax incentives program will already being going for a partial demolition and overhaul of Detroit’s iconic Renaissance Center, along with funding for the DeVos/Van Andel Three Towers project in Grand Rapids.
Senate Bill 723 was approved by the Senate in December by a vote of 24-12, with Senate Minority Leader Winnie Brinks voting for it. The House passed it on an 82-26 last week with a voice vote, thus demonstrating plenty of bipartisan support for giving millions to developers as a subsidy while nearly half the families in Michigan are living paycheck to paycheck. The Crain’s article presents this vote as a a good thing, since their publication is business centered.
GRIID first wrote about the DeVos/Van Andel Three Towers project in September of 2024, with several articles that followed which as listed here.
All of the hoopla over the 250th birthday of the US is now in our rearview mirror, but if you think that we can now movement on from that you are gravely mistaken.
Ever since the US was founded there has been a battle to control the narrative of how the country was founded and how it has evolved over the past two and a half centuries. On the one hand you have the narrative that the US was founded on freedom and liberty, yet at the same time there has been tremendous scholarly research and publications coming from historically marginalized communities and insurgent writers that tells a much different story about the what the US was founded on and what has happened over the past 250 years.
The 10 books listed above are an example of a people’s history of the US, which is in stark contrast to the narrative we all grew up with where some great white men won us our freedom. We are not told that the first Supreme Court Justice John Jay believed, “those who own the country ought to govern it.” Many of us have not been exposed to the well documented history of the US founding to demonstrate that is was based on genocidal policies of the US towards Indigenous people and the enslavement of African people.
Most of us grew up with the vision of the founding of the US, one that Rich DeVos believed in, which says, “The call of freedom went forth from a rugged wilderness, and Europe and Asia and Africa sent their sons of adventure to hew out a new society in a land of forests and savages.”
Most of us were not exposed to the powerful speech that Frederick Douglass gave in 1952, What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July? Douglass said in part:
What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
For those of us in Grand Rapids we are influenced by the great white men here, like the DeVos family, with their names plastered on buildings across the city. In a recent issue of Doug DeVos’ online journal Believe!, he writes:
We make no apology for our patriotism. We believe this is the greatest country in human history, and that America’s example has uplifted the world. We also believe that every generation of Americans has done the hard work of better applying our national principles. Our people have continually forged a more perfect union, grounded in freedom, equality, and justice for all.
I ask you, how many people across the US or just in Grand Rapids have real freedom, equality or justice? Remember, the above statement is coming from a billionaire who has made his wealth off of the exploitation of others or by siphoning public funds.
Grand Rapidians are not generally taught about the about the 6,000 KKK members who who to town in 1925 for a parade on the 4th of July, where they had a GRPD escort and thousands of people lined the streets to cheer them on.
GRIID has been monitoring the DeVos-run GR A250 committee propaganda over the past year, where those with power in this city want to craft a very narrow narrative of this city’s history.
This is exactly why I wrote a People’s History of Grand Rapids in 2023, because I wanted to provide a counter-narrative. In the introduction of that book I write:
A People’s History of Grand Rapids is about what the Zapatistas, a revolutionary autonomous movement in Southern Mexico, refer to as: La Guerra en contra del Olvido, or in English, “The War Against Forgetting.”
The systems of power and oppression in Grand Rapids do not want us to know this history and will do whatever they can to suppress it or co-opt it. These same systems of power and oppression in Grand Rapids also want us to forget this history once we have learned it. They don’t want us to know that Grand Rapids was built on settler colonialism; they don’t want us to know that all the wealth in this city was created by laborers; they don’t want us to know that Grand Rapids practices a very sophisticated version of structural racism; and they certainly don’t want us to know that social movements and direct action – which disrupt their “business as usual” – have always been the most effective means of fighting oppression.
We cannot afford to forget this history and we need to continually create counter-narratives that celebrate the incredible work being done at the grassroots level. We need to celebrate the lived experiences of those on the ground and in the streets, and we need to center the voices of the most affected members of this community if we want to counter the narratives of the wealthiest and most privileged among us.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 