What are we really celebrating with the Top 25 Most Influential Latinos in West Michigan?

Recently, the publication Vive Michigan, just published their list of the Top 25 Most Influential Latinos in Michigan. I’m assuming the online bilingual magazine means influential Latinos in West Michigan, since this is where the publication gets distributed and all of the Latinos listed are from West Michigan.

When I saw this list, like most lists of “important” or influential people, it rubbed me the wrong way. Having said that, please don’t think that I am suggesting that those listed as the Top 25 Most Influential Latinos don’t do any good. I believe that good/bad dichotomies make things too simple, they don’t allow for complexity and they certainly don’t address structural issues or systems of power.

Then there is the question of how these 25 people were chosen. Vive Michigan says that those chosen were, “Curated meticulously through a comprehensive selection process from more than 600 nominations, this inaugural list serves as a spotlight on the individuals who are redefining what it means to be influential in West Michigan.” Ok, so curated by whom and who was involved in the nominating process? Were those Latinos who pick our food, work in the kitchens and change the bedding at hotels consulted or invited to nominate people? It seems unlikely, which means that the process is deeply flawed.

More importantly, those who were nominated are certainly people who would be considered as part of the business class or the professional class. It seems to be from my count that those who own or manage businesses at the majority of the 25 Most Influential Latinos in West Michigan, followed by people in positions of power – lawyers, judges and elected officials. There were a few on the list that work in the non-profit sector as well.

Over the past few years, GRIID has critiqued the Top 200 Most Powerful Business Leaders in West Michigan, which does include a few Black and Latino professionals. In that analysis, we make it clear that the list represents people who make up the local power structure or those that don’t do anything to challenge it. In many ways, I think the same thing about the list of the 25 Most Influential Latinos in West Michigan. But to be more specific, here are a few questions that we might ask ourselves when we look at this list.

• Are the people on this list in any way at all a threat to systems of power, privilege and oppression in West Michigan?
• Of the people who are on this list, have they internalized the values of the systems of power, privilege and oppression in West Michigan?
• Do those on this list act as a buffer against grassroots organizing in the Latino community to challenge systems of power, privilege and oppression?
• Are those on the list challenging or working to dismantle the structural racism and White Supremacist systems that prevent Latinos from living a good life?
• Are those on the list fighting with the immigrant justice movement in West Michigan to win Drivers Licenses for undocumented people?
• Are those on the list doing the important work to prevent or challenge the harm being done to Latino immigrants that are being targeted by Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrest, detain and deport Latinos?
• Are those on the list working to make sure that all Latinos can afford a safe home to live in and to keep their children from experiencing poverty?
• Are those on the list fighting to make sure that all Latinos make a living wage, especially those who are migrant workers and those in the service industries?

Unfortunately, these are not the kinds of questions that Vive Michigan was asking. Instead, it seems that what Vive Michigan is essentially doing is mimicking the same type of celebrity peddling that the Grand Rapids Business Journal (Now Crain’s Grand Rapids) has done and will continue to do. In fact, there are two people in the Top 200 Most Powerful people list that are also on the Top 25 Most Influential Latinos list. It seems that what we are celebrating with the Top 25 Most Influential Latinos is celebrating those who don’t want to disrupt business as usual or the status quo.