Commies of Grand Rapids wants to be edgy, but in reality they just promote White Supremacy and love to blame the unhoused

Just because some people attack the government, doesn’t mean they are revolutionary or edgy in their thinking. This is true of the new Facebook page called Commies of Grand Rapids.

They claim to be non-profit news company, one that is associated with Capital Media Labs, but neither of these claims are true. Some people might think this is merely a spoof page, especially because of the name of the page, but the ideas and images they present are harmful and normalize ideologies like White Supremacy.

Commies of Grand Rapids started posting on July 31st and already have several dozen posts. The content is short, weak and primarily relies on using information or images from other content creators. Their positions are nothing more than opinions, since they do not provide any sources to support their claims. 

Now, I don’t believe for a second that Commies of Grand Rapids is a new entity, rather it is the project of those who embrace White Supremacist values and have nothing but contempt for the unhoused. Here are some examples.

Just a fews days ago, Commies of Grand Rapids posted the above image, where they point out that in the document the term BIPOC was used 23 times. No one is doubting that the Canadian wildfires are creating a problem for people in Grand Rapids, but the document they are making fun of is about what the City of Grand Rapids can do to practice a more sustainable Climate policy. It just so happens that the reason why BIPOC is used frequently in this document is due to the fact that BIPOC organizers pushed for language in this Climate plan that would recognize that BIPOC communities are disproportionately impacted by Climate Change. Pointing out the number of times BIPOC is used is the same mentality that led to All Lives Matter as a response to Black Lives Matter. 

Other examples are the use of images of Black men with commentary about how these Black men are going to get their charges expunged. Commies of Grand Rapids never uses images of white people with negative commentary, only Black people. 

Then there are some posts that shit on the unhoused. In one image they make the claim, “This is our parks look like now,” referring to the Heartside Park in downtown Grand Rapids. The images is from several years ago, shortly after the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The folks at Commies of Grand Rapids failed to note that shelters during COVID were a breeding ground of disease and that in December of 2020, the GRPD forcibly evicted unhoused people from Heartside Park and threw away most of their belongings.

In another anti-unhoused image they try to make the link between fentanyl use in Grand Rapids, the unhoused and “river equity”, which is a dig on the rhetoric that the City of Grand Rapids has been using about the development along the Grand River. The image on the left is the from the same unhoused encampment at Heartside in 2020, just a different angle. 

What Commies of Grand Rapids doesn’t talk about

One way you can tell whether or not something or someone is a fake populist, is by their rhetoric. Commies of Grand Rapids takes pot shots at local government and the things they are bad at, which apparently leads to people being unhoused, the drug problem, BIPOC people as the problem or the fact that they are trying to develop Climate plans that are stupid because they don’t address Canadian wildfires.

Another way to tell that Commies of Grand Rapids is not interested in a real or structural change is by what they don’t talk about. The Grand Rapids Power Structure, the DeVos family, Grand Action 2.0, the GR Chamber of Commerce, the Right Place Inc., are never discussed by those who use the hammer and sickle symbol. There are no critiques of the use of public funds for the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium, the City’s ordinance that criminalized the unhoused, the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya, the GRPD assaulting and arresting Black community organizers or how the GRPD treats grassroots organizers in general. Commies of Grand Rapids also don’t talk about the cost of housing and the cost of rent, nor the millions in subsidies that have been provided to apartment and condo projects, like the DeVos/Van Andel 3 Towers project, which are unaffordable for the majority of the population.

In the end, Commies of Grand Rapids is just the rantings of another fake populist(s), with commentary that normalizes White Supremacy and blames the unhoused for whatever they see fit.