On Tuesday, the West Michigan Policy Forum (WMPF) host an event centered around the theme of Criminal Justice Reform.
This is not the first time that WMPF has made criminal justice reform a priority. We wrote about WMPF efforts in 2018. In that article we wrote:
The West Michigan Policy Forum is NOT going to be advocating for the end of police surveillance of the black and latinx communities, they are not going to be calling for an end to mass incarceration, they are NOT going to be calling for the end of the privatization of prisons and prison services, they are NOT going to be calling for the end of criminal history to determine eligibility for housing, education, licenses, voting, loans, employment, and other services and needs, they are NOT going to be calling for an end to ICE raids, they are NOT calling for changes in the condition of jails, prisons, juvenile detention facilities or immigration detention and they are NOT going to be calling for the end of capital punishment.
The other important thing about why WMPF was getting into the criminal justice reform game, is because, by their own admission, if too many people are locked up, it reduces the labor pool for the business sector.
At Tuesday’s event, the WMPF had as keynote speakers CNN commentator Van Jones and Mark Holden, who has a long history of working with the Koch brothers, specifically with Americans for Prosperity.
This is not the first time that Van Jones and Mark Holden are sharing the mic at an event on criminal justice reform. These two men have been front and center in the campaign to get the First Step Act passed during the Trump Administration.
After year one of the First Step Act, here is what the Sentencing Project had to say:
Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed the First Step Act one year ago on December 21, 2018, to limit mandatory minimums for low-level drug offenses, provide retroactive sentence reductions to people imprisoned under the 100 to 1 crack cocaine disparity, and expand rehabilitation in federal prisons. Implementation of the new law has been mixed. While sentence reductions have been approved by judges, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has attempted to block hundreds of eligible beneficiaries. There has also been a problematic rollout of the risk and needs assessment tool to determine earned-time credit eligibility and limited programming for rehabilitation.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) had a more critical response to the First Step Act, stating:
But the measure falls far short of forging a true “first step” toward fundamental change and addressing racial disparities in our criminal justice system.
What’s more, several provisions are deeply problematic and would exacerbate racial disparities in the sentencing of individuals and encourage the expansion of the prison industrial complex. And as the bill passes through Congress, terrible amendments that stand in stark contrast to the supposed goal of the bill are being proposed to placate members who seek to be “tough on crime.”
In addition, the AFSC states that the First Step Act Reinforces Structural Racism, Excludes Immigrants from Reforms, protects private prisons, perpetuates re-incarceration and privileges religious participation.
Then there is the astute analysis offered in the book, Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms, which said, “Reforms like the First Step Act and the Rights on Crime modifications might allow for some improvements, but they also entrench the underlying harm to those still ensnared in the carceral web.”
The fact the the Koch brothers have been pushing a “criminal justice reform” agenda should raise all sorts of red flags.
In 2015, the Center for Media & Democracy wrote an excellent investigative piece on the real motives behind the Koch industries involvement in criminal justice reform and how it would benefit them. https://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/12/13002/koch-criminal-justice-reform-trojan-horse
The bill’s default criminal intent standard is strikingly similar to the ALEC “Criminal Intent Protection Act,” and tracks policies promoted by Koch-backed organizations for the past five years. As the Center for Media and Democracy has documented, Koch Industries is a major funder and leader of ALEC, and the Koch brothers have underwritten ALEC through foundations they control and organizations they fund.The proposal “would make it much harder for prosecutors to criminally prosecute companies that swindle the public, endanger their workers, poison the environment or otherwise imperil consumers,” said Rob Weissman, President of the public interest group Public Citizen.
In the same article, it states, that the some of the Kochs’ proposed changes in criminal justice reform would “make it harder to hold executives and their employees responsible for violating U.S. laws and would protect their financial interests, at the public’s expense.”
So it appears that the Koch-led initiatives around criminal justice reform is simply a cover for a much larger agenda of protecting and expanding the wealth of the Capitalist Class. We shouldn’t be fooled by what the West Michigan Policy Forum group is up to, since they, like the Koch Industries, has not come out and publicly condemned the police murder of Black people in recent years, they have not challenged the function of policing in the US and they certainly have not come out in support of the Movement for Black Lives, with the strong calls for prison abolition and the defunding of police department. In the end, these are the kinds of policies and platforms we need to be supporting, since criminal justice reform efforts are deeply committed to defending the criminal justice system and the Prison Industrial Complex.
Oh, Doug DeVos introduced the WMPF event speakers and he laid out three reasons for doing criminal justice work:
Improves Public Safety for All – exactly how does criminal justice reform keep Black people in the US safe?
It Allows for Redemption – always injecting religious bullshit into whatever they do!
Returns individuals to productive members of society – this is simply code for get a job and comply with those in power.
Betsy DeVos created group Great Lakes Education Project, pushes misinformation about Schools and COVID
Over the past few months, the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), Beth DeShone, has been engaging in misinformation, particularly as it relates to Governor Whitmer. DeShone has been with GLEP since 2011, but prior to that she was a campaign consultant for Dick DeVos when he ran for Governor in 2006.
In March, DeShone wrote this:
Earlier this month, Governor Gretchen Whitmer wielded her veto pen as a weapon against Michigan students. In a brazen and broadside attack against local kids, she senselessly vetoed $87 million in critical COVID-19 relief funding for Michigan schools, and slashed another $10 million earmarked for summer school programs.
What GLEP doesn’t tell you is that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed HB 4048 releasing federal COVID relief funding for schools as laid out below, but announced she was vetoing HB 4049 – the bill limiting gubernatorial epidemic powers around school closure and athletics which the Republican Legislature tied to the release of $840 million in those federal funds. You can also read exactly why Whitmer vetoed HB 4049, by going to this link.
In addition, according to the Michigan Education Association:
GOP leaders in the House and Senate have attached strings to hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID relief funding sent by Congress in December – withholding disbursement of more than $840 million unless Gov. Gretchen Whitmer relinquishes executive power to close schools and shut down athletic events in a health crisis. The Legislature also is refusing to supply districts with lower Title I enrollment (who didn’t benefit as greatly from federal relief fuding) up to $450 per-pupil in additional state funding if they did not offer at least 20 hours of in-person learning by March 22 – in effect, punishing communities devastated by the pandemic by denying them the money needed to fund safety equipment and protocols.
Then on April 9, the GLEP Executive Director said the following in response to Governor Whitmer’s public address on the same day:
“The last time Governor Whitmer suggested closing things for a few weeks, her lockdown lasted a year. Now she’s suggesting closing schools again just as the spring assessment window opens, with billions of federal dollars waiting to help students and schools. While students are locked out of classrooms, we’ve seen too many fall into a crisis of despair. Our kids deserve better from Governor Whitmer and the public school bureaucracy. They deserve safely open classrooms.”
Again, DeShone engages in misinformation, since Gov. Whitmer was not ordering the shift from in person learning to online learning, but merely encouraged it, especially considering that the COVID vaccine is not available for 16 and under, which would include most of the K-12 school students.
On April 5th, the Bridge Magazine reported that COVID cases among school students had gone up 47% in a two-week period, resulting in numerous school districts going back to online learning. https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-health-watch/michigan-school-covid-outbreaks-surge-47-2-weeks-some-return-remote The same goes with Michigan High School sports, where athletes who have contracted COVID is also on the rise. Again, the Bridge Magazine wrote:
More than 100 boys and girls high school basketball teams — about one in 12 in the state tournaments — had to drop out of the first round because of positive COVID tests or quarantines, according to the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
The Great Lakes Education Project can complain all they want, but to claim that sending children back to school is what they deserve, just doesn’t sync with the recent data about the increase of school age COVID cases, nor the fact that Michigan in the worst in the country over the last month regarding COVID infection rates. Leave it to a DeVos created and funded entity to make life worst for students and families across the state.
This is our latest installment of The Devil is in the Details, which takes a critical look at Grand Rapids politics and policies, based primarily on the public record, such as committee agendas and minutes.
More non-Grand Rapids owned Recreational Cannabis locations approved
In the April 8th City Planning Commission documents, there were 3 more recreational cannabis locations approved. Two of those locations approved are with Greenstone Michigan LLC, which is registered in Detroit and has cannabis locations in Ann Arbor, Lansing and Grand Rapids. The third location is owned by a Muskegon family, which has operations in Muskegon, Ottawa and Kent County so far. As we have reported in the past, most of medical and recreational cannabis facilities that have opened in Grand Rapids are not owned by people in Grand Rapids. In addition, there is little evidence that most of these business that will profit off of the sale of cannabis have demonstrated much interest in undoing the harm caused by the decades-long War on Drugs, particularly the harm done to the Black community.
More corporate representation on Grand Rapids City Committees
In the Committee on Appointments packet for April 13, there are two appointments worth noting. For both the Grand Rapids Housing Commission and the Downtown Improvement District Board, the City will likely approve Monica Steimle-App to sit on both of those committees. Steimle-App is the Executive Vice President of Real Estate Development for Rockford Construction. As has been the modus operandi of the City in recent years, they have appointed people from the corporate world to sit on these committees, but it is particularly disconcerting to have Rockford Construction have a say in housing policy in this community.
Public money approved for the GRPD recruiting class to attend GVSU Police Academy
In the Fiscal Committee packet for April 13, the first item listed is a resolution authorizing Grand Rapids Police Department Recruit Class 2021 to attend Grand Valley State University Police Academy for a total cost of $82,891.
The Fiscal Committee packet also states:
Additionally, GRPD continues its partnership with Grand Rapids Community College’s (GRCC) police academy. The partnership is demonstrated by the following: · Deputy Chief Rifenberg holds a seat on the GRCC Law Enforcement Advisory Board · GRPD assists with GRCC’s police academy interviews · GRPD staff instructs at GRCC’s academy · GRCC assists GRPD by proctoring and conducting MCOLES (Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement) entrance testing.
It’s always instructive to learn how public money is being used by the GRPD and how much time the GRPD spends on non-crime prevention work……which is most of what they do.
2022 Budget Plan Adoption almost here
In the Committee of the Whole packet for April 13, there is information about the upcoming approval of the 2022 City Budget. The COW packet provides the following timeline on this matter:
April 27 – City Manager presents FY2022 Preliminary Fiscal Plan to City Commission May 4 – City Commission Budget Review Workshop
May 6 – Budget Town Hall
May 11 – Set Public Hearing for proposed FY2022 Millage and Budget.
May 11 – City Commission Budget Review Workshop
May 18 – Committee of the Whole Budget Discussion
May 18 – Hold Public Hearing for proposed FY2022 Millage and Budget
May 20 – Resolution to Adopt FY2022 Millage and Budget
July 1 – 2022 Fiscal Year begins
For a City that claims to be so progressive, how do they expect the public to review and provide input on the City Budget with this kind of timeline? In fact, most residents will not even know that the City of Grand Rapids will be voting to approve the City Budget, let alone be able to provide input, considering the short turn around time, which is 3 weeks from the time that the City Manager presents the 2022 Budget til they vote on it. One more example of why the City of Grand Rapids must adopt a Participatory Budgeting process, which is a process that truly values resident input.
Imagining Grand Rapids without the GRPD
Last week, WOOD TV 8 aired a story about the national group Cure Violence. Cure Violence is likely to be hired by the City’s Office of Oversight and Public Accountability.
Earlier this year, the Grand Rapids Office of Oversight and Public Accountability put our requests for proposals on violence reduction, but they only ended up receiving a few proposals and decided to not accept any of them, which we wrote about in December.
The City of Grand Rapids had three national groups in mind, even before they put out an RFP, which in addition to Cure Violence, included Operation Cease Fire, Advance Peace, and NOLA For Life. However, it looks like the City is leaning towards Cure Violence, which is why WOOD TV 8 decided to do a story on them.
In their interview with a representative from the national violence reduction group, the Cure Violence spokesperson said:
“We can get places where law enforcement can’t get because we have those relationships with those individuals on the streets, so they trust us. They know we’re not trying to send them to jail. We don’t want to see them get killed or arrested, so we’re able to mediate conflicts before it gets out,” said Whatley.
This comment from Cure Violence is not only interesting, it reflects the same dynamic that Defund the GRPD has been communicating since last June. It’s about relationships from people who live in affected communities, who have no desire to see people being punished. This kind of response to violence makes it clear that there are a whole range of ways that violence can be reduced and prevented, thus making the case that maybe we do not need heavily armed people who make it their goal to use force/violence against those designated as violent. In other words, maybe we don’t need cops to have real community safety.
Moving towards a radical community safety model requires two things. First, a divest/invest plan, which has always been part of the Movement for Black Lives agenda. If we defund the police and invest in the communities most affected by policing, it will great greater equity. We wrote about what the budget of the GRPD – $54 million, if invested in the Black community could do. Mind you, the $54 million is just for one year, so we need to imagine what that kind of monetary investment into communities affected by policing would look like in the short term and the long term.
The second step needed would then be to look at models of community safety that do not relay of policing. Those of us who have been promoting the Defund the GRPD campaign are not naive and we recognize how hard it will be to not have the GRPD. However, we also believe in radical praxis and radical imagination.
Together We Are Safe already encourages people to not call the GRPD when there is a conflict or a problem in the community. They distribute a two-page document that provides reasons why not to call the GRPD and then provides other valuable resources in the community that would more effectively respond to the conflicts in our community. When the GRPD becomes involved in conflicts, it only increases the possibility that the conflict will escalate.
So what are alternatives to having heavily armed cops in our neighborhoods, which often result in a disproportionately large number of black and brown residents going to jail?
In Zach Morris’s book, We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just and Inclusive Communities, he acknowledges that we live in a failed state. What Morris means by a failed state, is that too many people do not have their basic human needs met – housing, health care, food, transportation, child care, employment/wages. The result is the Prison Industrial Complex, the War on Drugs, Gentrification, a health care system based on profits over human needs, a dysfunctional transportation system and employment that is based on exploitation. One powerful example of how the failed state impacts black people, is this statement from Prison Abolition group Critical Resistance.
While Blacks only represent 13% of drug users, Black drug users represent 38% of those arrested for drug offenses, 55% of those convicted of drug offenses and 74% of those sent to prison.
What We Keep Us Safe advocates, in the face of a failed state, is a care-based strategy for public safety that overturns more than 200 years of fear-based discrimination, othering, and punishment. In addition, the book:
“We Keep Us Safe is a blueprint of how to hold people accountable while still holding them in community. The result reinstates full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized so they can participate fully in life, in society, and in the fabric of our democracy.”
In addition to ideas and examples provided in We Keep Us Safe, there are other very practical ways that people can practice community safety. One of the most important and misunderstood aspects of the Defund the Police movement is that people have not taken the time to actually read what is being proposed. We encourage people to read the Defund the Police Toolkit, which is a powerful document.
Another solid resource is an anti-racist neighborhood watch manual that was developed by people in Portland Oregon. This 31 page manual provides great practical resources and application around community safety, specifically that are anti-racist. In some ways, this manual builds on the work of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, which was essentially about responding to the ongoing police harassment and violence directed at black communities across the country.
A third great resource, which was produced by the Women of Color group, INCITE!, is a 121-page toolkit that focuses on why calling the police is especially problematic for women of color and trans people of color. This toolkit also covers the following areas:
- Gender Policing
- Immigration Enforcement
- Cops in Schools
- Policing Sex Work
- The War on Drugs
- Police Violence and Domestic Violence
- Law Enforcement Violence and Disaster
A second major section of the toolkit, provides great examples of practicing community safety from several organizations. This toolkit is a must read and resource for people who want to practice community safety, plus it is a great resource to help us all radically imagine how life could be without the cops.
Lastly, I think it is worth quoting from the final page of the book, We Keep Us Safe:
“Real safety happens when we bridge the divides and build relationships with each other, overcoming suspicion and distrust. Real safety comes from strategic, smart investment – meaning resources directed towards our stability and well-being. Real safety addresses harms that the current system is failing to tackle, and holds people accountable for those harms while still holding them in community. Real safety results from reinstating full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized, so they can participate fully in society. If we are able to transform our old system and create a culture of caring and healing in its place, we may have an actual shot at creating real democracy for the first time.”
The Michigan Oil & Gas industry, Line 5 and why we so desperately need Climate Justice
There was a recent article posted on MiBiz about the Oil & Gas industry in Michigan that was very instructive.
The article, headlined, Michigan’s oil and gas producers weather pandemic amid long-term demand questions, provides an interesting window into the mindset of some in the extraction industry in Michigan.
The story from MiBiz features the voices of Adam Wygant, director of the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s Oil, Gas and Minerals Division, along with Jason Geer, president and CEO of the Michigan Oil and Gas Association.
The most instructive comments came from the Michigan Oil and Gas Association CEO, who stated:
“Oil has been pretty cheap, and that has definitely impacted our ability to drill. The pandemic crashed prices into negative territory, and that gives you pause on whether you want to make the investment. The price of oil is starting to go up, and high prices mean more activity for us. We feel pretty good that if the price continues to hover in the $60 range, we’ll probably have a pretty good summer.”
Geer’s statement not only reflects the importance of profitability for the oil and gas industry in Michigan, it reflects a desire to maintain a longterm commitment to a fossil fuel-driven economy.
Later in the article, the focus shifts to the issue of the Enbridge Line 5 that runs through Michigan. The MiBiz article mentions that there are indigenous and environmental groups that are wanting to include Climate Change as a major talking point on why Line 5 should be discontinued. Again, Geer thinks that the Michigan Oil & Gas industry will be fine, since for him it all comes down to the cost of fossil fuels and consumer demand.
The Michigan Oil and Gas Association doesn’t hide its commitment to maintaining Line 5. Their three page “fact sheet” on how Line 5 benefits Michigan, is filled with out of context data and doesn’t factor in the longterm cost of environmental damage from Line 5, nor does it include the impact of maintaining Line 5 in regards to Climate Change.
The Michigan Climate Action Network recently sent out information about including Climate Change in the Line 5 debate, stating:
Within weeks, the Michigan Public Service Commissioners (MPSC) will decide whether or not to consider the impacts of climate change in their review of Enbridge’s proposed Line 5 oil tunnel. MPSC staff is encouraging them to exclude all evidence about climate impacts, even though this project would carry billions of gallons of oil for up to 99 years. It is unconscionable that this could be the case in the time of our climate emergency.
Michigan Climate Action Network is inviting people to add their name to pressure the Michigan Public Service Commission to consider the impacts of Climate Change with regards to the Enbridge Line 5.
Since the COVID 19 pandemic set in over a year ago, we have posted several articles about why we can’t go back to normal once the pandemic is over. What has been normal, is what is killing us, and that is definitely the case with Climate Change. In June we wrote:
Virtually every week there is a new study that comes out about human-caused climate change and the need for radical structural change before it is too late. Unfortunately, most of the white-led environmental groups are still spending most of their energy trying to either get people to change their personal consumption habits or appeal to governments to enact change. We have to stop being fooled by these approaches, start coming to terms with the seriousness of climate change and start learning from Black, indigenous and other communities of color that are rooted the struggle against White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism and Capitalism.
We need to radically imagine a different kind of future. We can no longer afford to think that we can maintain our current levels of consumption and our way of life, by simply using green energy. This is a false solution and it is a lie. We cannot return to normal after the pandemic, since before the pandemic, the systems of White Supremacy, Capitalism, Heterosexism, Ablism and Patriarchy were the norm. If we want a future as human beings, then there needs to be serious, radical and revolutionary goals to work towards. Here is a short list, all of which are connected to Climate Justice, if we are willing to do the intellectual, emotional, social and cultural work to see how these things are connected.
- We need to acknowledge that we are all living on indigenous land.
- We need to ask indigenous communities what they want from us moving forward.
- We need Defund the US military. The US military is one of the largest consumers of fossil fuels and its primary function is to occupy other people’s lands and protect the interests of global capitalists.
- If we Defund the US military ($850 billion for 2020), then if make sure that money goes to Black, indigenous and latinx communities to decide how to use it, imagine how that could radically alter lives in those communities.
- Defund the Police. Again, it would reduce violence against, Black, indigenous and latinx communities and re-direct police budgets to those communities.
- All environmental groups must incorporate into their mission an anti-Settler Colonial, anti-White Supremacy and anti-Capitalist framework.
- Abolish the Prison Industrial Complex.
- Abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
- Abolish the Agri-business system of food and practice Food Justice and Food Sovereignty.
- End all Fossil Fuel Subsidies and demand reparations from the fossil fuel industry for decades of ecological destruction, the murder of countless Black, indigenous and latinx people and the role that the fossil fuel industry has played in deny climate change.
- Make all utilities publicly controlled, and by public I mean community-based control.
- Make public transit free.
- Make housing free for everyone.
- Make health care free for everyone.
- End wage slavery.
- End representative government and move towards direct democracy and local control.
Another World is Possible!!!!
Grand Rapids City Commissioners weigh in on Defunding the GRPD: What the MLive article doesn’t tell you
On Tuesday, MLive posted a story with the headline, GRPD likely won’t face significant ‘defunding’ cuts from city commissioners.
The article begins by saying:
Despite some city commissioner calls for a discussion and a push from some in the community, significant cuts to the Grand Rapids Police Department’s budget are unlikely for the upcoming fiscal year.
“A push from some in the community?” This is not only inaccurate, it minimizes the efforts and all of the hard work that community organizers have put in and continue to put in on the issue of defunding the police. Also, the use of the word some denies the fact that there were over 3,000 individual messages from people in the community calling for defunding the GRPD back to the City Charter mandated 33% of the budget. Three thousand people is not only a substantial number of people, it is one of the highest number of people taking an active role on an issue that we have seen in more than a decade in Grand Rapids. In fact, besides the group Defund the GRPD, here is a list of groups that have been actively involved around a larger GRPD funding conversation – the NAACP, the Urban Core Collective, Equity PAC, Together We Are Safe, the People’s Budget GR, Justice for Black Lives, Movimiento Cosecha GR, the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network, GR Rapid Response to ICE, the ACLU and the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union. Again, rarely have we seen this kind of a coalition working on a singular issue in some time.
However, the other thing that is problematic about the MLive article is the singular focus on where Grand Rapids City Commissioners stand on this matter. The article does note that Commissioner’s Reppart and Jones did not respond, but why did MLive exclude City Manager Mark Washington and Police Chief Payne? The reality is that the City Manager has more power than elected officials, and both Payne and Washington have made it clear for months that they do not support any funding reduction for the GRPD.
The more egregious problem with the MLive article is the fact that they do not include community voices in the story, particularly voices from those who have been organizing around Defunding the GRPD since June of 2020. How significantly different would the MLive article look, had they provided commentary from community organizers who have been doing work with Defund the GRPD since last summer.
Equally problematic is the failure of the MLive journalist to provide a clearer and more robust exploration as to what the Defunding the Police movement is all about. Here is a link to one of the many Defund the Police toolkits that have been used by this larger movement for the past year and here is an excellent summary of what the movement is really calling for.
#DefundPolice is a strategy that goes beyond dollars and cents—it is not just about decreasing police budgets, it is about reducing the power, scope, and size of police departments. It is about delegitimizing institutions of surveillance, policing and punishment, and these strategies, no matter who is deploying them, to produce safety. It is a strategy (part of the HOW) to advance a long term vision of abolition of police through divestment from policing as a practice, dismantling policing institutions, and building community-based responses to harm, need, and conflict that do not rely on surveillance, policing and punishment.
This gets to the root of much of the problem is that too many people have reacted in knee-jerk fashion to the phrase defund the police, without taking the time to investigate the larger vision for what defunding the police really means. Of course, the news media has played a significant role in misinforming the public on this critical issue as well.
The bulk of the MLive article, however, is the responses they got from Mayor Bliss and Commissioners O’Connor, Ysasi, Moody and Lenear, which we summarized in the graphic below. What the MLive article doesn’t tell you about some of the responses from commissioners are the following:
Both Mayor Bliss and 1st Ward Commissioner O’Connor have received thousands of dollars from the Grand Rapids Police Officers Association PAC in recent years.
While the MLive article does quote Commissioner Moody about not supporting the defunding of the GRPD, which were comments he made during a City Commission meeting in March, is that he also spoke ill of the group Justice for Black Lives, saying that he hasn’t seen them doing anything positive for the community. His statement is patently false and it was a condescending example of respectability politics.
In Part I, we looked at the recent surge in COVID cases in Michigan, by using a WOODTV8 story as an example of how the local news media is failing us when it comes to exploring the reasons behind the rise in COVID cases.
Today, we want to look at some of the pre-existing structural conditions which are contributing to the recent COVID surge, structural conditions that will continue to cause tremendous harm in a post-COVID world, unless we confront and dismantled them. The three pre-existing structural conditions we will address in this post are White Supremacy, the Wealth Gap and the role that the Non-Profit Industrial Complex plays in supporting the racial and economic injustices in Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids is an Apartheid City with a White Savior Mentality
Last May, we wrote about the newly created Kent County COVID database that was created by the Health Department. In that post we looked at the Health Department’s data and could easily determining that a disproportionately high number of Black and latinx people were contracting the COVID 19 virus. We determined that this was due to how deeply entrenched White Supremacy is in this city. If one looks at the data from the Health Department today, one could draw the same conclusion.
Let’s be honest. Grand Rapids is a deeply racist city. The data supports this fact, whether we are talking about pre-existing health conditions, poverty, access to education, employment, housing or environmental factors, Black, latinx and indigenous people are disproportionately affected.
We could also talk about how entrenched White Supremacy is in the city through the lens of how the power structure responds. Just within the past few weeks we have heard about how Kent County Commissioners responded to concerns raised by community members over the issue of racism as a public health concern. Then there was the issue of how Grand Rapids City officials responded to how the police are targeting members of Justice for Black Lives. In addition, we could look at the larger response to calls from thousands in the community the Defund the GRPD and how City officials undermined significant public opinion to actually reduce the GRPD’s share of the city budget.
However, there is also the lived experience of Black and latinx people. In recent years, I have been involved in several social movements in this city, the movement for immigrant justice led by Movimiento Cosecha GR and the Defund the GRPD movement, which is led by Black community organizers. I have heard from these leaders repeatedly how they feel threatened, dismissed and exploited. I have also heard these community organizers talk about feeling undervalued, tokenized and unsafe. Lastly, these same leaders have shared their frustrations over and over again with how white-led or white funded organizations and are constantly undermining their work with reformist or white savior politics.
Grand Rapids perpetuates the wealth gap with tactics like entrepreneurial gatekeeping
Based on the most recent data, Grand Rapids has the largest wealth gap of any city in Michigan. There are roughly 600 millionaires in Kent County and a few billionaire families. These 602 families have more combined wealth than the rest of the population in this area. This alone should tell you something about who has power and who doesn’t.
Grand Rapids likes to brag about how they believe in promoting the entrepreneurial spirit, but the fact is that those who have all the wealth are only interested in sharing their tricks of the trade with those who will not challenge their power and excessive wealth. There are only so many start up businesses that can exist in this city, which means they will always need workers to take advantage of. But Grand Rapids hates to call people workers, instead they prefer to call them talent, which is exactly how students in the education system are referred to in this community.
I mean just look at the booming cannabis industry in the city and who is reaping the benefits. Those profiting from the cannabis industry are not the Black people who, until recently, were being criminalized for selling or using cannabis, but non-Black business owners, many of whom are not even based in Grand Rapids and are part of larger chain businesses.
Or look at how the DeVos family strategically provides funding through their foundations to promote wealth creation. Whether we are talking about Start Garden or AmplifyGR, DeVos funding for these projects are designed to allow the right people to gain access to wealth, and by right people I mean those who are either ideologically aligned with the DeVoses or those who will never challenge their hegemonic power. The DeVos family members are the masters at entrepreneurial gatekeeping.
The Grand Rapids Non-Profit Industrial Complex and the buffer zone
In many ways what I just described about the DeVos family is true of the non-profit and social service sector in general in this community. Non-Profit organizations often depend on the wealth of area foundations, which always comes with strings attached. The biggest string, which we could name as a noose, is designed to make sure that in order to gain access to this funding, non-profits can never challenge structural injustice or the very root causes they claim to be addressing. We recently saw how this played out with the group Kids Food Basket, which pushed back against community organizers who were challenge their function as a White Savior entity.
One of the larger benefits to the strings-attached funding dynamics, is that it helps to create what Paul Kivel identifies as a political buffer zone. In his essay, Social Service or Social Change, Kivel names the outcome of foundation funding of non-profits as buffer zones. Buffer zones are political and social spaces created to protect systems of power by creating a dynamic where people are discouraged from asking about why they are poor, especially when the why is directed at those with the most wealth. These buffer zones are self-perpetuating, since they offer individualized opportunities, which often eliminates the opportunities for people to think about the structural barriers to racial justice or any other kind of justice they would benefit from.
Lastly, the buffer zones created by funding conditions within the non-profit sector also leads to the practice of White Saviorism. The charity-based sector does this real well in Grand Rapids, with White money and White-power dynamics determining who gets temporary relief from systems of oppression, which in this community is overwhelmingly Black and Brown people. Why else would White Liberal defend the likes of Kids Food Basket so vehemently?
Thus the pre-existing structural conditions in Grand Rapids – White Supremacy, the Wealth Gap and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex – are the very systems that must be confronted and dismantled, if we ever want to achieve equity and justice in this city. These three pre-existing structural conditions are the holy trinity of systemic oppression in Grand Rapids. So what are we going to do about it?
Living with COVID one year later: Part I – Another surge in cases, but without explanation
On Saturday, WOOD TV 8 posted a story entitled, About 8,400 new coronavirus cases in MI as test positivity tops fall high.
The story filled with data, both at the state level and data specific to West Michigan. Channel 8 focused on the rising number of people testing positive for COVID, the number of deaths in the last few days, along with maps and even more data.
Later in the story it states:
State officials are now worried about people taking spring break trips, particularly to Florida, which also has a high infection rate right now. They are urging people to get tested before and after travel.
But then channel 8 slips back into making the story about data.
One would think, that after living with COVID for the past year, that local news agencies could do more than give us data, and instead try to get us to think about why some many people are now testing positive for COVID, in what many are calling another surge.
As we mentioned earlier, channel 8 did say that state officials were concerned about people on spring break trips, but this is merely speculation and is not based on fact. So what can we say about why so many people are testing positive for COVID in Michigan right now and what are the contributing factors? How could WOOD TV 8 have made this story about not just the rise in COVID cases, but the reasons for the spike?
As Bridge Magazine as reported, there is a clear correlation between schools shifting back to in person schooling and a spike in cases.
As we have noted in numerous stories over the past year, there has been tremendous pressure from the Chamber of Commerce, from the Mackinac Center, from the West Michigan Policy Forum and from Republican legislators in Michigan to lift any and all restrictions on schools, restaurants and other businesses – as was reflected in this story in the Detroit News in late January, with the headline, Michigan GOP leaders call for reopening schools, restaurant dining.
A third major reason for the surge in COVID cases in Michigan is the fact that there are plenty of people who do not think COVID is a serious issue, plus there are plenty of people that think it is a government hoax. When we reported on the Holland restaurant owner who was put in jail over COVID violations, the amount of coverage that story received was astounding. Even more astounding was the fact that most of the people who came out to protest in support of the restaurant owner were not wearing masks, along with the fact that several GOP politicians and candidates in the 2022 election are running on a platform that includes denial of the COVID pandemic.
Each of these three reasons deserve their own news story(ies) and would benefit the public tremendously, especially if they were explored and analyzed in such a way as to help us make some determinations about what factors are determining the new surge. If news agencies are not doing this, then it is safe to say they are not practicing journalism, but a form of sensationalism, sensationalism that actually does public harm.
In Part II, we will explore some of the larger issues around the COVID pandemic that are specific to the Greater Grand Rapids Area.
Grand Rapids Think Tank promotes more White Supremacy
Over the past decade, GRIID has written dozens of articles that are critical of the Grand Rapids-based far right Think Tank, the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty.
In our posts on the Acton Institute, we have dissected their ideological celebration of Capitalism, their support for religious conservatism and their history of climate denial. However, within the past year, a year that has seen the Movement for Black Lives for the people in the United States to confront the glaring realities of White Supremacy, we have noted that the Acton Institute has ramped up their own perpetuation of White Supremacy.
A year ago, when the COVID pandemic hit the US, the Acton Institute promoted xenophobia and anti-Asian hate in a post blaming China for the pandemic. After the police lynching of George Floyd, the Acton Institute began to publicly condemn the Black Lives Matter movement, further demonstrating their perpetuation of White Supremacy.
Within the past few weeks, the Acton Institute has gone the extra mile to demonstrate their support for White Supremacy. In an article they posted on March 27, they condemn Black author Ibram X. Kendi, particularly for suggesting that Jesus was a revolutionary. The Acton Institute rant against Kendi also condemns the anti-racist author for being critical of converting people from other cultures and spiritual traditions – missionary work – as well as, blaming him for succumbing to Liberation Theology. Liberation Theology is rooted in the idea that God’s people should liberate themselves for systems of power and oppression. The Acton Institute rejects such a notion, since, 1) they believe that liberation theology is rooted in Marxism, and 2) they believe that Capitalism is the perfect bedfellow of Christianity.
Ironically, just one week before attacking a Black anti-racist author, the same Acton Institute writer praised Ayn Rand for genuinely searching for God. In fact, Acton Institute founder, Rev. Robert Sirico was the one who spoke so highly of Rand.
So, within a one week period, we see the far right Think Tank praise a white author for defending Capitalism, while condemning a Black author for suggestion that Jesus was a revolutionary. Further evidence to underscore exactly why the Acton Institute chose Grand Rapids to be its home base.
Last week, the Institute for Policy Studies published a new report entitled, A Year of Billionaire Pandemic Gains.
The report is full of data and numbers on how much money the billionaire class has profited over the past year, a year that saw over a million die from COVID and millions struggle under the economic, social and health conditions created because of the pandemic.
More importantly, as this new report demonstrates, the pandemic exposed the ugliness, the utter cruelty of the economic system of Capitalism. How is it, that so few could profit so much during the pandemic? But here is the thing, Capitalism will continue to benefit the super rich, even after the pandemic, because that is the nature of Capitalism, particularly in this Neoliberal age of Capitalism.
Here are highlights from the last 12 months of billionaire wealth growth:
- The combined wealth of the nation’s 657 billionaires increased more than $1.3 trillion, or 44.6%, since the pandemic lockdowns began. [Master Table] Over those same 12 months, more than 29 million Americans contracted the virus and more than 535,000 died from it. As billionaire wealth soared over, almost 80 million lost work between March 21, 2020, and 20, 2021, and 18 million were collecting unemployment on Feb. 27, 2021.
- There are 43 newly minted billionaires since the beginning of the pandemic, when there were 614. A number of new billionaires joined the list after initial public offerings (IPOs) of stock in companies such as Airbnb, DoorDash, and Snowflake.
- The increase in the combined wealth of the 15 billionaires with the greatest growth in absolute wealth was $563 billion or 82%. [Table 1] The wealth growth of just these 15 represents over 40% of the wealth growth among all billionaires. Topping the list are Elon Musk ($137.5 billion richer, 559%), Jeff Bezos ($65 billion, 58%) and Mark Zuckerberg ($47 billion, 86%).
According to the data provided in this new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, there are 7 Billionaires living in Michigan. The billionaire in Michigan who profited the most during the pandemic so far is Dan Gilbert. Gilbert is the owner of Quicken Loans, which capitalized on cloistered citizens tapping online financing, plus Gilbert is a major player in the massive gentrification of Detroit. His wealth during the pandemic grew from $6.5 Billion to $41.7 Billion, which was a 642% increase.
We have a few of those 7 Michigan Billionaires right here in West Michigan. The DeVos family is collectively worth billions, but because of the way they hide their wealth it is hard to determine what their total collective wealth is, especially since Richard & Helen DeVos are now deceased.
However, we do know how much the Meijer family is worth. According to the data from the Institute for Policy Studies, Hank & Doug Meijer’s wealth went from $10.2 Billion at the beginning of the pandemic to $12.6 Billion today. This means that Hank & Doug Meijer’s wealth increased by 23.5% in just one year.
Now, starting pay for a grocery store clerk is $10 an hour at Meijer and these workers have been considered front line and essential workers in the past 12 months. Do you think that the lives of Hank and Doug Meijer would have been negatively impacted at all if they paid these workers $20 an hour as a starting wage? If a Meijer essential worker was making $20 an hour at 40 hours a week, they would make $45,000 a year. So, if we took the $2.4 billion that the Meijer brothers made during the pandemic and divided it by $45,000, we would get 53,333. This means that Hank & Doug Meijer could have employed 53,333 store workers at $20 an hour/40 hours a week.
Of course, Meijer does not even have 53,333 store employees, so let’s double the salary once again to $40 an hour. This would mean that a Meijer store clerk, which we have been calling an essential worker for the past 12 months, would make $90,000 a year. With the $2.4 billion that Hank & Doug Meijer made during the pandemic, they could pay 26,666 employees earning $40 an hour for 40 hours a week. Again, I doubt that Meijer employees that many store workers, but you get the point. The wealth of people like Hank & Doug Meijer, which has increased by $2.4 Billion during the pandemic, is always about exploitation and it is always about policy. Let’s organize and demand more!
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 