West Michigan Far Right Watch for the week of September 13 – 20
Welcome to the next installment of West Michigan Far Right Watch, where we keep tabs on the far right in this area and provide a summary of what they are up to and what kind of messages they are promoting in this community.
We have 2 examples to share with you this week. The first example comes to us from the West Michigan Policy Forum (WMPF). The West Michigan Policy Forum is made up of representatives of the area’s Capitalist Class and the goal of this group is to influence state policy in Michigan, primarily so it benefits those with economic and political power.
The WMPF posted a link to a video statement from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who said that the state would never close again because of COVID 19. This is what the WMPF wrote with that post:
As Michigan businesses continue to show they can safely be open, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is sharing his thoughts on some of the hidden downsides of lockdowns and how his state moved forward despite calls to lock down this summer. Scroll forward to the 35-minute mark in the video to hear why he says Florida will never be locked down again.
According to the CDC, Florida has one of the highest rates of COVID 19 deaths in the country, with over 13,000 deaths. The WMPF has consistently opposed Gov. Whitmer’s stance on COVID 19, since they are more concerned about business profits than they are about the general well being of the community in West Michigan. Using Florida as an example of state policy that refuses to protect the public, just demonstrates the West Michigan Policy Forum’s belief in profit before people.
Our second example focuses on the group, Voice For the Badge (VFB). VFB has only been around for a couple of years and they began organizing as various social movements have called for greater accountability with the GRPD, as well as defunding of the GRPD. Essentially, the VFB is an apologist of the GRPD and its treatment of Black, Brown and other marginalized communities. The VFB has primarily used social media as a forum to organize, but they now have their own website.
The website for VFB is not very interesting, nor is it very informative. There is one video on the site, which center’s on Johnny Brann’s fight with the City over his banners and flags on his restaurant. What is instructive, is the list of board members that serve on the VFB.
What is instructive about these board members, is not just their defense of the Thin Blue Line and the GRPD, but the larger ideological framework that they embrace. Johnny Brann is on the board, and you can see from the VFB Facebook page that he makes lots of nationalistic and jingoistic comments about the US being the “greatest country on the planet” and his comments after the May 30th uprising are indicative of what he thinks about anyone who questions the cops.
Another VFB boar member is Susan Brubacher. Her Facebook page is also filled with pro-police propaganda, like the one on 9/13, which shows Trump supporters praising cops. Brubacher also makes posts supporting GOP candidates and stupid memes about socialism, like the one here.
Then there is Jack Potes. Besides all of the pro-policing messages on his FB page, he also reposts from a page called All Cop Lives Matter, which, like All Lives Matter, directly dismisses and demeans the Black Lives Matter message. Potes also has anti-LGBT and anti-queer posts on his FB page.
One last example of a VFB board member embracing far right ideology is Susie Damore. Damore doesn’t have an FB profile, but she has been in the news because of her support for Donald Trump. WXMI 17 did a short story about her making pro-Trump cookies in 2015, to sell at a Make America Great Again sale.
What is important to note about the Board members of Voice For the Badge, is that their uncritical view of the police fails to recognize the systemic harm that policing does to the Black community and other communities of color. This means that their defense of the GRPD is also rooted in a racist, White Supremacist ideology. The racist/White Supremacist ideology also informs their nationalism and their general support for systems of power and privilege.
Deconstructing the Jill Biden visit to Grand Rapids: Election Stenography, Food Insecurity and Kids Food Basket
On Tuesday, the wife of Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden, Jill Biden was in Grand Rapids. As expected, the dominant news media reported on Biden’s visit, but we’ll limit our critique to what MLive had to say.
There are many things to deconstruct from the MLive article, which is symptomatic of how most journalism is created, where those in power are rarely questioned for the claims they make.Too often, journalism mimics stenography, where reporters just document what was said, but don’t verify claims that are made.
The first section of the MLive article, which is headlined, Jill Biden focuses on veterans issues, food insecurity in West Michigan campaign swing, communicates broad election elements, with little substance. Joining Jill Biden was Hillary Scholten, who is running for the 3rd Congressional District seat against Peter Meijer. MLive states:
Scholten said Joe Biden has dedicated his life to service and is running at a crucial time “to restore, civility, humanity and empathy to our national leadership.” Scholten said her campaign’s internal polls show Biden leading by 5 percentage points in Michigan’s 3rd District.
“I think the main topic of conversation is the disparities that have been broken wide open because of this pandemic,” Scholten said. “People aren’t so much focused on national politics as they are on everyday kitchen table issues. I think the importance of an event really highlights it.”
While is is possible that Scholten provided more details, the comments from the 3rd Congressional Democratic candidate are vague. What disparities have been broken wide open because of the pandemic, an what kitchen table issues is Scholten referring to? These are not idol questions, but deeply relevant to what matters. The pandemic has indeed expose disparities in our society, but what is the candidate proposing as a response to the social and economic disparities that exist?
If we look at Scholten’s platform, we can make some determinations about how or if she will address these disparities. Under Health Care, she does not endorse Medicare for All, rather she plans on defending the Affordable Health Care Act, which is woefully inadequate. In fact, most of the policy positions on Scholten’s campaign page are vague and moderate, with none of them addressing the disparities exposed by the pandemic.
Another instructive component about the MLive article was the fact that Jill Biden visited the non-profit organization known as Kids Food Basket (KFB). Biden was quoted as saying, “A program like this should be national, it should be in every state to help kids learn about food and healthy meals and help all families with food insecurity.”
Food insecurity is indeed a serious issue, but Kids Food Basket does not address food insecurity, an to suggest that their model should be replicated across the country demonstrates that Jill Biden has no idea of what the root causes of food insecurity are.
KFB, in many ways, is a perfect example of what’s wrong with the Non-Profit Industrial Complex:
- KFB has grown exponentially over the years to provide more food aid to children, but they have failed to address the root causes of why there are so many children that are food insecure in West Michigan – poverty, low wage jobs, systemic racism, growing wealth gap, etc.
- KFB has the support of local corporations, such as Amway, Meijer and Spartan Stores, specifically because they do not challenge economic centers of power.
- KFB is the darling of the professional class, which provides countless volunteers to help them make sack lunches, without questioning how this alleviates food insecurity.
KFB is a charity organization that gets lots of accolades, since the organization does not challenge systems of power and oppression.- KFB provides a false solution to the issues of hunger and food insecurity.
- KFB provides a great opportunity for those who want to advance in the non-profit world, provided they do not question what is being done.
- KFB is recipient of millions in local philanthropy, precisely because they provide a false solution to a systemic problem in this community.
Over the years, I have been contacted by numerous people who have previously worker for KFB. Those of have contacted me have done so, only if I agree to not share their identities. Several people who have formerly worked for KFB fear that if they speak out publicly, they will ruin any chances of finding work in West Michigan, particularly in the non-profit sector.
The Biden campaign chose to go to KFB because they see it as good optics, particularly to white moderate voters who don ‘t want to be bothered by the movements calling for racial and economic justice. It’s great for an organization like KFB to get such praise from people like Jill Biden, but there are lots of people who are not buying into the idea that KFB actually fights against hunger in West Michigan.
Licenses, not promises: Movimiento Cosecha disrupts and confronts Michigan Legislature
Two years ago, Cosecha Michigan held a rally on the steps of the state capital in Lansing, after a 5 day pilgrimage focusing on Ddriver’s Licenses for All.
Last year, Cosecha Michigan finally got support from a few state legislators to propose legislation that would provide driver’s licenses to people who are undocumented and living in Michigan.
It has been 11 months since legislation was proposed to provide driver’s licenses to those who are undocumented, yet there has been no concrete movement to pass the legislation, like holding public hearings on the matter. This is exactly why more than 100 Cosecha members went to the State Capital in Lansing again, in order to pressure State Legislators to take action by hosting public hearings on the Driver’s Licenses for All legislation.
Those involved with Movimiento Cosecha came from all over the state yesterday, to once again demand from state politicians that they pass legislation to allow people who are undocumented the ability to obtain a driver’s license. Those who made the trip to Lansing, first held a car caravan, with vehicles plastered with signs and other messages in support of driver’s licenses, which lasted for about 90 minutes.
People then gathered in front of the State Capital, before going inside the building. Once in the building, Cosecha participants went to the 3rd floor, to make some noise and get the energy of the crowd up. Here is a short video, which reflects the passion of the crowd.
It is always instructive being in this space, a space which is essentially a white space – large paintings of former governors hang on the wall – as well as a nationalistic/jingoistic space – with Michigan and USA flags displayed throughout.
So, here comes a mostly Latinx, mostly immigrant crowd, into the rotunda of the State Capital in Lansing, making noise. There were brief comments from the various Cosecha circles that have sprung up around the state, followed by some music, an lots more chanting.
Eventually, the crowd moved to the area right by the entrance to where the State Legislators gather. Cosecha participants continued to be loud and demanding, in both Spanish and English. Some community-base organizers also spoke, specifically from organizations that were in solidarity with Cosecha’s demand for Driver’s Licenses for All. There was also a representative from the Jewish movement, known as Never Again. The person who spoke said that his parents were arrested by the Nazis. He then told the crowd that after WWII, those who survived the Holocaust made it clear that this kind of thing would never happened again. However, the very fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement picks up people on a regular basis, detains them, and even put their children in cages, has compelled the Never Again group to speak out in support of immigrant justice and Driver’s Licenses for All!
While Cosecha members were on the 3rd floor making noise and disrupting the legislature, there would be state officials and their aides coming and going from the chamber. It was interesting to see that these people would be escorted by security people through the Cosecha crowd, even though there was no reason for people to fear, as Cosecha is a non-violent movement. However, those in power often view tactics of disruption as disrespectful and threatening. Cosecha uses the tactic of disruption against people with political power because their lives are disrupted on a daily basis. Undocumented immigrants live in constant fear of being arrested, detained and deported. In fact, one of the reasons why Movimiento Cosecha chose to work on a campaign to get driver’s licenses for all, is because the number one reason that undocumented immigrants end up being detained by ICE is because they are stopped by local law enforcement when driving without a license.
After an hour of disrupting business as usual in the State Capital, people left the building and reconvened outside to celebrate the struggle and talk about next steps.
Licenses Yes, Promises No
As was mentioned earlier, it has been 11 months since legislation was introduced on Driver’s Licenses for All, yet, there has been no movement to move the bill forward. As you can see from this link, the last action took place on November 6, 2019, when the bill was sent to the Transportation Committee.
In six weeks, people throughout Michigan will participate in the 2020 election, which not only includes voting for President, but State Representatives. There were 16 Democrats who co-sponsored this legislation last year. All 16 of these State Representatives are up for re-election, so I thought it would be useful to look at their campaign websites to see if Driver’s Licenses for All was prominently displayed or mentioned. A few of those who co-sponsored the bill are term limited, but in the case of all the other State Representatives running for re-election, NOT ONE of those who co-sponsored the Driver’s Licenses for All legislation has anything about the importance of passing this legislation on their re-election pages.
The lack of urgency from politicians around this issue is not surprising, but it is frustrating. However, Movimiento Cosecha is committed to getting this legislation passed an to fighting for immigrant justice no matter what politicians do. You should contact you local state representative and ask them why they are not fighting for this issue. More importantly, you should support the work of Movimiento Cosecha, with financial support an by leveraging your privilege, especially those who do not live in fear of arrest, detention and deportation from ICE. La Lucha Sigue! Hasta la Huelga!
Interview with Joe Cadreau on the Indigenous People’s Day Action this Saturday in Grand Rapids
GRIID – What was the motivating factor behind organizing the We Are Still Here action for this Saturday?
Joe – The city has buried this resolution in committee after committee for the last 4-5 years. There has been no communication from the city or the group it claims to be working with, as to where or why this resolution has sat idle.
Also this past summer the city adopted Juneteenth in a matter of 2 days , without any public comments, or committee input etc. Many elders in my community felt shunned because of this and reached out to me.
GRIID – In Grand Rapids, there has been an effort since the late 1980s to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day. Why do you think Grand Rapids is so resistant to the idea?
Joe – Grand Rapids would be forced to admit the inequity that they are responsible for creating in my community. We can look through the history of the city and see time after time where they removed us, and forgotten us. Just look at the westside , and the Ford museum.
Grand Rapids is not as diverse as it claims to be , they have done all they can to keep the white power structures in place, from administration to administration, this one is no different.
I don’t think people realize or fully understand the effort and power that the families have in this city. It baffles me why this resolution has taken so long and been buried for so long. I wrote the Indigenous Peoples Day Resolution at GVSU in 2017 and it was passed and adopted by the university. We thought for sure that would have been a catalyst to getting the city to pass the Resolution that have had for years.
GRIID – Have you received any push back since you announced the We Are Still Here action?
Joe – Yes I have both internally and externally. That is why it was important for me to make this event inclusive and a work of allyship.
GRIID – Why is having an Indigenous People’s Day so important for both the anishinnabek community and for everyone else?
Joe – It is the first step in truly creating equity for the indigenous people of this area. Michigan is one of the most populated states with a native presence and population. Columbus is the symbol of colonization and white supremacy.
GRIID – Having an Indigenous People’s Day would be a good first step, but what else needs to change for people to come to terms with Settler Colonialism and do you see this action as a catalyst to make even larger demands?
Joe – There are many things that need to change in relation to the city and its relationship with the anishinnabek community. First thing that needs to change is funding for social programs for indigenous people. We are often forgotten or never mentioned in these social programs that the city develops or implements. The continued purge of dollars and space from the GRPS NAEP needs to end and be fully funded. Those are just a few things , but there are many issues that my community faces in this city on a daily basis.
The city also needs to realize and understand that one organization can not fulfill all the gaps in the anishinnabek community. They need to offer Grant’s to other native led organizations that do important work as well.
Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time – A Film discussion/fundraiser for GR Rapid Response to ICE
In 2006, I produced a documentary film about my experience of doing accompaniment work in Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico between 1988 and 2005. I had worked with Peace Brigades International in Guatemala and Enlace Civil in Chiapas on numerous solidarity trips I took in those years.
The film I made, Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time, was really based on my own development and understanding about what solidarity really means. I was not in those countries to tell people what to do, to help them build houses, to preach any message, but to walk with them in their struggle for justice and liberation.
Most of the time I spent doing accompaniment work, meant that I was just present with local organizers, leveraging my privilege as a white male from the United States. As an organizer with Grupo Apoyo de Mutual told me years after my first solidarity trip to Guatemala, “your presence provided us some emotional and physical space to do the work we needed to do. It didn’t eliminate the death threats we faced on a daily basis, but it did provide us with more room to maneuver in the midst of the threats.”
GR Rapid Response is hosting a discussion of the film, Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time, on Monday, September 21st. at 7pm in an online forum. You can watch the film anytime, since it is online here:
Once you have watched the film, GR Rapid Response to ICE is inviting people to be part of a discussion about the content of the documentary and the importance of doing accompaniment work, which is part of work of GR Rapid Response to ICE. To join the discussion go to this link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87485219485 by 7pm on Monday the 21st.
This event is also a fundraiser for GR Rapid Response to ICE, which provides funds for families impacted by ICE violence, which includes arrest, detention and deportation. You can contribute to GR Rapid Response to ICE b y going to this link bit.ly/RR-mutualaid.
Please help GR Rapid Response to ICE by contributing to their Mutual Aid Fund and by help them to spread the work about this event, which you can find on Facebook at this link.
Small group of protesters send a message to Betsy DeVos while leaving the private school she visited today in Grand Rapids
As was mentioned in our previous post, Betsy DeVos was at Sacred Heart Academy this morning to meeting with staff, students and founder of the Acton Institute, Rev. Robert Sirico.
DeVos arrived at the school earlier than MLive had suggested in their article from Saturday, so when protesters arrived there was already GRPD presence and the black SUVs parked next to the school entrance. The black SUVs also included members of the US Secret Service, which have been guarding Betsy DeVos almost since the beginning of her tenure as Secretary of Education, especially since she has been confronted by protests where ever she goes.
In the picture above, Acton Institute founder, Rev. Sirico, is seen talking to DeVos who had already entered the black SUV. Sirico is the shorter of the two priests that can be seen in the above photo.
Several protesters arrived just before 8am to confront DeVos on her policies as Secretary of Education. Jack Prince, with Grand Rapids for Education Justice (GREJ) made the point that DeVos has been pushing her school privatization plan, and that it was an insult to students in the Grand Rapids Public Schools, for DeVos to visit a private Catholic school.
Some of the other talking points that GREJ brought up were:
1. We object to the fact that Secretary DeVos is visiting a private school to see how coping with the pandemic is going, when so many other schools, which are financially struggling should be getting attention.
2. We object to the fact that all throughout the pandemic, Betsy DeVos has been advocating that public money should go to private schools.
3. DeVos chose Sacred Heart Academy, specifically to elevate a private school that is run by the founder of the Acton Institute, Rev. Sirico, who is ideologically aligned with Betsy DeVos on education matters.
4. That Betsy DeVos is coming to a private school during a pandemic and has been pushing for more public money for private education, is consistent with this administration, which has done very little to provide financial relief to working class families, Black families and other families of color, many of which are unemployed and facing eviction, while the wealth of billionaires – like the DeVos family – has increased during the pandemic.
Betsy DeVos in Grand Rapids to visit a Private School, with ties to the Acton Institute
On Saturday, MLive reported that US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos would be in Grand Rapids to visit a school, “with the intent of showcasing how the school safely reopened during the coronavirus pandemic.”
DeVos has come under fire since she first began pushing for schools to re-open in mid-July. Then on August 31st, DeVos wrote an opinion piece for the Detroit News, which was framed as a letter to parents across the country. The letter follows the same mantra from DeVos, always claiming that it all comes down to parental choice. However, Betsy DeVos didn’t miss the opportunity to push her “school choice” message, which is essentially the promotion of school vouchers, the expansion of charter schools and other private school options.
Coming to Sacred Heart Academy
Therefore, it should not be surprising to anyone that the school Betsy DeVos is visiting on Monday morning is Sacred Heart Academy. Sacred Heart Academy is a Catholic School that requires tuition.
The MLive article says that they reached out to the Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Grand Rapids, but did not receive any response before they posted the story. However, MLive could have contacted another source, more directly related to Sacred Heart Academy, the pastor of Sacred Heart Church, the Rev. Robert Sirico. Of course, Rev. Sirico is also the founder and President of the Acton Institute.
Since Sirico took over as the priest at Sacred Heart, he has had a significant influence on the direction of Sacred Heart Academy, with major changes in the curriculum during the 2013 – 2014 school year. The fact that Betsy DeVos is visiting the school that the founder of the Acton Institute has control over makes complete sense.
Betsy DeVos and Rev. Sirico have a long history together. Sirico presided over the wedding of her brother Erik Prince, the DeVos family has contributed millions to the Acton Institute since 1990, and Betsy DeVos, her mother and her son Rick DeVos, have all served on the Acton Institute’s Board of Directors.
Betsy DeVos was the keynote speaker at the Acton Institute’s Annual gala in 2017, plus Sirico has gone out of his way to defend the Secretary of Education on numerous occasions, like he did in June of 2018, in an opinion piece the Acton founder wrote in the Detroit News.
However, the relationship between Rev. Sirico and Betsy DeVos can best be summed up by their commitment to Capitalism.
It is also worth noting that the Sacred Heart Academy Board of Directors is made up of people who embrace the same ideological values that DeVos and Sirico embrace. First, there is J.T. Weis, who is the CEO of Arbor Industries, a company based in Holland. Weis participated in a panel hosted by the Econ Club of Grand Rapids last year, which talked about the importance of hiring people out of prison, because it opens up a whole new pool of potential employees. Weis and his family are involved in the conservative Catholic radio station Holy Family Radio and they are active participants in the anti-abortion March for Life actions.
Then there is Michael Miller, who is the Director of Acton Media and a Research Fellow at the Acton Institute. Miller has written a great deal for the Acton Institute’s blog, plus he influences much of the media content for Acton.
Lastly, there is Patrick Kilchermann, who is the founder of the national Concealed Carry University, which provides training for people who want to own guns. Kilchermann believes that God called him to start Concealed Carry University.
Let’s be clear about the fact that Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education, is in Grand Rapids to visit a private school, with direct ties to the Acton Institute, which the DeVos and Prince families have supported with millions of dollars for decades.
West Michigan Far Right Watch for September 11
Welcome to the next installment of West Michigan Far Right Watch, where we keep tabs on the far right in this area and provide a summary of what they are up to and what kind of messages they are promoting in this community.
We have 2 examples to share with you this week. The first comes to us from the Acton Institute, with their ongoing war against anything that is not Capitalism. The founder of the Acton Institute, Rev. Robert Sirico, has a brief article on the Acton website entitled, the deceit of democratic socialism. Like most of Sirico’s writing, he attempts to sound deeply intellectual, when in fact his arguments are weak and overly simplistic. Sirico uses Hebrew and Christian scriptures to bolster his argument, especially since he doesn’t really have a grasp of what socialism is. In the end, Rev. Sirico can only argue in favor of Capitalism by saying, “In a market economy, stewards of resources are rewarded by their best use in meeting human needs through – get ready for it – profit.”
The second example of Far Right activity, comes to us from the newly rebranded group called, the American Patriot Council. The American Patriot Council is calling for Freedom Marches all across the US on October 24, just prior to the November election. Here is what their Facebook event post says about this event:
Undoubtedly, the very fabric of America is calling out to her beloved Patriots once again to protect our great nation. Oct 24th 3:00 PM EST, We The People gather across America in a show of solidarity and demand emancipation from the bondage of tyranny. Days before the 2020 election, this Freedom March will be remembered such as the days of 1776. Be a part of the new Founding Fathers & Mothers. The American Patriot Council is calling all American Patriots to step up and lead. It’s now or never, Let’s Go America!
Ryan Kelly, who calls himself the founding father of the American Patriot Council, has been posting videos and promoting this event for the past two weeks, with overly simplistic references to the US Constitution and Freedom, when in fact, his position and that of the American Patriot Council is just a form of White Supremacy and White Nationalism.
Also, just a reminder that today is the 19th anniversary of 9/11/2001. The US initiate two wars because of this attack, with bipartisan support, wars that have devastated Iraq and Afghanistan, along with destabilizing much of that region of the world. The US also passed the Patriot Act, which created the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, plus it gave the federal government unlimited powers to spy on US residents and even charge those using civil disobedience as a political tactic, with domestic terrorism.
If we don’t want the DeVos family to own our community, then we need to take away their political an economic power
Over the past several weeks we have written a 5 Part series on the contributions of the DeVos family foundations based on 2018 data from the online resource GuideStar.
We talked a great deal about how their foundation contributions are strategically aligned with their political contributions, in order to further their ideological interests and to wage class warfare on the masses.
Today, we want to take a more systems approach to looking at the five DeVos family foundations, by looking at how these foundations are financially beneficial to the DeVos family.
First, it is important to note that the DeVos family foundations have millions in assets, while only contributing a small percentage of their assets on an annual basis. For instance, in 2018, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation had $71.5 million in that foundation, but only contributed just under $9 million that year. We nee to understand that one of the reasons that members of the Capitalist Class put their money in foundations is to avoid having to pay taxes on that wealth.
Tax policy since the 1950s has increasingly benefited members of the Capitalist Class, and the funding that Congress has provided since the pandemic began, has primarily benefited the wealthiest. In April, we reported on how the super rich, because of tax policy loop holes, would benefit massively from the Cares Act.
We wrote:
More than 80 percent of the benefits of a tax change tucked into the coronavirus relief package Congress passed last month will go to those who earn more than $1 million annually, according to a report by a nonpartisan congressional body expected to be released Tuesday. This information is based on the research done by group known as the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), a nonpartisan Congressional body. Forbes reported that the 43,000 millionaires and billionaires in the US will get on average $1.7 million because of the Cares Act.
Of course, the DeVos family is the wealthiest in Grand Rapids, so they would benefit the most from this policy decision.
Now, lets be clear, the DeVos family and their billionaire friends have a ridiculous amount of money. In May of this year, we wrote about the wealth of the DeVos and Meijer families an what that could mean for Kent County:
The DeVos and Meijer families are not the only billionaires in Grand Rapids, but they are the wealthiest and the families that have tremendous political influence.
According to the 2017 Forbes 400 list, the combined wealth of these two families was $12.6 Billion – Doug & Hank Meijer were worth $7.2 Billion in 2018 and Richard DeVos was worth $5.4 Billion in 2018, the same year he died. Now, this doesn’t include the wealth of the other DeVos family members, which would easily put the total over $15 Billion between these two families.
What the combined wealth of the Meijer and DeVos family could translate into, is that NO ONE in Grand Rapids would have to worry about not working during the COVID-19 crisis, EVERYONE would have access to testing, proper health care, food, housing and any other basic needs. The JW Marriott just announced that they were closing, which means there are hundreds of empty bed that could be used by individuals and families who are facing a housing crisis right now. The wealth of the Meijer and DeVos families could translate into our ability in Kent County to truly flatten the curve and minimize the number of deaths from COVID-19.
Unfortunately, we know that the Meijer and DeVos families will not give up significant amounts of their combined $15 Billion in order to save lives in Kent County. These two families have demonstrated for decades that they are more interested in maintaining and expanding their wealth than they are in the well being of all residents of Kent County.
It is important that we see the wealth of families, like the DeVos family, not just about money, but about power. I was on a panel a few years back, at a national non-profit conference that was being hosted in Grand Rapids. The panel session was entitled, Grassroots Responses to Big Philanthropy: Grand Rapids Activism in the Shadow of Amway, ArtPrize and DeVos.
The basic premise of what I discussed in this panel session was that the DeVos family uses their wealth in an extremely strategic fashion, with some of the main goals being:
Contribute funding to organizations that share their ideological worldview.
Use the contributions to non-profits as PR leverage, despite the fact that none of those non-profits are challenging the root causes of the injustice they have organized around.
Use the contributions to religious groups, centers of education and non-profits in order to manage content and practices in such a way as to discourage these entities from being involved in fighting systems of power and oppression.
One of the reasons why I chose to monitor and investigate the power of families, like the DeVos family, is because it is important that we understand how systems of power and privilege function, and I can’t think of a better example in West Michigan than the example of the DeVos family.
Any social movement that is ultimately a threat to the power structure has to do two things. First, they have to do a power analysis, preferably in their own community, and that would require us to look closely at the DeVos family. The other thing that social movement need to do, in order to make those in power very nervous, is to work towards taking that power away, both economic and political power.
This would mean lots of education, political resistance work, exposing the DeVos family, AND it would mean redistributing the wealth they acquired over the last 50 years. How we redistribute their wealth, is best left to discussions/planning sessions for people who really want to make this happen.
A conduit for the cops: MLive only cites police experts in article about confrontation between anti-racists organizers and the Proud Boys
Three weeks ago, we post an article that provided some analysis on how the dominant news media reported on the Proud Boys coming to Kalamazoo. One of the main points we made in this analysis is that the dominant news media presented the Proud Boys and the anti-racist demonstrators simply as two opposing forces that the Kalamazoo Police had to deal with.
Another important take away from the confrontation between the Proud Boys and anti-racist demonstrators was that the police only arrested those in the anti-racist camp, thus leaving the Proud Boys free to spew their hate and White Supremacist values.
There have been several articles, particularly in MLive, since that action in Kalamazoo in mid-August. On Friday, MLive ran another story with a headline that read, Police need to keep opposing protest groups separated, experts say after Proud Boys rally.
The problem with this most recent article by MLive is two-fold. First, the article relies exclusively on “experts” that have a history in law enforcement or are connected to research-based organization that are pro-police.
In addition to relying on Public Safety Chief Karianne Thomas, the MLive reported also cited someone from the National Police Foundation, the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety, as well as citing a document from the 2015 Presidents Task Force on 21st Century Policing Recommendations. Therefore, the MLive reporter only utilized experts that are not only pro-police, but experts who have internalized the belief that policing in the US is essentially a force for good.
It is not surprising that a member of the dominant news media would consider using only experts that are pro-police, but it certainly does harm by not presenting experts who would provide a counter balance to these pro-police views. The MLive reporter could have contacted people like Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alex Vitale, author of the book, The End of Policing, or historian Kristian Williams, who is author of the book, Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America.
The other main reason that this article is problematic, is that it makes it clear that MLive sees the police as a neutral entity that ultimately keeps the peace in our society. It’s bad enough that the MLive reporter relies exclusively on pro-police “experts”, but they also reprint the suggestions from these experts as sound logic. Early on in the MLive article is reads, “Policing experts, contacted by MLive this week, said police can take several steps, while affording First Amendment rights, to discourage violence in these situations.” Then the MLive reporter includes these steps. Here are those “steps” that the police can use on the left, which were featured in the MLive article. On the right, in red, is a more honest assessment of what these steps mean.
Lastly, towards the end of the MLive article is says:
Back in 1998, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in Kalamazoo. An 8-foot chain-link fence and a line of police officers in riot gear kept the Klan away from others who showed up. Former City Commissioner Zadie Jackson recalled it turned into a non-event because no one really reacted to the Klan’s presence.
This is not always the case when the KKK or other White Supremacists groups, like the Proud Boys come to town. Back in 2007, when White Supremacists came to Kalamazoo , they were outnumber by anti-racist activists three to one. As someone who was involved in that action, the police created “free speech spaces” for the White Supremacists, which consisted of 10 ft. high chain link fencing that was set up so as to create three separate zones. The White Supremacists were in one zone and the cops wanted us to enter one of the other zones, but we refused. This meant that the cops spent the entire time with their backs to the White Supremacists, thus facing those who were were there to confront the White Supremacists, as was reported on by the indy news source Media Mouse.
What the dominant news sources fail to understand is that anti-racist groups, like antifa, will always confront White Supremacists when they come into communities, because their very presence does harm. Anti-racists groups confront White Supremacists to send them a message that they are never welcomed. This is what real community safety groups do, they try to stop hate from entering our communities.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 