There is been a fair amount of attention given to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a program which small businesses with relief loans during the pandemic.
However, like much of the relief money coming from the federal government, funding through the Paycheck Protection Program has benefited banks. According to a recent article on The Intercept:
The Small Business Association, which is running the PPP program, has long been criticized for struggling to process emergency relief quickly during past natural disasters. So when the time came to respond to the coronavirus crisis as fast as possible, the SBA was in no position to do it itself, and Congress mandated that the loans be run through banks instead.
The same article provides two examples of banks that are making millions from the PPP:
New Jersey-based Cross River Bank’s estimated $163 million haul would be more than double its net revenue last year. JPMorgan Chase could make $864 million.
There has also been a fair amount of attention to the fact that the Ayn Rand Institute, the far right think tank, had received PPP funding. However, as the Center for Media & Democracy has pointed out, there are numerous far right groups that have received PPP funding from the federal government, listed below.
MLive, also posted an article about PPP funds going to businesses in Michigan last week, with the headline, 185 Michigan businesses got at least $5 million in federal paycheck protection dollars.
The MLive article also provide a way for people to search which businesses received PPP funding from the federal government. There were 30 businesses in Grand Rapids that received between $5 – 10 million of federal taxpayer money, including businesses such as Rockford Construction, Warner Norcross & Judd, Michigan Turkey Producers and Barfly Ventures LLC.
There were 69 entities receiving between $2 – 5 million, including Aquinas College, Catholic Charities West Michigan, Grand Rapids Christian Schools, Progressive AE, RBC Ministries and Westwood Christian Services.
There were 135 entities in Grand Rapids that received between $1 – 2 million of PPP funding, including Atomic Object, Butterball Farms Inc, General Synod Council of the Reformed Church in America, Mel Trotter Ministries, Northpointe Christian School and Plasan North America.
There were 435 entities that received between $350,000 and $1 million, including All Saints Academy, Calvary Church, Calvin Theological Seminary, Catholic Central High, CWD Real Estate Investment LLC, Fox Motor Group LLC, Holy Spirit Parish, Kuyper College, Seyferth & Associates and Wolverine Gas and Oil Corporation.
Lastly, there were 679 entities that received between $150,000 and $350,000, including Art Prize, Christian Schools International, Ellis Parking, Grand Rapids Downtown Market Inc, Grand Rapids Youth for Christ, Long Road Distillers, MIBIZ Inc, Mike & Johnny Brann’s Steak & Seafood Inc, Pregnancy Resource Center, Start Garden Inc, Tommy Brann’s Steak & Seafood and Words of Hope Inc.
What is instructive about this list is that there are a great deal of religious groups getting bailed out by public tax money, which I find extremely troubling. Where is the separation of Church & State. If these religious groups can get public money, then they need to be paying taxes.
In addition, there are several businesses and business entities that are deeply entrenched in the Grand Rapids Power Structure, such as Rockford Construction, Warner Norcross & Judd, CWD Real Estate Investment LLC, Fox Motor Group LLC, Wolverine Gas and Oil Corporation, Art Prize, Grand Rapids Downtown Market Inc and Start Garden Inc. Lastly, a few of the businesses have also been vocally in support of the GRPD, especially since the Defund the GRPD campaign began, notably the Brann restaurants and Long Road Distillers.
It is instructive that these groups are getting public tax money, especially since they have a history of being anti-union, some are anti-public education and many of them are connected to groups like the West Michigan Policy Forum, which lobbies state lawmakers to pass neo-liberal policies that hurt working class people, the LGBTQ community and disproportionately Black and latinx communities.
When the CEO of Goya, Robert Unanue, meet with President Trump sang his praises, little did he know there would be backlash for his actions.
An informal boycott is now happening against Goya, with a wave of posts on social media about the company.
What hasn’t received as much attention is the reason why the CEO of Goya was meeting with President Trump in the first place. The Trump White House had announced on July 9th, a new program called the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative. Based on the White House statement, released on July 9, the Hispanic Prosperity Initiative will, “improve Hispanic Americans’ access to educational and economic opportunities.”
The White House statement lays out a framework for what the initiative is all about, which lists the following items:
(i) identify and promote educational and workforce development practices that have improved educational, professional, and economic outcomes for Hispanic Americans;
(ii) encourage private-sector initiatives and foster public-private partnerships that improve access to educational and economic opportunities for Hispanic Americans;
(iii) develop a national network of individuals, organizations, and communities, with which to consult and collaborate regarding practices and policies that improve access to educational and economic opportunities for Hispanic Americans;
(iv) monitor the development, implementation, and coordination of Federal Government educational, workforce, and business development programs designed to improve outcomes for Hispanic Americans; and
(v) advise the President, through the Secretary of Education (Secretary), on issues of importance to Hispanic Americans and policies relating to Hispanic Americans’ prosperity.
This description around “school choice” and “public-private partnerships” should raise lots of red flags for anyone who is concerned about how this initiative could negatively impact the latinx community. In many ways, the language used by the White House fits well within their larger Neo-Liberal Capitalist plans, especially for communities of color. Even more alarming, is the fact that this initiative seems to fall under the control of the Department of Education, which means Betsy DeVos.
As Secretary of Education, DeVos also released a statement on July 9, praising the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, stating:
“Hispanic families, like so many families across America, want their children educated in personalized ways that meet their unique needs and their family’s values. We know that a great education is also the launching pad to a great job and long-term prosperity. I applaud President Trump’s strong leadership in support of more educational opportunities and greater prosperity for all Hispanic Americans. At the U.S. Department of Education, we’re working to open up new career pathways including apprenticeships and earn-and-learn opportunities, expanding support for Hispanic Serving Institutions, prioritizing new public charter schools in Opportunity Zones, and fighting for education freedom so Hispanic students—and all students—can find their right fit.”
We should also find this statement from DeVos rather alarming, since it clearly signals another push with this administration to lure communities of color into the privatized educational sphere. This strategy of undermining public education first educes funding for public schools, and then provides a whole menu of incentives for charter and other private educational models to use public money.
In Grand Rapids, we can see how the GRPS continues to deal with reduced budgets, which leaves Black and latinx students with less resources and quality teachers. Faced with these dynamics, latinx parents will look to other education opportunities for their children, which often means looking at Charter Schools or other private educational models.
While some might see the Hispanic Prosperity Initiative as nothing more than a ploy to reach latinx voters for Trump, we should be concerned about how the Hispanic Prosperity Initiative will play out and how it will impact students who are currently in the public education system.
We don’t need no stinking permits to protest: 100 years of dissent and disruption in Grand Rapids
Ever since the Black Lives Matter uprising that began in Grand Rapids on May 30th, Police Chief Payne has been suggesting to those who are protesting that they should get a permit from his office, “so everyone can stay safe.”
Not only do people not need a permit to protest, Chief Payne’s plea for people to obtain a permit drips of irony. The protests that began on May 30th have specifically been directed at police violence against the Black community. Asking those who are protesting to seek permission from the GRPD, to resist police violence, is both confounding and ridiculous.
Now, there are numerous reasons for people to engage in public protest and dissent, but historically, one of the main reasons for protesting has been to disrupt business as usual, to throw a monkey wrench into the gears of conformity, or to strategically force systems of power to meet the demands of those who are protesting.
Social Movements throughout history have rarely sought permission to dissent. Abolitionists did not ask permission to resist slavery. Organized workers, especially in the late 19th century and early 20th century, did not ask permission to demand better working conditions. The Civil Rights Movement didn’t ask permission to engage in a sit-in and freedom riders weren’t asking permission to ride segregated buses.
We have a long history of dissent and disruption in the United States. In fact, the use of dissent and disruption were integral components of social movements, which have been the primary driving force for social change throughout history. People with power, either economic or political power, don’t wake up one day and say, “I think we should give people more rights.” Whatever rights and freedoms we enjoy currently are the direct result of the sacrifices that people in social movements have made to win those freedoms.
We also have a long history of dissent and disruption right here in Grand Rapids. I have been working on the Grand Rapids People’s History Project for 10 years now and I am constantly amazed and inspired by how often people in Grand Rapids have used direct action to make demands and to change lives. What follows is a brief overview of dissent and disruption over the past 100 years in Grand Rapids.
1911 Furniture Workers Strike – 6,000 furniture workers go on strike to demand better wages, better working conditions and the right to have a union. Workers clash with cops in the streets and throw rocks at scab workers brought in from outside the community.
1917 – Socialists in arrested for passing out anti-draft information during WWI.
1937 – Workers go on strike in Grand Rapids, after being inspired by the Flint Wildcat Strike.
1963 – 3,000 people march in Grand Rapids to protest the Birmingham Church bombing.
1965 – Black South High students walk out, in what is called the Mustache Affair. Read the WOODTV8 editorial found on the link, which demonstrates their bias has been around for decades.
1967 Race riot, which was sparked by police harassing Black youth.
1968 – Mayor of Grand Rapids denies Black community a permit to mourn the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
1968 – 1972 anti-Vietnam War organizing in Grand Rapids.
1970 – Student-led Earth Day protests in Grand Rapids.
1986 – Anti-Contra Aid protest in Grand Rapids.
1989 – 100 people shut down Michigan Street protesting US involvement in the murder of 6 priests in El Salvador.
1991 – Gulf War protests in Grand Rapids.
1996 – Anti-Police Brutality Protest in Grand Rapids.
2000 – Anti-Globalization protests in Grand Rapids.
2003 – Anti-Iraq war protest when Bush came to Grand Rapids.
2006 – 10,000 march for immigrant justice in Grand Rapids.
2007 – Protest against Congressman Ehlers’ ongoing support for the US occupation of Iraq.
2016 – Thousands of people protest in the streets of Grand Rapids after the election of Donald Trump.
2017 – Immigrant Justice movement in Grand Rapids begins, with Movimiento Cosecha GR.
May 1st, 2017 march, organized by Movimiento Cosecha GR.
May 1st, 2018 march, organized by Movimiento Cosecha GR.
June 2018 End the ICE Contract protest at the Kent County Commission meeting.
May 1st, 2019 march, organized by Movimiento Cosecha GR.
This is only a sample of the ways in which people in Grand Rapids have protested over the past 100 years and in none of these instances did people ask permission to dissent!
It is rare for commercial news outlets to challenge the policies and practices of local police department, since commercial news media has always internalized the values of the dominant systems of power in this community.
Local news outlets believe that the GRPD functions to “protect and to serve” the people of Grand Rapids, The local commercial news media never questions the integrity of the GRPD and often acts as a conduit or a mouthpiece for law enforcement.
This loyalty that the local commercial news media has towards the GRPD was in full display on Sunday, July 12, with two separate stories.
First, the GRPD fed the local news agencies with pictures of banners hung in Grand Rapids recently, along with images of what appears to be the stenciled phrase Defund the GRPD, along with other words that appeared at City Hall and according to the GRPD at the homes of several city officials.
In addition to the images that the GRPD provided to the local news media, the GRPD provided a statement, which read as follows:
“These bullying and intimidation tactics are unacceptable and won’t be tolerated. This crosses the line,” Grands Rapids Police Chief Eric Payne said in a statement. “There is a process in place for determining our department’s budget, and we must let that process play out. There are more productive ways to exercise your right to free speech and have your voice be heard. Vandalism and violating the law are not the answer.
“We are committed to mutual respect and trust as we work with the community to build stronger relationships. If we’re all in this together, let’s show it.”
This exact same statement or portions of it, was used by MLive, WOODTV8, WZZM 13 and WXMI 17. In addition, to the photos and the statement from the GRPD, the police asked the local news outlets to publish phone numbers for people to call the GRPD if they have information on to assist the cops to catch the “vandals.”
All of the four major commercial media outlets did not bother to seek out any other opinions on this matter, but they did affirm the GRPD’s position on this issue, since the news agencies never questioned whether the banners or the stenciled statements were anything other than vandalism. Such conformity is astounding, especially in light of the fact that there has been a large community call for Defunding the GRPD in recent weeks.
A second example of how the local commercial news media acts as a conduit for the GRPD – also on July 12 – had to do with a peaceful parade/procession that was organized by the family and friends of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was shot and killed by Louisville police in March, and the parade/procession was held in Grand Rapids.
WZZM 13 did report on this event, but their story on covered the beginning of the event, before the parade/procession left Mackay-Jaycees Park on Sunday afternoon.
The parade/procession, which was mostly done by people in cars, went to downtown Grand Rapids later on Sunday, with the GRPD arresting several people. WOODTV8 calls the action a “pop up event.”
The channel 8 story then provides most of the content directly from GRPD Police Chief Payne, who says:
“I, along with the community, continue to be saddened by the death of Breonna Taylor and understand the concerns about how her life was lost,” Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Payne said. “That is why I am actively working to improve community safety in Grand Rapids. I want this to be a city where all people feel safe and are safe at all times throughout our community.
“Public safety is our top priority,” Payne continued. “Blocking traffic at major intersections is not safe for participants or motorists. The last thing we want is for someone to get hurt or to arrest anyone for trying to exercise their right to free speech. Such gatherings should be coordinated with our special events office. A special event permit can help avoid confusion and protect the public’s safety.”
Again, there are no other voices and no questioning from WOODTV8 on the statement from Chief Payne. WOODTV8 merely acts as a stenographer for the GRPD, publicizing just what they said, along with providing ways to contact the police station. This in no way constitutes journalism, especially when there were other sources that were easily accessible on social media.
We found several videos from people who had recorded the police arrests during the event for Breonna Taylor, both this short video and a longer one that shows how disrespectful the GRPD were to Black community members.
WOODTV8 has done it again, broadcasting stories that are sensationalist and full of misinformation. On Monday, we posted a deconstruction of a WOODTV8 story that essentially provided a White Supremacist group with free airtime.
Last night, WOODTV8 once again engaged is shoddy journalism that was meant as clickbait, but failed to actually inform the public. The first story was framed as Riots Revealed: Follow the Money, a Target 8 investigative story, which investigates nothing. The story begins with the newsreader saying that a month after rioting in Grand Rapids, “suspicion lingers,” and then states that the news station found out that a group was bailing out those charged with rioting.
This supposed investigative story wants viewers to believe that they uncovered who bailed out people charged with rioting, when in fact, the Michigan Solidarity Bail Fund has been very public on social media for more than a month. GRIID even posted a story on the Michigan Solidarity Bail Fund on June 2, primarily because GRIID supports the recent uprising and those who have participated in the uprising, which includes bailing people out of jail.
WOODTV8 reporter Susan Samples begins her expose by talking about how a few key strokes can create a conspiracy or reveal truths. In one of the images used in the video b-roll you can see the name Andy Ngo and on the WOODTV post about this story, it shows that the channel 8 reporter was relying on Andy Ngo for information about someone the news station believes is behind the bail fund. The thing is, Andy Ngo is a fascist, a supporter of the Proud Boys and other far right groups, plus he has made it his mission to promote misinformation about antifa. This claim is supported by numerous independent news sources, like the Jacobin, Rolling Stones Magazine and Media Matters.
The channel 8 story then spends the rest of the time trying to get information a person that was outed by Andy Ngo and then seeks to frame the rest of the story as if WOODTV8 is really trying to get to the bottom of something. They aren’t. Instead, whether intentional or not, WOODTV8 has demonized a human being just because they believe in bailing out people who were arrested during the May 30 uprising in Grand Rapids. In addition, WOODTV8 provides far right groups and state forces – cops, prosecutors, etc – with information that will do nothing other than cause harm to people who are deeply committed to anti-racism and anti-fascist organizing.
In the follow up story, WOODTV8 then does a story on antifa and talks to someone from Saginaw claiming that are part of antifa.
The story that aired last night, begins with anti-antifa propaganda, including Trump denouncing the group. This sets the tone for the whole story, which has little to do with illuminating information on the anti-fascist movement. This sensationalized story is really about trying to frame antifa as an extremist group, instead of digging into its history, which has been explored by people like Mark Bray, author of the book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.
However, WOODTV8 prefers sensationalism, since the news stations is driven by ratings and understands that it’s primary viewing demographic are white, middle class people.
During this “expose on antifa,” channel 8 actually uses commentary from Ryan Kelly, a white supremacist with the American Patriot Rally, who has organized numerous anti-lockdown protests in Lansing, one in Grand Rapids and brought heavily armed white guys to Allendale to intimidate people who were protesting the Civil War monument.
In the rest of the channel 8 story, the reporter seeks to sensationalize antifa as extremist, even using the FBI as a source about antifa. The questions asked by the reporter of the person claiming to be part of antifa are leading and ridiculous, always using words like extremist and violence, along with video b-roll of property destruction. Viewers of this story could not come away with any real information on what antifa is, nor its history.
It’s bad enough that WOODTV8 provided free airtime to White Supremacist at the beginning of the week, only to end the end with two stories that furthers a far right agenda by demonizing people who are anti-racists and potentially providing law enforcement agencies with more information and more justification to target anti-racists and anti-fascists.
After the DeVos-led School Voucher ballot initiative was defeated in 2000, Dick & Betsy DeVos didn’t let that defeat stop their plans to undermine public education.
On the heels of the School Voucher defeat, Betsy DeVos created the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), identified as a non-partisan, non-profit entity, “supporting quality choices in public education for all Michigan students,” according to the GLEP webpage.
However, GLEP has been very partisan, by consistently backing mostly GOP candidates, especially those that push for charter schools and using public funding for private education.
Here is a list of the candidates they are endorsing for the 2020 election cycle. We include a link to the candidates’ largest funders and how many of them received funding from the DeVos family.
17th District: Joe Bellino
30th District: Diana Farrington $13,000 DeVos family
36th District: Douglas Wozniak
39th District: Ryan Berman $5,000 DeVos family
42nd District: Ann Bollin
43rd District: Andrea Schroeder $6,000 DeVos family
44th District: Matthew Maddock
51st District: Michael Mueller $6,000 DeVos family
57th District: Bronna Kahle $14,000 DeVos family
63rd District: Matt Hall $5,000 DeVos family
64th District: Julie Alexander $5,000 DeVos family
65th District: Sarah Lightner $5,000 DeVos family
66th District: Beth Griffin $14,000 DeVos family
77th District: Tommy Brann $15,000 DeVos family
78th District: Brad Paquette $6,000 DeVos family
84th District: Philip Green
86th District: Thomas Albert
87th District: Julie Calley
88th District: Luke Meerman
89th District: James Lilly $15,000 DeVos family
91st District: Greg VanWoerkom $5,000 DeVos family
93rd District: Graham Filler
94th District: Rodney Wakeman
97th District: Jason Wentworth $9,000 DeVos family
98th District: Annette Glenn $6,000 DeVos family
99th District: Roger Hauck $12,000 DeVos family
102nd District: Michele Hoitenga $6,000 DeVos
106th District: Sue Allor $14,000 DeVos family
108th District: Beau Lafave $9,000 DeVos family
110th District: Gregory Markkanen
Of the 30 incumbents that GLEP is endorsing, all 30 are Republicans and 19 of them received funding from the DeVos family. However, for those that also received funding from the Michigan House Republican Campaign Committee, most of the money also comes from the DeVos family.
GLEP has also endorsed 9 non-incumbent candidates for the Michigan House.
19th District: Martha Ptashnik
45th District: Mark Tisdel
47th District: Meghan Reckling
56th District: T.C. Clements
61st District: Bronwyn Haltom
70th District: Patrick Outman
73rd District: Bryan Posthumus
83rd District: Andrew Beeler
104th District: John Roth
Make no mistake about it, the Betsy DeVos-created Great Lakes Education Project is deeply committed to pushing their education agenda, which pushes more charter schools, more private schools and seeks to redirect public funding away from public education.
Since the Tuesday morning Committee of the Whole meeting at City Hall, MLive has posted two articles dealing specifically with the issue of defunding the Grand Rapids Police Department.
The first article, posted in the afternoon of Tuesday, July 7, focuses on the proposal from 2nd Ward Commissioner Milinda Ysasi, to cut the funding to the GRPD by bringing it down to the 1995 City Charter mandated 32% of the budget, which would roughly reduce the GRPD’s budget by $9 million.
The same MLive article mentions that there were two other City Commissioners who had voiced support for defunding the GRPD – Jones and Reppart. The article then goes on to say that this proposed budget cut was opposed by City Manager Mark Washington, the Chief of Police and the Grand Rapids Police Officers Association.
The second MLive article, which was posted in the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 8 (updated later that morning), focused on the evening City Commission meeting and how the City officials undermined the democratic process failed to practice transparency and disclosure. Apparently, the City Attorney had made a ruling after the Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday morning, determining that the City Commission could not vote on defunding the GRPD by an additional $9 million.
There were over 100 people who called in to comment on the proposal to defund the GRPD, with many more waiting to comment that the city did not get to. What is instructive about the meeting last night was that the City Attorney, the City Manager and Mayor Bliss all knew that the Commission could not vote on this matter, but failed to reveal such information at the beginning of the meeting. Such a display of subterfuge, once again demonstrated how the City of Grand Rapids is not interested in participatory democracy.
Over the past month, there has been an ongoing call for Defunding the GRPD, from people in the streets to the more formal campaign that has taken place in recent weeks. There are numerous groups that have taken an active role in calling for a Defunding of the GRPD, such as the NAACP, the Urban Core Collective, Equity PAC, Together We Are Safe, the People’s Budget GR, Movimiento Cosecha GR, the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network and GR Rapid Response to ICE. In fact, there hasn’t been this many groups working on a singular issue for some time now in Grand Rapids.
Unfortunately, consumers of MLive or the local TV news might not be aware of the fact that a social movement is behind the Defunding the GRPD campaign, since none of the four major news outlets – MLive, WOODTV8, WZZM 13 or WXMI 17 – bothered to mention these groups in their coverage from Tuesday or this morning. It was reported that 2nd Ward City Commissioner proposed the budget cuts (for which I am grateful), but this was a direct result of getting thousands of messages from people demanding the GRPD be defunded. The failure of the local news to report on this fact and to frame the proposal to defund the GRPD not only dismisses the voices of those organizations, it sends the message to news consumers that change happens because politicians initiate something, which is rarely the case in US history. Those involved in the Defund the GRPD campaign, lots of hours, numerous meetings and organizing their circle to send messages to City officials, that is reason why a proposal to Defund the GRPD was even on the table.
Social Movements and Political Moments: Recognizing the political openings in Grand Rapids and Beyond
It is understandable right now for people to feel overwhelmed and frustrated. This frustration can be felt on the national level, with the federal government’s complicity in so much harm and corruption. You can see it at the state level, with a GOP-dominated legislature attacking the Governor and attempting to re-establish the primacy of capital and the private sector.
In Grand Rapids, the pandemic has exposed the deep levels of inequity and racism, with so many Black and latnix families struggling to survive, with high rates of unemployment and lack of access to affordable health care and housing. The disparities have become even more evident since the uprising that began on May 30th, when thousands of people descended on downtown Grand Rapids to protest the public lynching of George Floyd.
However, since May 30th, there are a great deal more opportunities to have serious conversation about structural racism, about exploitation, reparations and other economic priorities. Who would have thought that just a few months ago, that Grand Rapids would be having a serious conversation about Defunding the GRPD, about school funding cuts, about undocumented immigrants and about the power structure in this community?
As someone who has invested a great deal of time studying the history of Grand Rapids and social movements, it is my contention that the main reason that we are able to have serious conversation about systemic issues, is because of all the groundwork that has been laid by various social movements in this community.
There are tremendous political, economic, social and cultural openings right now, in this moment, that we have not seen in recent years. Good community organizers, those doing work on the ground and around critical issues will tell you, that we need to seize this moment and build on it for the work ahead.
Black Lives Matter has forced us to look at how White Supremacy permeates our culture, our politics and our economy. This work, which has led to a call for a national Defund the Police, campaign, is rooted in the importance of coming to terms with the history and practice of policing in the US. The work of indigenous activists in recent years, whether we are talking about Standing Rock or the recent resistance to Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore, has been due to the work that First Nation’s people have done to get the rest of us to think about White Settler Colonialism and genocidal policies in the US.
I just think it is important for us to think about this current political moment and to recognize that it is a direct result of the long standing social movements from the 19th century Abolitionist movement to Black Lives Matter, from the American Indian Movement to NoDAPL, from the United Farm Workers movement to Movimiento Cosecha, and from the 1911 Furniture Workers Strike in Grand Rapids to the current push for social justice, equity and participatory democracy. This is a critical moment in Grand Rapids right now, making it extremely important for people to get involved in the current social movements.
What follows are a list of books that people might find helpful in this political movement/moment to call for greater collective liberation.
For those wanting to explore the larger context around the graphic above, I would suggest a few foundational books:
- A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
- Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen
- An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz
- An African America and Latinx History of the United States, by Paul Ortiz
- A Queer History of the United States, by Michael Bronski
- How Race Survived US History: From Resettlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon, by David Roediger
- The Half that Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, by Edward Baptist
- How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America, by Manning Marable
- Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents, by Margaret Kimberley
- Taking Children: A History of American Terror, by Laura Briggs
- Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong, by James Loewen
For information of Grand Rapids
- African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids, by Randal Jelks
- A City Within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, by Todd Robinson
Also, check out the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives https://www.graama.org/ and the Grand Rapids People’s History Project https://grpeopleshistory.org/
Grand Rapids, Statues and White Supremacy
For more information on some of the statues that exist in Grand Rapids, check out the section entitled, Lies Across Grand Rapids, from the Grand Rapids People’s History Project.
There has been a great deal of public conversation in the weeks following the public lynching of George Floyd by a Minneapolis cop, around the issue of white supremacy and symbols of white supremacy.
People have been pulling down statues all across the country and the current political climate has now opened up social, political and cultural spaces for communities all over to take similar actions to remove statues that reflect White Supremacists leaders or values.
If Grand Rapids was to take inventory of statues that support white supremacy, what might we find?
Like most cities, there is no shortage of statues in Grand Rapids, most of which are to honor certain individuals or specific events in history. There have been several new statues added in recent years, based on a project that has been spearheaded by a member of the Grand Rapids Power Structure, Peter Secchia.
However, maybe a good place to start would be to look at the statue that resides in the little pocket park located at the intersection of Cherry, State and Madison streets. The statue is of a generic US soldier who fought in what is generally identified as the Spanish American Wars.
These wars began in 1898, and were for the purpose of US imperialist expansion, where the US militarily occupied Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines. In fact, in the case of all three of these countries, the US had never left and continues to either control them politically – as in the case of Puerto Rico, which is now a US colony; and economically – as is the case with all three countries, although with Cuba the US has been waging economic warfare since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
The plaque that accompanies the Spanish American Wars statue uses words like freedom, patriotism and humanity, but despite the idealistic rhetoric on the plaque, the US engaged in racist military occupations that resulted in the murder of communities of color in each of those countries, with the most violence taking place in the Philippines, because of the insurrection that ensued to fight the US occupation.
According to Alfred McCoy’s book, Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State, the US killed 200,000 civilians in the Philippines. McCoy also cites a US General who commented:
It may be necessary to kill half of the Filipinos in order that the remaining half of the population may be advanced to a higher plane of life than their present semi-barbarous state affords.
In each case, the US military legacy has left a bloody, racist path that continues to impact the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico today.
A second statue that should be considered for removal because it normalizes white supremacy, would be the statue that sits in Cathedral Square, by St. Andrews Catholic Church. The statue is that of Bishop Baraga and is also part of the Community Legends project headed by Peter Secchia.
Bishop Baraga is credited with bringing Catholicism to Grand Rapids, but his real work was in his efforts to convert the Ojibway people throughout what is now called Michigan.
Baraga’s interaction with the Ojibway people also paved the way for genocidal policies that Europeans have implemented over the past 150 years in this area.
Those policies include the outright killing of Native people, stealing Native lands, forced relocation and taking Native children from their communities to put them in boarding schools, something the Catholic Church did in Michigan. The history of these boarding schools included denying Native children to speak their language, dress in traditional clothing, subjected to Christian teaching and also physical and sexual abuse, as is well documented in Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools.
Native American scholar George Tinker, author of the book Missionary Conquest: The Gospels and Native American Genocide, refers to Christian missionaries to Native Nations as “partners in genocide.”
Tinker goes on to describe the significance of White missionaries this way:
Told from an Indian perspective, the story is far less entertaining and much less endearing. Pain and devastation become dominant elements as Indian anger erupts to the surface. Indeed, today the white missionary, both in the historical memory of Indian people and in the contemporary experience, has become a frequent target of scorn in most segments of the Indian world. Many implicitly recognize some connection between Indian suffering and the missionary presence, even as they struggle to make sense not only of past wrongs, but also of the pain of contemporary Indian experience. The pain experienced by Indians today is readily apparent in too many statistics that put Indians on the top or bottom of lists. For instance, Indian people suffer the lowest per capita income of any ethnic group in the US, the highest teenage suicide rate, a 60% unemployment rate, and a scandalously low longevity that remains below sixty years for both men and women.
Not surprising, such commentary did not accompany the unveiling of the Baraga statue in the summer of 2012. The lack of this kind of critical voice or perspective reflects how deeply ingrained the dominant culture, a culture of conquest and settler colonialism, is in this country and this community.
This is the legacy of Bishop Baraga, however well intentioned he was, since his commitment to converting the Ojibway paved the way for the harsh policies that followed.
A third statue to consider for removal is the statue in front of the Van Andel Arena that honors Amway co-founder, Jay Van Andel. Van Andel, like his Amway co-founder Rich deVos, funded numerous rightwing groups, both religious and secular.
At the national level Van Andel funded the Heritage Foundation. They wrote the incoming Reagan administrations policy guide Mandate for Change that advocated the elimination of Food Stamps, Medicare, child nutritional assistance, farm assistance, legal services for the poor, and the repeal of a $1,000 tax exemption for the elderly – all policies which disproportionately impacted Black communities.
Jay Van Andel was deeply involved in the largest pro-business lobbying group in the country, the US Chamber of Commerce. In fact, Van Andel was Chairman of the national group for a period of time. The Chamber, which often likes to present itself as a defender of the small business owner, is one of the largest electoral contributors in the nation. According to Open Secrets, the US Chamber has spent $1.2 billion on lobbying since 1998.
In addition, the US Chamber of Commerce has been one of the most consistent climate deniers in the country and has fought hard against any policy that supports working class people. The Chamber has opposed efforts to get paid sick leave policy passed and numerous other pro-worker policies. As Chairman of the US Chamber of Commerce, Van Andel made sure that whatever policies were being decided in Washington, they needed to benefit the capitalist class that he was a part of. Again, these are all policies that disproportionately impact Black, latinx and indigenous communities.
Maybe the least known of the groups that Van Andel was deeply involved with, was the National Endowment for Democracy, also known as NED. NED was created during the Reagan years as a mechanism to push neoliberal economic policies around the world and funding governments or political parties that would best serve the interest of the US. Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, was quite candid when he said in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
Jay Van Andel was on the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy and served in that capacity while the NED was funding death squad governments in Central America, funding opposition parties in Nicaragua and supporting pro-US dictatorships throughout Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
These are just three examples of statues that could be removed from Grand Rapids, because of their endorsement of White Supremacist values. Many more could be, and should be, considered for removal.
On Thursday night, WOODTV8 ran a story that was essentially free air time for the group known as the Michigan Liberty Militia.
The Michigan Liberty Militia is a group of armed White men who have come to the anti-lockdown protests in Lansing and Grand Rapids since April, as well as having a presence at several Black Lives Matter rallies and the protest against the Civil War monument in Allendale, Michigan.
Here is a link to the story that WOODTV8 aired on Thursday night:
This story was a clear example of poor journalism. First, there is no evidence that the channel 8 reporter even bothered to ask substantive or obvious questions that any reasonable person would ask when inquiring about a group like the Michigan Liberty Militia. Secondly, the reporter did not bother to do any background check on this group or the person they interviewed for the story, Phil Robinson.
The Michigan Liberty Militia Facebook page would have been an obvious place to start, but the WOODTV8 reporter didn’t check that site, which is filled with self promotional posts about how the Michigan Liberty Militia are really “constitutionalists” and that “they are committed to protecting people’s freedom to protest”. Such proclamations are nothing more than a diversion to the real reason that groups like the Michigan Liberty Militia have formed, which is to defend systems of power and privilege, particularly White Supremacy. What I mean by White Supremacy, is based on the definition that long-time anti-racist organizer Elizabeth Martinez uses:
The channel 8 reporter could also have looked at the Facebook page of Phil Robinson, which is even more revealing the MLM page. For example, Robinson posted a news story about the protest organized by indigenous people attempting to prevent President Trump from coming to Mount Rushmore for a rally. The video Robison posted was not from those protesting, but from Right Side Broadcasting, which is a far right news group that is blatantly pro-Trump.
Interestingly enough, Robinson took a selfie of himself and the WOODTV8 reporter the day of the interview, just like he did with another channel 8 reporter, Leon Hendrix, while attending the anti-lockdown rally in Grand Rapids in May. The organizer of that rally in Grand Rapids and several of the anti-lockdown protests in Lansing is Ryan Kelly, who is very connected to Phil Robinson.
Ryan Kelly writes for the blog that the American Patriot Rally hosts. In a post that was critical of the recent Black Lives Matter rally in Lansing, it states:
“Phil Robinson, of the Michigan Liberty Militia, a group known for protecting citizens and businesses from BLM and Antifa rioters.” In that same post, the writer referred to Black organizers as “gang bangers.”
There is no evidence that Robinson does what the above statement says, but it is clear that Robison and Kelly do not support Black Lives Matter and antifa protestors. Kelly also asked Robinson and his fellow MLM members to come to Allendale to intimidate people who came to protest the Civil War monument in Allendale. Kelly sits on the Planning Commission for Allendale and has pressured Allendale officials to not remove the monument, despite its racist implications.
Another reason why the story is so bad is the fact that, if you could imagine Black community members in Grand Rapids would always come to protests, fully armed and stating that they were merely there to protect everyone’s right to protest. Do you think that WOODTV8 or any other commercial news source would not question Black people showing up with guns, especially if most of the protesters were white? This is exactly why this story is so disingenuous, because WOODTV8 can’t see how they practice White Privilege here. White guys who are heavily armed are not really questioned, but Black guys showing up with guns would be more than channel 8 and most of society could handle.
Now, for reasons that are not clear, WOODTV8 did a follow up story on July 3rd, based on feedback from the Michigan Attorney General’s office, calling into question the motives of the Michigan Liberty Militia. Here is the content of the story at this link.
While the revised story is better, the WOODTV8 page still contains the written content from the original story from July 2nd. More importantly, WOODTV8 never apologized for running such a bias and unsubstantiated story that was aired in the West Michigan market, with hundreds of thousands of viewers.
This isn’t the first time such a story was aired on WOODTV8. In 2017, they aired a story about a local White Supremacist who claimed he wasn’t racist, even though there was plenty of information that demonstrates he has a history of being part of a Neo-Nazi group.
We are asking people to contact WOODTV8 and tell them that the story they aired was a poor excuse for journalism, with unsubstantiated claims, and it provided a free platform for a White Supremacist group. Demand that WOODTV8 make a formal apology, especially to the Black community, on air, and during an evening news broadcast, then remove any version of the original story from their website and any other platform it may be on.
Help us pressure WOODTV8 with these demands by going to this Action Alert.
