Right-Wing Think Tank Expands to Downtown; Mlive Raves
Author’s note: It was brought to our attention that in the original publishing of this article we stated that the three Mlive articles discussed were published within 8 days of one another, when in fact the first of the three articles was published in February 2012, while the later two were published in February of 2013. This was an oversight, and the article has been corrected. It is our belief that the analysis and conlusions reached remain relevant, despite the intial error.
The conservative, right-wing think tank Acton Institute has purchased and renovated the building at 98 E. Fulton at the center of downtown, Grand Rapids,
Mlive sent photographer Chris Clark down to document the move, this is his photo
where it will soon call home. GRIID covered this development almost exactly a year ago, but this month Mlive Media Group, specifically Jim Harger, has published two stories on Acton last week, following one about a year ago. We’ll take a deeper look at this uptick in coverage by the local press.
Two of the articles by Harger detail the institute’s move from it’s “cramped, rented space in the Waters Building” to it’s new digs downtown. The institute’s $7 million remodeling bill will cover “a 200 seat auditorium, state-of-the art recording equipment and a soundproof booth for translators” in addition to a chapel with German-made stained glass, amongst other amenities. The third article takes a look at the “local funding” supporting the ever growing “international footprint” of Acton.
The first article, “Acton Institute will raise its profile in Grand Rapids with purchase of downtown landmark building”, opens under the angle that many in West Michigan have not heard of Acton, (acknowledging that many of the readers probably don’t care that the think tank is moving in the first place, and thus begs the question, “why is this news?”). To quell these early concerns, Harger quotes Acton’s spokesperson, John Couretas, “We’re the only public policy think tank in Grand Rapids, but we’re probably better known internationally than in Grand Rapids.”
After Harger establishes that Acton is moving, and that the building has historic roots as a Jacobson’s department store, he grasps at straws for the rest of the story, giving a brief history of Acton, another attempt to get his readers to care. No one commented on the story.
For the second article, “Acton Institute’s new headquarters gives think tank a high-tech base for its free market mission”, Harger goes beyond the spokesperson straight to Acton’s Executive Director and co-founder, Kris Mauren, who proudly divulges more detail about the auditorium, the chapel, and how many jobs the construction project is creating. For more on this angle, Hanger goes on to interview the general contractor Tim Schowalter, president and CEO of Pioneer Construction Co. Clearly, Harger is done pulling punches. He even states that “the project is seeking certification from the Society of Environmentally Responsible Facilities (SERF),” audatiusly suggesting that Acton is now part of the environmental movement (more on that later).
Harger’s third act hints at some in-depth analysis with its headline: “Acton Institute’s financial backing has strong ties to West Michigan’s wealthiest families”. One might think that a journalistic class analysis is about to follow, maybe Harger will even look at the effect of the policies Acton Institute ethos has had locally and globally. One would be mistaken. Here, Harger returns to Kris Mauren and diversifies his approach by including the perspective of John Kennedy, president and CEO of Autocam Corp., and funder to the think tank.
Apparently, according to Kennedy, “Acton excels in encouraging entrepreneurs to develop their skills in the marketplace to improve the lives of others,” and “they don’t say the markets are moral, but players in the market have a responsibility to be moral.” Kennedy neglects to say how Acton’s history of climate change denial fits into its moral responsibility, and Harger forgets to ask.
Even more disturbing is Acton’s “educational campaign”, dubbed “PovertyCure”, which states “wealth creation, rule of law and private property – situated in a moral culture – are the keys to reversing worldwide poverty.” The think take even has a university that’s “taught” this ideology to more than 800 students last year alone, and looks to expand to 1,000 by next year. Seeing as how the Devos family are major contributors to both Acton and the attack on public education, this should serve as no surprise.
Harger follows these statements with zero critical analysis of the claims at hand and provides no evidence to support them. With so many stories of austerity and the ensuing popular revolts around the world, any reader of the news can hardly go a day without hearing about the devastation and hardship brought by the “rule of law and private property.” It is an old myth that free-market capitalism will somehow resolve poverty and inequality. A system that rewards only greed and self preservation will by its very nature always be exploitive. These policies are hardly “reversing worldwide poverty”, but creating and perpetuating it.
Additionally, by listening exclusively the perspectives of white males from the elite class and regurgitating their claims uncritically, Harger serves as a mouthpiece to those in power. This is why three articles were published on Acton’s move in an eight day period, it benefits Acton. If there is any question, Harger makes sure to mention how Acton has been named as one of the top think tanks by various organizations at least once in every article. No criticisms of Acton or their right-wing Christian ideology are presented what-so-ever.
For as much as contemporary culture demands we do not forget “our founders”, we often ignore their lessons when convenient. Thomas Jefferson said, “Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it,” and that “the only security of all is in a
free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed.” While Jefferson himself showed little commitment to the liberty of those who didn’t share his race, class, or gender, he understood the dynamics of democracy, especially when it came to the press. The purpose of the free press is to keep power in check for the protection of the people. When the press becomes a servant of the powerful, corruption will surely follow; and corruption is halted by the transparency provided by a free press.
Articles such as those detailed above (and dozens others analyzed by GRIID) illustrate that Mlive does not represent the free press or the people, and thus hasno role in a democracy. Mlive Media Group is part of the capitalist press and is a tool of oppression used by the power elite to keep the people of Michigan ignorant and unquestioning of their thieving practices, which will enviably leave us more broke, bankrupt, and hungry than we were yesterday. Meanwhile the dividends, capital gains, and bank statements of those responsible continue to soar upward. People are well advised to recognize Mlive for what it is, and to act accordingly.
Minnesota Mayor and Fracking Industry Lobbyist Resigns
This article by Steve Horn is re-posted from CounterPunch.
Usually “revolving door” connotes a transition from a stint as a public official into one as a corporate lobbyist or vice versa.
In the case of Red Wing, MN – a southeastern Minnesota town of 16,459 located along the Mississippi River – its Mayor Dennis Egan actually obtained a gig as head lobbyist for the frac sand industry trade group Minnesota Industrial Sand Council while serving as the city’s Mayor. The controversy that unfolded after this was exposed has motivated Egan to resign as Red Wing’s Mayor, effective April 1.
Without the fine-grained silica frac sand found within “Sand Land” (or manufactured ceramnic proppants resembling it), there is no hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for the oil and gas embedded within shale rock deposits. In other words, frac sand mining is the “cradle” while burning gas for home-heating and other purposes is the “grave.”
Egan is also the former head of Red Wing’s Chamber of Commerce and the public relations firm he runs, Egan Public Affairs, is a Chamber member both at the Red Wing- and state-level. One of his other lobbying clients is Altria, which Big Tobacco’s Phillip Morris renamed itself in Feb. 2003 during its rebranding process with the help of PR powerhouse, Burson-Marsteller.
Many citizens living within the conflines of ”Sand Land” in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, and Arkansas are deeply concerned about the ecological impacts of frac sand mining and the fracking at-large the sand enables.
Direct respiratory exposure to silica sand can lead to development of silicosis, a lung disease that can lead to lung cancer, akin to exposure to the tobacco smoke that Egan lobbies on behalf of. Exposure to silica sand was deemed a workplace hazard by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in a June 2012 report.
Egan’s Frac Sand Ties Engender Citizen, City Council Backlash
Given this “price of sand,” residents reacted with outrage about the conflict-of-interest and started circulating a recall petition to send Egan packing as Mayor.
So too did Red Wing’s City Council, with three of its members demanding Egan resign at a Feb. 11 meeting and the City Council at-large voting unanimously at that same meeting to hire an outside investigator to dig deeper into the entirety of Egan’s conflicts-of-interest.
The brewing dramatic three-week-old scandal has come to a close, though, as Egan announced he will step down from his mayoral post.
“I believe that a mayor must live to a higher standard than just avoiding conflicts of interest,” he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “If a mayor’s activities serve as a distraction or roadblock for the city, the public is not well-served.”
Red Wing’s City Council, in turn, decided to drop the investigation on Egan and the recall petition is now null-and-void.
“We understand his decision and wish him well in his new position,” Red Wing City Council President Lisa Bayley told Minnesota Public Radio. “I think he had to make that decision — what we wanted to do. I just don’t think the two positions were compatible and he needed to pick something.”
Red Wing resident and recall petitioner Dale Hanson told the Star-Tribune that he believes this investigation should proceed regardless of Egan’s choice to step down as Mayor “to ensure that if there was corruption, ethics violations, or other vital issues that we have an accurate sense of how much damage may have been done.”
The announcement comes in the aftermath of a major Feb. 20 MN state Senate hearing on frac sand mining. Another one is slated for Feb. 26.
“Heads in the Sand”: Egan Not Alone in Cashing in on Frac Sand Boom
As it turns out, the sordid truth is that corruption and ethics violations with regards to frac sand mining and local governments go far above and beyond Egan and Red Wing. In a Dec. 26 story, the Star-Tribune explained that “at least five public officials in three counties are trying to make money from frac sand.”
Despite this reality and the enormous cradle-to-grave ecological costs and consequences of fracking, public officials have their “heads in the sand” – both literally and figuratively – with regards to the frac sand mining boom.
New Media We Recommend
Below is a list of new materials that we have read/watched in recent weeks. The comments are not a “review” of the material, instead sort of an endorsement of ideas and investigations that can provide solid analysis and even inspiration in the struggle for change. All these items are available at The Bloom Collective, so check them out and stimulate your mind.
Against Equality: Prisons Will Not Protect You, edited by Ryan Conrad – This is the third book that the group Against Equality has produced and like the first two books, this one is packs a mean punch. The 10 essays in this volume challenge the notion that sending people to prison for hate crimes makes us safer. The reality is that hate crimes legislation not only strengthens the prison industrial complex, it doesn’t do anything to make the LGBTQ community safer. In fact, hate crimes legislation has been used disproportionately against communities of color. In addition, arresting individuals for systemic problems not only is not a solution, it prevents us from having to creatively come up with ways to deal with violence in our communities instead of allowing the state to brutalize people in the prison system. Highly recommended.
Greenwashed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way To a Green Planet, by Kendra Pierre-Louis – The title pretty much sums up the analysis of the book. However, one should read this book to get the analysis of why green consumerism is not a real solution for ecological integrity. Greenwashed will not only provide you with the necessary analysis to combat green capitalism, it will be a useful tool in challenging the litany of environmental organizations that have bought into this notion that you are more environmentally responsible if you drive a Prius, work in a LEED certified building or only eat organic foods. The author provides analysis by products and a section on larger structural false green solutions such as bio-fuels. An important contribution to the discussion of why capitalism and ecological integrity are incompatible.
The Civil Wars in US Labor: Birth of a New Worker’s Movement or Death Throes of the Old?, by Steve Early – In this recently published book, longtime labor journalist Steve Early draws on scores of interviews and on his own union organizing experience to explain why and how these labor civil wars occurred. He examines the bitter disputes about union structure, membership rights, organizing strategy, and contract standards that enveloped SEIU, UNITE HERE, the California Nurses Association, and independent organizations like the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico and the new National Union of Healthcare Workers in California. Along the way, we meet rank-and-file activists, local union officers, national leaders, and concerned friends of labor who were drawn into the fray. An important book for those involved in labor politics and those interested in the future of social movements in the US.
America the Beautiful (DVD) – America the Beautiful uses the story of the rise and fall of a young model’s budding career to examine America’s obsession with youth and beauty and the damage that occurs when women try to live up to impossible standards of physical perfection.
Foundation Profile: Dan & Pamella DeVos Foundation
This is our fourth foundation profile for our Grand Rapids Non-Profit Industrial Complex Project. So far we have looked at the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation, the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation and the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation.
The Dan & Pamella DeVos Foundation is the last of the local DeVos family foundations that we are profiling.
Dan & Pamella also contribute to some of the same entities that other DeVos family foundation contribute to. During the years between 2009 – 2011 the Dan & Pamela DeVos Foundation has contributed to the group that brother Dick is involved in, Grand Action ($204,280).
Dan & Pamella have also contributed to the local hospital named after their mom, the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Foundation (over $7 million), Grand Rapids Christian School Association ($850,000) and the Young Life Grand Rapids ($50,000).
Like his brother Dick and his wife Betsy, Dan and Pamella have contributed substantially to the art world. During the three years of 990s we looked at, the couple has donated to the Grand Rapids Art Museum ($514,835), John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ($20,000), ArtPrize ($50,000), UICA ($50,000) and the Whitney Museum of American Art ($2,793,250).
It is worth noting that the couple’s nephew Rick sits on the board of both the UICA and the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Also, Pamella DeVos is the Secretary of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which might explain the large donations from the couple.
Dan & Pamella DeVos have also contributed to some of the same free market capitalism groups such as The Heritage Foundation ($25,000) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy ($75,000).
The Dan & Pamella DeVos Foundation have also contributed significantly to the global free market school, Norwood University. Over a three year period they contributed $2,627,500.
While the Dan & Pamella DeVos Foundation has not been as overtly political in their contributions as other members of the DeVos family, they continue the tradition of funding conservative Christian organizations and pro-capitalist entities.
Oxfam: World’s Largest Food Companies Creating Legacy of Destruction
This article by Jon Queally is re-posted from Common Dreams.
The world’s largest food and beverage companies may be profitable, but according to Oxfam International their practices are helping to destroy not only the natural resources that support a global food system but the lives of the people they depend on most: their employees and their customers.
In a new effort called Behind the Brand, part of their ongoing GROW campaign to fix the broken food system, Oxfam has singled out the ten largest food processing companies—Associated British Foods (ABF), Coca Cola, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé, Pepsico and Unilever—to make a singular statement about the failure of these behemoths to fulfill their social and environmental responsibilities.
According to Oxfam, these “Big 10”—that together generate $1 billion-a-day in profit—are failing millions of people in developing countries who supply land, labor, water and commodities needed to make their products.
“It’s time these companies take more responsibility for their immense influence on poor people’s lives,” said Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director for Oxfam International. “Eighty percent of the world’s hungry people work in food production and these companies employ millions of people in developing countries to grow their ingredients. They control hundreds of the world’s most popular brands and have the economic, social and political clout to make a real and lasting difference to the world’s poor and hungry.”
As The Guardian reports:
The charity’s Behind the Brands report compiled a scorecard, rating the “big 10” food companies in seven categories: the transparency of their supply chains and operations, how they ensure the rights of workers, how they protect women’s rights, the management of water and land use, their policies to reduce the impacts of climate change and how they ensure the rights of the farmers who grow their ingredients.
The company with the lowest score – just 13 out of 70 – was ABF. It scored just one mark out of 10 in its treatment of land, women and climate change, while the highest scores it managed to achieve was three out of 10, in relation to workers and transparency.
In joint second-lowest place were Kellogg’s and General Mills, which owns Old El Paso, Häagen-Dazs and Nature Valley, with both scoring 16 out of 70.
In the campaign’s first targeted action, Oxfam will target Nestle, Mondelez and Mars for their failure to address inequality faced by women who grow cocoa for their chocolate products. As part of that effort, the group released a series with first-hand accounts which explore the inequality that women cocoa growers face. And the campaign is urging people to use their own voices and social networks to speak out against the food giants.
“No brand is too big to listen to its customers,” said Hobbs. “If enough people urge the big food companies to do what is right, they have no choice but to listen. By contacting companies on Twitter and Facebook, or signing a petition to their CEO, consumers can do their part to help bring lasting change in our broken food system by showing companies their customers expect them to operate responsibly.”
The ‘Behind the Brands’ campaign also released this list of ways that the “Big 10” fail to meet their commitments:
- While some of the “Big 10” have publicly committed to women’s rights, none have committed to eliminating discrimination against women throughout their supply chains.
- None of the companies have adequate policies to protect local communities from land and water grabs, despite all of them sourcing commodities plagued by land rights violations, such as palm oil, soy and sugar. Not one company has declared ‘zero tolerance’ against land grabs in their supply chains.
- All ten companies are overly secretive about their agricultural supply chains, making their claims of ‘sustainability’ and ‘social responsibility’ difficult to verify. Nestle and Unilever are most open about the countries they source from, but no company is providing enough information about their suppliers.
- Companies are generally increasing their overall water efficiency but most have failed to put policies in place to limit their impact on local water sources. Only Pepsi has publicly recognized water as a human right and committed to consult local communities. Nestle has developed guidelines for its suppliers to manage water and was ranked top for policies on water.
- All of the companies have taken steps to reduce direct emissions, but only five – Mondelez, Danone, Unilever, Coca-Cola and Mars – publicly report on agricultural emissions associated with their products. Unilever alone has committed to halve its greenhouse gas footprint by 2020. None have yet developed policies to help farmers in their supply chains to build resilience to climate change.
- None have publicly committed to pay a fair price to farmers or fair business arrangements with them across all agricultural operations. Only Unilever – which is top-ranked for its dealings with small-scale farmers – has specific supplier guidelines to address some key issues faced by farmers.
The Bloom Collective Moves Downtown: Grand Re-Opening March 9
The Bloom Collective, Grand Rapids’ only infoshop, is scheduled to reopen from a winter hiatus March 9th in a new location downtown. The collective will now be operating out of 8 Jefferson SE, immediately adjacent to the hyper-local, worker-run Bartertown Diner, and it’s soon-to-be sisters, Cult Pizza and Bread Square.
During their grand opening, the infoshop will host an open house and fundraiser to celebrate the move, featuring readings of radical poetry and literature, food, activities, and music. This marks the second move for the Bloom since they originally opened on Wealthy Street in mid 2007. For the past few years the collective has been struggling to get and keep community attention in the basement of Steepletown Neighborhood Services, a building owned by the Catholic church on the west side of the city. Indeed, many community members lost track of The Bloom after the gentrification on Wealthy made impossible financial demands on the anti-commercial enterprise. The current move is made possible by a partnership between the infoshop and the worker-run restaurants surrounding it.
The Bloom recently announced on their Facebook page a successful fundraising effort to get a year’s worth of rent in the bank prior to reopening. This suggest strong support for this rare institution, as the infoshop remains an “unofficial” non-profit organization, relying completely on donations to stay afloat.
a sneak peak into the new space
Still many in the community are unfamiliar with what an infoshop actually is and what role they play in modern society. The Bloom states on their website that their lending library has over 3000 materials and they “believe sharing [their] collection of resources locally is one of the many ways to inspire change and promote equality globally.” Further, the website explains that the collective operates on consensus, meaning there are no leaders or bosses, and they focus their work around four Points of Unity, which include “a very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism, institutions and governments that promote oppression (and) all forms and systems of domination and discrimination.” Additionally, the infoshop gives “a call to direct action and civil disobedience,” and utilizes “an organizational philosophy based on decentralization and autonomy.”
The Bloom Collective, and infoshops in general, seek to be both a resource for activists in the community as well as an entry point for folks to become more politically aware and involved. This includes the books and DVDs, but they will also carry radical stickers, posters and are one of the few places to stock a zine library. The Bloom has partnered with other community organizations in a variety of fashions. Food justice group Our Kitchen Table has shared the space with the Bloom for years, and other labor, environmental, and educational groups have used the space for meetings and classes. The Bloom does not support any political parties, but they have offered critiques of local politicians and initiatives, mostly through events organized in the space. Regular movie screenings have also been a mainstay in the infoshop’s history, typically featuring provocative political documentaries.
Infoshops have a history of being targeted by right-wing and racist organizations, and well as police and governments for their radical activities and
community influence, causing a need for a certain amount of security around membership and the physical space itself. The Freedom bookshop in England was recently firebombed, while the Long Haul infoshop in Berkley CA (publisher of Slingshot!) was illegally raided by police a few years back; even the Bloom faced break-ins and threats while on Wealthy St.
The Bloom is completely volunteer run and has had spotty hours in the past as a result. The collective is counting on the more accessible location mobilizing
the Bloom’s new sign, in progress
volunteers to help keep the shop open for more regular hours. Until the gathering on March 9th, potential patrons can get in touch with the infoshop through their Facebook page, (www.facebook.com/bloomcollectivegr), by email (bloomcollective@gmail.com) or on their website, www.thebloomcollective.org, where users can sign up to volunteer or donate.
Foundation Profile: Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation
This is our third foundation profile for our Grand Rapids Non-Profit Industrial Complex Project. So far we have looked at the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation and the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation.
Doug DeVos is the current President of Amway, the company that his father founded, along with Jay Van Andel.
The foundation that Doug and his wife Maria run is not as large as the elder DeVos or his brother Dick, but sizeable nonetheless.
We were able to access the 990 documents for this foundation for 2009 through 2011, from the online source Guidestar.
Like the other DeVos family foundations we have looked at, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation has contributed significantly to conservative Christian organizations and organizations that promote the supremacy of free market capitalism.
Some of the groups that the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation have contributed to between 2009 and 2011 are the Willow Creek Association ($100,000), the Acton Institute ($159,350), the Mackinac Center for Public Policy ($65,000), Grand Action ($200,000) and the Heritage Foundation ($50,000).
This DeVos Family Foundation has also contributed significantly to the Grand Rapids Christian School Association ($7,106,000), the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Foundation ($4,545,000) and the National Constitution Center ($3,175,000).
Doug DeVos is the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Constitution Center, which includes a whole host of conservative members, including Richard DeVos Sr. Despite the rather benign sounding name, the National Constitution Center promotes a rather narrow notion of civic engagement, with its current Chairman being Jeb Bush.
Another large recipient of funding from the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation is the American Enterprise Institute – AEI ($1,750,000). The American Enterprise Institute has a along history of lobbying the federal government on issues ranging from Iraq, tobacco regulation and water policies. The American Enterprise Institute has had a strong relationship with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has been at the forefront of much scrutiny for its lobbying practices. It also should be noted that the American Enterprise Institute is part of the network of organizations that deny climate change and has even offered money to scientists to publicly state their opposition to global warming.
One last group that has been the recipient of Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation money is the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). NOM has received $500,000 from the foundation, which has resulted in a national boycott against Amway.
The National Organization for Marriage aggressively opposed marriage equality and is a leading group that both lobbies and funnels money to state campaigns where marriage equality is on the ballot.
The California-based group Rights Equal Rights Cause initiated the boycott campaign last summer and is targeting Amway, since Doug DeVos is the current President of the family company.
New Video Campaign seeks to reframe the immigration debate
The folks at Cuentame and Brave New Films have teamed up again to create several new videos that both expose the hate language of anti-immigration forces, but also to encourage the pro-immigration rights movement to not let the anti-immigration voices frame the debate.
Nativist, racist and fear-mongering hate groups are working hard to drive their narrative on immigration. For years now, anti-immigrant groups have successfully infused their message into the national immigration debate. Influencing local politicians and national figures – with the same talking points: “More punishment”, “Militarize the border”, “Massive deportations”, “More Enforcement.” This has resulted in dangerous policies that have led to flagrant violation of human rights.
It is time we put basic immigrant, human rights back in the forefront of our national values and priorities! Let Congress and the President know that to reform immigration they must prioritize “Immigrant rights before enforcement.”
Add your name and message – make sure your voice is heard! Here is one of the four videos that Cuentame and Brave New Films have created.
A City Within A City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, MI – Book Review
Todd Robinson’s, A City Within A City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, MI, is important for two major reasons.
First, the book illuminates some very important history of race relations in Grand Rapids that is likely not well known, unless of course you lived through it.
Secondly, the book is extremely valuable in that is provides information that can illuminate what the possibilities are for the future. Indeed, this is the real purpose of history, to provide an honest framework so that people can learn from the past and put a proper context on the present, with the hope of what can become of the future.
Robinson begins his book through the powerful stories of individuals like Karen Parker, an African American woman who moved to Grand Rapids from North Carolina. Parker, like so many other well educated Black people who came north after WWII.
Parker said that she was amazed at how the White community in Grand Rapids held deeply racists and discriminatory attitudes towards her and her Black friends and colleagues. Robinson used first person interviews and other sources to provide substantive commentary from African Americans living in Grand Rapids before and during the Height of the Civil Rights movement. The stories vary from Blacks being victims of redlining, refused access to more skills jobs and excluded from much of the political and economic decision making in Grand Rapids.
Robinson identifies what was practiced in Grand Rapids as a form of “managerial racism,” a kind of racism that wasn’t as in your face as in the Jim Crow south, but ultimately had the same consequences.
The author identifies the businessmen and business entities, such as the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, as the primary proponents of the “managerial racism.” At one point in the book, Robinson even headlines a section entitled, The Center City Plantation, which referred to the efforts by the business community to inject millions of dollars into the downtown at the expense of many neighborhoods.
Robinson also identifies the organizing efforts and groups that were behind either reformist efforts or more systemic change around racial politics in Grand Rapids. He identifies groups such as the Grand Rapids Study Club, which was made up of Black women who studied independently on issues related to their community. Robinson also investigates the Grand Rapids chapters of the Urban League and the NAACP and what roles they played in issues like housing, education and employment.
In addition to the author’s investigation of the Black community at this time in Grand Rapids, he spends an ample amount of time on the political class in Grand Rapids that wielded power in those days. Names like Frank McKay and George Welsh are two that Robinson explores, names which sit atop some of the buildings in downtown Grand Rapids today.
Frank McKay was a robber baron in his own right and one of the 1% in that period. He owned a tremendous amount of property and had an excessive amount of influence on the politics within Grand Rapids. Welsh, was a long time Mayor of Grand Rapids and was unseated from power, not by a popular movement, but by “moderate” Republicans who wanted to manage the city in ways that would not be as blatantly dictatorial as was the case under Welsh.
The chapters I found most engaging where the chapters around educational reform and civil rights in Grand Rapids in the 1960s. Robinson does an outstanding job of presenting what was happening with education in Grand Rapids as the Black population was growing. The author presents compelling information on how the desegregation efforts locally were one way, where Blacks were bused to predominantly White schools, but White were not bused at all.
This one-sided dynamic led to lots of conflict and sent a strong message to the Black community that there was a double standard in the local school district. Robinson demonstrates how this double standard played out, with long-term effects that provide some clarity on the state of the Grand Rapids Public Schools today.
Robinson also looks at how the predominantly White schools treated Black students and how the school administration did not prepare the faculty nor the students for the integration of Blacks into schools like Union High. In fact, White students often engaged in acts of discrimination and violence against Black students, often resulting in the schools being shut down for days at a time.
The opposition to the arrival of Black students to schools like Union High led to a coalition of White Westside candidates running for the GR School Board on a platform of segregation and anti-busing. Parents and voters turned out in numbers to support these candidates and pushed racial justice back years.
The other area that Robinson explores is the growing impatience from the Black community around housing, education and employment opportunities. Like much of the country, there was a shift from the more moderate Civil Rights reformers to the Black Power Movement. People were tired of being second-class citizens and told that their status in life was because of their lack of commitment to doing for themselves.
The Black community had had enough and began participating in actions and organizing efforts that were often led by students. The Grand Rapids Public Schools began implementing harsh dress codes, which many in the Black community felt was a lack of understanding or acknowledgement of Black culture.
The famous Mustache affair, where a Black student refused to shave his mustache led to his suspension from school. The community responded with thousands showing up at school board meetings and pressuring the GRPS to stop imposing culturally insensitive policies on Black students.
This growing tension and frustration in the Black community, especially with Black youth, was the context for the 1967 race riot that broke out in Grand Rapids. Robinson does an excellent job of sifting through the significance of that uprising, which was just one of 47 race riots to occur in the US that year.
Robinson notes that the politicians and business leaders in Grand Rapids didn’t want to deal with the real concerns of the Black community at this time, but also recognized that it was not good business when people rose up in anger the way they did in July of 67.
The sophistication of Managerial Racism in Grand Rapids allowed those in power to take action that was presented as racial reconciliation, but was just another way on maintaining the White Supremacist power structure. Grand Rapids elected Lyman Parks as its first City Commissioner in 1968. Parks eventually became President of the City Commission and then Mayor of Grand Rapids, when then Mayor Robert Boelens resigned.
Lyman Parks was vetted by the establishment and played an important role for the White Power structure, since Parks himself identified as conservative and as a Republican. This allowed Grand Rapids to continue to be a City Within a City, where Blacks were never allowed to advance collectively.
A City Within a City should be read by anyone who cares about an honest history of Grand Rapids. It should also be required reading for anyone who identifies with wanting to fight for racial justice and dismantled the White Supremacist power structure that still rules this city.
A Week’s Worth of Troubling Immigration Revelations
This article by Seth Freed Wessler is re-posted from ColorLines.
Immigration reform lurched awkwardly forward, and then backward, and then forward in Washington this week after the White House accidentally leaked a version of its immigration plan on Saturday and Sen. Marco Rubio hollered in true partisan form that the proposal, though remarkably similar to his own, would be “dead on arrival.” Then, yesterday, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican who runs the all-important House Judiciary Committee, said he won’t support a reform bill if it includes eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Democrats have drawn the line in the sand on the need for a path to citizenship, and Goodlatte’s decision to position himself on the other side of that line could spell the death of reform.
This sort of back and forth is likely to continue until one side budges or reform deliberations fall flat. But while Washington plays politics with people’s lives, the federal immigration enforcement apparatus appears to have declared war. This week saw a rush of news about the improprieties of federal immigration authorities, the true nature of immigration enforcement and what those who profit from deportation are thinking and doing. Here’s a rundown of the five most ridiculous, enraging, hypocritical things we learned about immigration enforcement in the last week.
1. ICE Officials Tell Agents to Use DMV Records and Traffic Safety Stops to Deport Immigrants
Since President Obama took office in 2008, his administration has bragged about its targeted immigration enforcement policy. Supposedly, Immigration and Customs Enforcement prioritizes what it considers to be the worst of the worst, such as rapists, drug dealers and “repeat immigration offenders” who just won’t respect the law. But last week, ICE’s claims took a serious blow when USA Today revealed that precisely the opposite is true. Emails obtained by the ACLU revealed ICE officials instructed field agents to target immigrants with low-level criminal charges by trolling state DMV records and more.
From USA Today:
Among those new tactics — detailed in interviews and internal e-mails — were trolling state driver’s license records for information about foreign-born applicants, dispatching U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to traffic safety checkpoints conducted by police departments, and processing more illegal immigrants who had been booked into jails for low-level offenses. Records show ICE officials in Washington approved some of those steps.
2. The Immigration Detention Industry a) Expects to Profit Despite Immigration Reform, b) Is Hiring for Success, c) and Is Buying Football Stadiums
As I reported late last week, the CEO of the country’s largest private prison company reassured investors that immigration reform wouldn’t interrupt their cash flow.
“There’s always going to be a demand for beds,” said Corrections Corporation of America’s Damon Hininger during an investor call. “[ICE’s] profile of detainees in those beds may change over time to where they focus more on what they call ‘criminal aliens’ versus ‘non-criminal aliens.’”
Another way private prison companies ensure they keep getting detainees is by hiring people once responsible for facilitating that flow. David Venturella, an ICE official who crafted some of the emails urging agents to troll DMV records for immigrants with petty offenses (see #1) left the agency in July for a new job at GEO Group, the second largest private prison company in the United States. Well timed, GEO, well timed.
And just in case policy and patronage isn’t enough, Venturella’s new employer is giving away cash in exchange for some shine. On Tuesday news broke that Florida Atlantic University’s football team will soon throw the old pig skin in the newly christened GEO Group Stadium. The 30,000-seater will be renamed in exchange for a $6 million donation from the GOE’s charitable foundation.
3. ICE Targets People Without Criminal Convictions for Detention:
A batch of data released on Wednesday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) once again confirmed that the feds go after undocumented immigrants with no criminal convictions. Between 2008 and the beginning of 2012, only 22 percent of people the federal government detained were convicted of any crime at all. And just 8.6 percent were found guilty of a so-called “level 1” crime.
The report goes on to note that because of how ICE classifies offenses, “it appears likely that far fewer than even this small proportion of 8.6 percent actually would meet the more objective standards of having been convicted of crimes that pose a serious threat to national security or public safety.”
4. ICE Also Detains Hundreds of US Citizens and Thousands of Green-Card Holders Without Convictions
ICE asked local, state and federal jails to hold over 800 United States citizens, according to the TRAC data. Obviously it’s not legal for ICE to detain US citizens, but it happens anyway. Sometimes these people get deported. Four years ago Jaqueline Stevens reported that in its rush to meet deportation quotas, ICE swept up citizens.
The TRAC data also reveal that ICE placed immigration holds on 20,000 legal permanent residents, or green card holders, who had never been convicted of a crime. Permanent residents can be detained and deported if they break the law, and tens of thousands are cast out each year. But green cards are supposed to protect people from facing immigration penalties if they stay out of trouble. ICE got confused about this rule about 20,000 times.
5. ICE Trained County Prosecutors to Help Deport People
Prospecutors with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office—the same place where Joe Arpaio’s still running his own immigration raid brigade—received ICE training last year on how to prosecute to ensure deportation. The Phoenix New Times reportedthat ICE’s assistant chief legal counsel delivered a slide show at a brown bag lunch that essentially outlined for prosecutors how to charge a defendant so their conviction will be a fast track to deportation.
Federal laws include a long list of convictions that lead directly to deportation for non-citizens. If you’re convicted of one of these crimes there’s no defense; you just get deported. But in many cases, prosecutors pick and choose from a laundry list of charges when considering a single crime and only some of those charges lead to mandatory deportation. The ICE presentation enumerates the difference and even provides the attorneys with tips on “Defense Counsel Strategies.” How’s that for efficiency?
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 