An archival history of the early political organizing efforts by the Grand Rapids LGBTQ community – Part II
In Part I, I looked at the people from Grand Rapids who went to the LGBT march on Washington in 1987, how that was a catalyst for the creation of the Lesbian and Gay Community Network of Western Michigan. I also looked at archival records to show that one of the first priorities of The Network, was to organize a Pride Celebration in Grand Rapids.
In today’s post, I will explore the documented correspondence between The Network and the Mayor of Grand Rapids regarding the first years of the Pride Celebration in Grand Rapids and why the Mayor did not support the celebration.
As you can see from the Grand Rapids Press front page headline, Mayor Helmholt refused to endorse the first ever Pride Celebration in Grand Rapids or write a proclamation for the event.
Undeterred, The Network sent Mayor Helmholt a letter in March of 1989, asking if he would support the 2nd Annual Pride Celebration in Grand Rapids with a proclamation. Mayor Helmholt responded in a letter, stating that his position had not changed and in fact was affirmed by the letters and phone calls he received supporting his decision.
Members of The Network also attended a City Commission meeting on June 6, 1989, asking for the proclamation. The Network Newsletter documented that event and cited several members who spoke during the commission meeting. Network members reminded the Mayor that this was the then 20th Anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and that Gay and Lesbians deserved equal rights and recognition. Rev. Bruce Roller responded to Helmholt’s denial for a Mayor Proclamation by saying, “I’m real angry and real tired of having our God’s name used to oppress lesbians and gays.”
In that same issue of the Network News the group pointed out that Mayor Helmholt had granted at least 119 proclamations since the group’s first request in 1988. Among the groups/events that Helmholt wrote proclamations for were: Michigan Beverage News Week, Family Sexuality Education Month, Polish Heritage Month, National Roofing Week and Bozo Show Day.
Since Mayor Helmholt refused to make a proclamation in support of a Grand Rapids Pride Celebration, The Network crafted their own and read it during Pride 1989.
One interesting outcome of The Network’s efforts to challenge Mayor Helmholt to fully support a Pride Celebration in Grand Rapids, was a letter that the Mayor of Holland, Michigan sent to The Network supporting their decision to have a Pride Celebration, stating that this was a fight for civil rights, which he supported. The kind of support offered by the Mayor of Holland also included a list of supporters, which was archived in this document from The Network.
Lastly, it is worth noting that because the members of The Network were so well organized, they forced Grand Rapids City officials and residents to accept not only future Pride Celebrations, but the fundamental rights that those in the LGBTQ community deserved.
(Above GR Press article was from June 18. 1989, featuring comments from Bryan Ribbens, Jeff Swanson and Holly VanScoy.)
In Part III, I will look at the effort to get the City of Grand Rapids to expand their anti-discrimination ordinance to finally include sexual orientation as something that could not be matter of discriminated.
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of June 9th
It has been 8 months since the Israeli government began their most recent assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated to what the international community has called genocide, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. We will also provide information on local events and actions that people can get involved in. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
Jabalia’s Mass Graves Are a Lesson in Horror
America’s “bounce the rubble” lawmakers want to punish ICC
Leading Jewish Group to Biden: Backing Israel’s War on Gaza Puts ‘US Democracy in Danger’
Israeli bombing kills dozens sheltering at UN school
Democrats Are Welcoming a Genocidal War Criminal to DC
Israel Used US-Made Bombs in Deadly Attack on UNRWA School
‘Horrific’: Israel’s War on Gaza Also Destroying the Climate, Study Finds
Israel unleashes “unprecedented bloodshed” in West Bank
Analysis & History
Debunking Israeli Propaganda in Rafah
RAFAH CLASH EXPOSES ROOTS OF EGYPT AND ISRAEL TENSION
Che Guevara in Gaza: Palestine becomes a Global Cause
Local Events and Actions
Power to Palestine: Weekly Rally in Grand Rapids
Wednesday, June 12 6pm – 7pm, Monument Park
A meme that has been around for several years now, which usually is shared by people during an upcoming election cycle, has been showing up in my social media feed quite a bit lately.
The meme uses the colors of an LGBTQ+ flag, with the following text:
Don’t tell someone you love them, and then vote for someone who will hurt them.
I get the intent and the sentiment that comes with this meme, although I think it is problematic.
Clearly, the meme was created to specifically center those who identify as LGBTQ+. Additionally, if you have a relationship with someone who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community, you say that you love them or that you care about them, then it would follow that you would not vote for someone who would do harm to them. The harm in this case would be to support public policy that would do harm to the LGBTQ+ community.
Seems simple enough. You should not vote for someone who will promote public policy that is inherently homophobic or anti-trans. However, there is also something that is implied in this meme, which often means that you should never vote for a Republican, but voting for a Democrat means you won’t do harm to the LGBTQ+ community.
The problem I have with this sentiment and this logic is two fold. First, just voting for Democrats doesn’t mean that they won’t do harm to the LGBTQ+ community. Second, memes such as these are too narrowly focused on “gay politics”, when we know that the LGBTQ+ community is extremely diverse. There are those in the LGBTQ+ community that are also Black, Latinx, immigrants, Palestinian, Jewish, working class, unhoused, etc.
This is the problem with narrow identify politics, since it doesn’t consider the totality of individuals and communities.
For example, according to the site Liberation:
Just three weeks into 2024, the Trans Legislation Tracker website is already tracking 308 active bills — including 38 bills at the national level — that attempt to deprive transgender Americans of the few legal protections they have and to introduce a slew of new restrictions targeting their most basic rights, including the right to access necessary and life-saving health care, to have their identities legally recognized, to practice their culture, to engage in sport, and even to access public spaces like bathrooms.
The article goes on to note:
At the national level, Democrats have been scarcely better champions of LGBTQ rights. Biden pledged to pass the Equality Act in his first 100 days in office, which would ban discrimination against LGBTQ people across wide swaths of U.S. public life. Three years later, it has yet to come to a vote in the Senate. Meanwhile, last year Biden’s own Education Department made anti-trans changes to Title IX, which mandates gender equality in sports programs. LGBTQ people denounced these changes as a “roadmap” for bigots to discriminate against them.
The Democrats, which cast themselves as the champions for many minorities, including LGBTQ people, are continuing to prove that they will not even be fair-weather friends to queer people as the far-right attacks get worse, and increasingly see us as a political liability.
When we look at a who range of other identities of those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, we can also see that you shouldn’t vote for people who will do them hard. Here are several examples of who you shouldn’t vote for because it will harm people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
- You shouldn’t vote for candidates who want to maintain or increase the level of funding for cops, since police departments across the US disproportionately target and kill BIPOC people.
- You shouldn’t vote for candidates who want to further criminalize immigrants, many of whom come to the US in the first place because of the economic and military policies the US imposes on their countries of origin.
- You shouldn’t vote for candidates that adopt support policies that criminalize the unhoused, perpetuate housing insecurity or don’t support rent control.
- You shouldn’t vote for candidates that unconditionally support Israel, Israel’s current genocidal campaign against the Palestinians and the longstanding Israeli occupation of Palestine.
- You shouldn’t vote for candidates that support Corporate welfare, that support tax policies that benefit the rich and punish working class people, that support using public to dollars to underwrite development projects that will primarily benefit those in the Capitalist Class, and those that support the growing wealth gap between the 1% and the rest of us.
- You shouldn’t vote for candidates that support subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, that support the expansion of oil pipelines, mining, corporate agriculture, those who don’t support a growing shift to mass transit or community control of renewable energy sources, since all of these things perpetuate Climate Change.
- You shouldn’t vote for candidates that continue to support a massive US military budget ($886 Billion for 2025), since we could significantly reduce that budget and redirect it for housing, renewal energy, education and health care.
- You shouldn’t vote for candidates that support continue colonial and settler colonial policies that impact Indigenous people currently living in the US or Indigenous people living in other countries that the US has relationships with and particularly countries where the US has military bases.
These are just a few examples of how voting for candidates will do harm to BIPOC, immigrant, working class, non-Christian faith, and those with disabilities who are also LGBTQ+ people. Don’t tell someone you love them and then vote for people who will sure as hell do them harm!
Instead of condemning Biden’s new immigration asylum policy, Rep. Scholten justifies it, then blames Republicans
On Tuesday, President Biden announced new restrictions on immigrants seeking asylum in the US. As Biden stood near the border, along with Governor’s of border states, he said:
Today, I’m announcing actions to bar migrants who cross our southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum. Migrants will be restricted from receiving asylum at our southern border unless they seek it after entering through an established lawful process.
And those who seek — come to the United States legally — for example, by making an appointment and coming to a port of entry — asylum will still be available to them — still available. But if an individual chooses not to use our legal pathways, if they choose to come without permission and against the law, they’ll be restricted from receiving asylum and staying in the United States.
This action will help us to gain control of our border, restore order to the process.
What most news agencies have not reported or discussed, is that this new policy that Biden has implemented will further criminalize immigrants and cause more of them to die.
Biden is invoking Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which was previously used by former President Donald Trump, which sparked numerous legal challenges. In fact, the deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, Lee Gelernt, said of Biden’s restrictive asylum policy: “This is not a ‘win’—it’s a monstrosity. Asylum is a human right.”
Demonstrating her standard party loyalty, Rep. Scholten released a statement – see below – which not only justified Biden’s repressive asylum policy, the Congresswoman then blamed the failure to adopt a more comprehensive immigration policy.
The fact of the matter is that after the 2020 Presidential victory of Biden, along with gaining control of the US House for the next two years, the Democratic Party failed to adopt a progressive and justice immigration policy. When Rep. Scholten was elected, the Republicans had a majority in the US House. Scholten can blame the Republicans all she wants, but her Party and her President will be presiding over more deportations and more undocumented immigrants in cages, similar to what happened with former Presidents Trump and Obama.
The bipartisan immigration legislation that Rep. Scholten is referring to is the Dignity Act, which GRIID has previously critiqued. The Dignity Act has some positive elements to it, but it also has an emphasis on enforcement, which Scholten spoke to. She said, “Crossings have increased, but so has enforcement. Border agents do have adequate technology resources, which means more enforcement.” Rep. Scholten discussed the need to enforce the existing US immigration laws, but failed to bring up the issue of why so many people are fleeing Mexico and Central American, to come to the US.
Scholten also talked about having bipartisan support for the Dignity Act, specifically with Rep; Salas from Florida. However, the Dignity Act is not Comprehensive Immigration Reform, nor does it address more structural elements of root causes of immigration, such as the US role in supporting military and trade policies in Latin America that have destabilized most of the region, along with the fact that more and more people are being displaced and forced to flee their homelands because of Climate Change. (See Todd Miller’s excellent book, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security.)
For a more robust critique of Biden’s new asylum policy, listen to journalist John Washington who was recently interviewed on Democracy Now! Or you can read his latest book, The Case for Open Borders, published by Haymarket Books.
John Washington on Democracy Now! – “But what we do know is that we see again that President Biden has been willing to turn his back to a lot of the campaign promises, a lot of the initial policies that he tried to put forward, and is not upholding asylum or not engaging in the effort to restore asylum as he promised. And we know that the effects are going to be excruciating and likely deadly on people who are trying to seek asylum and who are some of the most vulnerable people in the world right now.”
At last week’s Mackinac Policy Conference Gov. Whitmer presented a False Solution to the housing crisis
Every year the Mackinac Policy Conference happens, bringing together politicians and various elites from around the state. You can see the list of speakers during the conference last week, a conference that was organized by the Detroit Chamber of Commerce.
This was the setting for comments from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, comments she made about housing. MLive reported on what Gov. Whitmer had to say last week, providing some context and then a comment from Whitmer:
Whitmer, speaking Wednesday at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island, said the new goal – an increase of 53% – will help make home ownership more affordable by increasing supply.
“By raising our statewide housing goal to 115,000 units, we will build more housing to drive down costs and ensure every Michigander has a safe, affordable place to call home,” Whitmer said.
What Whitmer presented to a room full of politicians and private sector elites was essentially a false solution. False solutions are those that do not actually address the problem at hand substantially but deceive people into believing that they do, while at the same time triggering other serious problems.
The market, meaning the system of Capitalism, will never be able to solve the housing crisis, primarily because housing operates within a Capitalist system. This has been true throughout US history and became painfully clear during the 2007 – 2008 financial crisis. In fact, if we follow Whitmer’s recipe for housing, the crisis will only get worse, since under a market-based housing model, the crisis will be perpetual.
Now, I don’t know if Governor Whitmer actually believes that the Capitalist market will actually solve the problem or if she knew that this is what the business people, the powerful people who were in the room wanted to hear. For the Governor to say it for the people in the room makes complete sense, since many of them were large campaign donors that helped her get elected.
So, what would a real solution look like? What we need to see at the state level is one of the demands laid out by the Rent is Too Damn High coalition. This coalition is proposing the state spend $4 billion for social housing in FY25 state budget. The Rent is Too Damn High calls this Social Housing.
“Social housing is a public option for housing that is permanently affordable, protected from the private market, and publicly owned by the government or under democratic community control by non-profit and cooperative entities. Around the world, robust social housing programs have ended affordable housing shortages; expanded democratic accountability and equitable housing access; and raised populations out of poverty and into prosperity.” Social housing is built to house people well, rather than deliver a profit to developers & managers. States and municipalities in the US are initiating social housing programs anchored by a new generation of public-sector housing development agencies.
We support a $4 billion state infusion into social housing, to be administered regionally by public developers. This amount could directly support approximately 40-50,000 new social housing units, which would make significant progress towards the state-established goal of building 75,000 total new homes over the next 5 years.”
Adopting a solution to the housing crisis by funding social housing with public funds would be widely embraced and it would take away the profitability of some of the housing market. In addition, it would send a message to the public that housing is primarily a right and not a mechanism to make profits for developers or part of speculative capital, which ultimately drives the cost of housing.
Lastly, it is worth noting that the sponsors of the Mackinac Policy Conference was a broad representation of Corporate America, which you can see here. Clearly the conference is designed for those with deep pockets and easy access to politicians, not regular people, working people, communities of color and those most affected by the housing crisis. Big Gretch once again demonstrated who she owes her allegiance.
Last night some 30 high school students came to the Grand Rapids Public School Board meeting to make several demands.
The Student Association for Leadership and Transformation (SALT), which is essentially a student union met at Martin Luther King Jr. Park before the school board meeting to talk about their action, to affirm their commitment to the work they all set out to do, and to conducted interviews with several of the local news media outlets.
When the time came, the SALT students marched from MLK Park to the Grand Rapids Public School Administration building, carry signs and shouting out chants that reflected the four demands they were going to present. The four demands they presented are:
- Immediately increase the Grand Rapids Education Association staff and teacher salary to the county average. As GRPS students, many of us have been impacted by the teacher shortage in recent years. To feel supported, we need consistent teachers who can develop an engaged learning environment and build long-term relationships with us. Right now, teacher pay in GRPS is low compared to other districts, which makes it hard to maintain current teachers, much less replace folks who are retiring or fill vacancies. Increased compensation would encourage more qualified, certified, and culturally appropriate teachers to want to work in GRPS, and help create a positive experience for us. It would also support both the mental health of us as students and our teachers- teacher working conditions are student learning conditions. We want to learn in an environment where our teachers are cared for so they can better care for us.
- Terminate the virtual learning contract with Elevate K-12 and invest in certified teachers. Many of our peers fell behind during the COVID-19 pandemic with virtual learning. Currently, about $5M is being spent on virtual teachers and staff monitoring the classroom that should be re-invested in long-term qualified staff and educators. We need in-person teachers who can understand the local context of our schools and help us feel connected to our school community. We need teachers who have classrooms we can stop by between classes or after school for one-on-one support and advice, which isn’t possible with virtual teachers.
- Implement 1 hour daily of non-core instruction (i.e. PE, music, art, language) for elementary students. When we were in elementary school, we loved going to specials like gym and music. We believe all GRPS elementary students deserve access to these kinds of learning opportunities because they allow us to express ourselves in different ways- ways that can’t always be captured with a pen and paper. These classes help us discover our skills and passions, build community with other students and learn to work together and resolve conflicts, and support our confidence early on. This time also allows our teachers to have planning and preparation time, which helps them feel less overworked and more able to help younger students learn.
- Immediate transparency of the GRPS and GREA bargaining process. SALT students have noted how in other districts and places community members are allowed to attend the conversations, which we think is a great idea for community and district engagement. We have noticed that we aren’t often included in decisions that impact our learning and school experience- and neither are our families or other adults in the community who care about us. We would like to see union negotiations be more public, so that everyone can understand how these decisions are being made. We know that transparency and accountability are values that GRPS would like to model, and this is an example of a way that could happen, and would also be an important learning and advocacy opportunity for us as students. Transparency on the GREA and GRPS bargaining process enables student and community support around district decisions and promotes community engagement and accessibility.
The SALT students arrive at the school board meeting a full 30 minutes prior to the scheduled meeting time. The GRPS School Board President stated that there were a lot of people who had submitted public comment cards, but then said that since so many had, they were going to reduce public comment time from 3 minutes to 2 minutes for each person. This action seemed rather arbitrary and unethical.
Despite the reduction in public comment time, the students who got up to speak were amazing and inspiring. In fact, they sounded like seasoned union members, since they use words like bargaining power, negotiations, wage increases and one student even referred to the GRPS’s overuse of substitute teachers and virtual teachers as scabs. Just listen to the comments of one of the students, Gabe Jauw, who also acted as one of the media spokespersons for this action.
More than a dozen other students got up to speak, sometimes repeating the demands, but mostly speaking from their hearts and their lived experience as students, particularly about the value of having a teacher available to them in person and not on a screen. There were also several parents and other community members who addressed some of the same issues, and several people affirmed the words of the students.
These students kept saying all during the meeting that they are the future, which of course they most certainly are. Now, I don’t know if the GRPS School Board members were truly listening or taking their message to heart, but I do know that any of the students who are part of SALT certainly will have the capacity to do great things in life. Unfortunately, on one of the 4 demands presented by the SALT students, the GRPS board voted 5 – 3 to renew a $2.4 million contract with the company providing virtual education.
Financing the corporate expansion of Fossil Fuel companies: New report says Line 5 operator Enbridge tops the list
The notorious fossil fuel corporation Enbridge, was one of the main culprits in a new report published by the Indigenous Environmental Network, entitled, Banking on Climate Chaos: Fossil Finance Report 2024.
The report provides some pretty sobering findings, such as:
- The 60 biggest banks globally committed $705 B USD to companies conducting business in fossil fuels in 2023, bringing the total since the Paris agreement to $6.9 Trillion.
- These banks committed $347 billion in 2023 and $3.3 trillion total since 2016 to expansion companies – those companies that the Global Oil & Gas Exit List and the Global Coal Exit List report having expansion plans.
- In 2023, JPMorgan Chase ranks #1 as the worst financier of fossil fuels. The bank increased its financing from $38.7 billion in 2022 to $40.8 billion in 2023.
The introduction of the report provides us with an important way of thinking about the urgency of massive reduction in the use of fossil fuels, which includes an end to the financing of more fossil fuel exploration, along with the expansion of new fossil fuel pipelines. The introduction states:
The fossil fuel industry continues doing its best to ignore the facts, evidenced by their reckless expansion plans (see p. 52) and rollbacks on their already weak climate commitments. Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels increased in 2023, following increases in 2022.
And 2023 was the hottest year on record, with an average global surface temperature 1.4°C above 19th century averages.
Climate impacts are intensifying: 2023 saw heat waves, droughts, stronger storms, atmospheric rivers, flooding, record low global sea ice, tropical cyclones, and a global wildfire crisis. These impacts could quadruple heat deaths and create food insecurity for over half a billion people on the planet.
Unless action is taken now, it’s estimated that climate change will kill an additional 250,000 people annually, especially in areas deprived of adaptive infrastructure. Without drastic cuts in fossil fuels, the climate will reach a catastrophic 3°C of warming by 2100.
The report lists the fossil fuel corporations that have the largest expansion plans and right at the top is the Canadian-based corporation Enbridge, which operates Line 5 in Michigan and is attempting to build a tunnel under the Great Lakes for part of the Line 5 pipeline. Enbridge received bank financing to the tune of $35 Billion to expand their empire and perpetuate fossil fuel consumption and increasing the climate crisis.
When Gretchen Whitmer first campaigned to be the Governor of Michigan in 2018, she promised to shut down the Enbridge operated Line 5. Whitmer, like so many politicians, has not kept that promise to dismantle the necessary infrastructure that perpetuates fossil fuel consumption.
The only feasible was to stop fossil fuel corporations and the banks that finance them is to engage in massive campaigns of direct action to shut them down. We know that this can work. The Indigenous Environmental Network documented the impact of direct action campaigns – primarily led by Indigenous people – stating in a 2021 report: “Indigenous-led resistance campaigns against pipelines in the US and Canada have reduced greenhouse gas pollution by at least 25% annually since these campaigns began.” Maybe we need to learn from those on the front lines of the resistance and start embracing the collective power we could have if we chose to use direct action before it’s too late.
An archival history of the early political organizing efforts by the Grand Rapids LGBTQ community – Part I
As we documented in our 2011 film on the history of the LGBTQ community in Grand Rapids, there were various ways that people supported each other and created community in the very homophobic climate of West Michigan.
However, by 1987 more and more people within the LGBTQ community began to realize that they would need to join the larger national movement and get politically organized to demand their own rights in Grand Rapids. In October of 1987, several people from Grand Rapids decided to attend the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
You can see in the photos above that Grand Rapids was represented in that march, which included bringing their own banner. Being at that march also signaled to those who attended from Grand Rapids, that they need to get organized and create a movement in the heteronormative culture that is West Michigan.
Shortly after the 1987 march on Washington, people in Grand Rapids began to have meetings to talk about the creation of the what would become the Lesbian and Gay Community Network of Western Michigan, also known as The Network. Most of the meetings to form The Network took place in the home of Jeff Swanson and Dennis Komack, pictured here below.
With the creation of the Lesbian and Gay Community Network of Western Michigan, the members decided that organizing a Pride Celebration would be their first public act. The Lesbian and Gay Community Network of Western Michigan, along with Dignity and Aradia organized the first ever Pride Celebration in Grand Rapids in June of 1988. The event featured speakers, poetry, music and numerous Lesbian and Gay organizations, which were tabling at the event. The Pride Celebration was held at the old Monroe Amphitheater in downtown Grand Rapids.
In Part II, I will explore the documented correspondence between The Network and the Mayor of Grand Rapids regarding the first years of the Pride Celebration in Grand Rapids.
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of June 2nd
It has been almost 8 months since the Israeli government began their most recent assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated to what the international community has called genocide, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. We will also provide information on local events and actions that people can get involved in. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
Israel Is Starving Gazan Children to Death
Biden admits Israel’s defeat in Gaza
Following ICJ and ICC Actions, Sanctions and Arms Embargo Are Crucial Next Steps
Beyond two state solution – Why recognizing the State of Palestine is important
To Continue The Gaza Genocide, Israel And The US Must Destroy The Laws Of War
Congress’ Dangerous Dance: Defending Israel or the First Amendment
Biden’s Bloody-Red Line in Rafah
Block the Boat: End maritime arms transfer to Israel
Analysis & History
“I Was Shocked”: Meet the State Dept. Official Who Quit After Report Denies Israel Blocking Gaza Aid
Why a military embargo is needed – (an excellent detailed investigation of the various weapons being provided to Israel, mostly from the US. Make sure you click on the word next in the lower right hand corner of this link)
Local Events and Actions
Power to Palestine: Weekly Rally in Grand Rapids
Wednesday, June 5 12pm – 1pm, Monument Park
https://www.facebook.com/events/460837339687317?ref=newsfeed
Graphic used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/original-villages-of-gazas-refugees/
This is the introduction to my latest book, Radical Grand Rapids: Places, dates, actions and people. This book is a companion to my A People’s History of Grand Rapids. I hope to have it printed and available this September, so stay tuned!
Introduction
The word radical has numerous meanings, but one of the most important is, to get to the root of something.
With the title, Radical Grand Rapids, I want to get to the root of things, both in terms of highlighting major aspects of the history of this city — Settler Colonialism, Racial Capitalism and White Supremacy — plus I want to share stories of when organized people took action to address systems of power and oppression. This is what I mean by getting to the root of something, getting to the root of oppression.
The book is divided into four sections, places, dates, actions and people. With these four sections, I want to briefly illuminate how organized people have fought back against oppression and organized money.
In his insightful book, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong, radical historian James Loewen takes us on an enlightening tour of the US and examines historical markers in big cities and small towns to examine the lens through which history is presented.
Grand Rapids also has many historical markers, especially in the downtown area, most of which have been sanctioned by Grand Rapids City officials or by other entities that are reflective of those who run this city. I challenge some of those historical markers, but I also share stories that can change how we see spaces in Grand Rapids. I want people to know that organized actions have taken places in these spaces, actions that were radical, in order to give people a new way of experiencing those spaces as places of resistance and liberation.
In her book, Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation, Ruth Wilson Gilmore says, “Abolition geography starts from the homely premise that freedom is a place.” Building on Wilson’s notion of abolition geographies, we can then understand the importance of mapping the political, social, and economic terrain of Grand Rapids. Therefore, I am arguing that freedom and liberation can be a place, but it can also be about dates, actions, and people.
I am only including forty places, dates, actions and people in this short book, since many more stories of the powerful and radically imaginative actions that people have taken in Grand Rapids over the past two centuries are explored in my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids. I want show people, especially young people, that when we take radical actions, we open spaces for people, and we allow them to radically imagine that another world is possible.
Radical Grand Rapids also includes images from various actions, documents, and archival resources that communicate their own stories and messages beyond the printed word.
I hope that people will be inspired by the stories in this book and then make some of their own, thus building on the rich tradition of radical organizing that has been part of this mostly suppressed and radical history of what we call home.
Photo credit: Barb Lester – from a protest at the Gerald R. Ford building in downtown Grand Rapids in the mid-1980s.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 