racism - WKTV Journal

The Diatribe hosted a live Facebook stream on issues facing the 49507 zip code. (Supplied)

By Sheila McGrath
WKTV Community Contributor

If the community poured as much money into the public health crisis of racism as it poured into the public health crisis of COVID-19, what might the result be?

That question and many more were discussed in a Facebook Live event recently hosted by Marcel ‘Fable’ Price and G. Foster II from The Diatribe, an organization that uses performing arts to raise awareness of social issues.

Fable and Foster posed questions about health care, community and life in South Grand Rapids neighborhoods to a panel that included social workers, health care workers, and community organizers.

Racism has been declared a public health crisis in Grand Rapids, Fable said, but since the city government made that declaration nearly a year ago, what has been done about it?

“We responded to COVID in many ways. Money, pop-up clinics, stimuluses, billboards, millions of dollars in marketing campaigns,” he said. “What would a response to racism as a public health crisis look like if we took it as seriously as COVID?”

“It would mean people are reacting to racism like their lives depend on it,” said Aarie Wade, director of education at Baxter Community Center.

“Like if they don’t attack this, they will die. And their families will die. And generations will die.”

Listening to the community

In addition to Wade, participants on the panel included Chinyere Aririguzo, LMSW, client services supervisor at Health Net of West Michigan; Ashlie Jones, senior program coordinator for the Grand Rapids African American Health Initiative; Nirali Bora, MD, medical director of the Kent County Health Department; Kelsey Perdue, a project director with the Michigan League for Public Policy, and Lee Moyer, director of community programs at Spectrum Health Healthier Communities.

Questions posed in the forum were based on listening sessions hosted by The Diatribe as part of its 49507 Project, an anti-racist project by and for people of color that involves the creation of public murals, writing, and community listening sessions.

Fable said during listening sessions, they were able to listen to more than 400 individuals from the 49507 neighborhood.

“Many residents didn’t feel like our downtown belongs to them, which makes it even more important that we pour into our communities, our neighborhoods,” he said.

Creating more home ownership opportunities

Obstacles to home ownership in the 49507 zip code are a big problem, many of the panelists said, as well as the difficulty of people being able to afford housing in general.

Fable noted that nonprofit organizations own hundreds of homes in the 49507 zip code. He questioned why those couldn’t be given to families, bringing home ownership and stability to those neighborhoods.

Investors and developers buying up properties bring another obstacle, according to Fable.

“How do community members obtain equity if developers are constantly taking control of neighborhoods, and our politicians and community leaders continue to align with them?” he said.

Aririguzo said the requirements for subsidized housing are keeping a lot of people from even being able to live in the neighborhood, such as rules requiring people to be able to come up with three times the amount of the rent to be eligible for assistance.

“If I could make three times the rent, I wouldn’t be looking for subsidized housing, right?” she said. “I would like to see changing the requirements that are supposed to be helping us stay in our neighborhoods.”

Using your vote to get local leaders to listen

The difficulty getting city leaders to listen to the concerns of Black and Brown residents was another topic of discussion. Panel members said that when conversations with city or county leaders did happen, they felt as if leaders were just waiting for them to finish talking so they could give their prepared rebuttals.

Panelists agreed that it’s important to get informed on local candidates running for office in the city of Grand Rapids and Kent County.

“Do your research on candidates, not only when it comes to their political stance but what they’ve done in the past. What does your track record say you’ve done for the city to improve it?” Moyer said. “That will speak volumes.”

“We get wrapped up with the news about Trump vs. Biden, but it’s wildly important to care about these smaller elections,” Fable said.

Real Talk: The Diatribe Livestream can be viewed on the organization’s Facebook page.

“Racism is a white problem, and a black condition.”
CT Vivian

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

“I have known [Pastor] JR [Pittman] for probably 15 years and I was really dumbfounded by the fact that I never really knew what he was going through,” said Wayne Ondersma, pastor of Pier Church.

Ondersma was one of about a dozen people who attended a June backyard gathering hosted by WKTV Journal Community Awareness host Donna Kidner-Smith. The purpose of the meeting, according to Kidner-Smith, was to create an open dialog about racism in the community and how individuals and organizations can help to eliminate it.

Kidner-Smith said she has discovered that for many who are white, it is an eye opening experience to hear what the interactions for those in the black community have been on a day-to-day basis and how those actions were impacting their lives.

JR Pittman, a pastor of Ignite Fellowship Church and host of Ignite Radio, moved to Grand Rapids from Canada in 1973. Pittman’s father would be given the task of planting a church in the area.

“When my dad planted a church here in 1973 in Grand Rapids, God was already designing us [Pittman and his siblings] for such a time as this right now,” Pittman told the group in attendance. “I am telling you it was just amazing because now I can backtrack and see my life and say that this is why I went through here and here and here and here.

“It opened us up to different races, different denominations. All of a sudden we are going to these different churches with white people and black people, you just name it and we were a denominational mutt that we could experience all these different experiences. But something was happening also at an early age. I began to experience West Michigan racism.”

While visiting those different churches, Pittman said he could remember being treated differently and sometimes even being denied entrance due to the color of his family’s skin. Racism would continue to impact Pittman throughout his life, even as he pursued becoming a pastor and was told he needed to fit his story to what was an acceptable narrative by the majority.

“Racism is taught. It is a learned behavior,” Pittman said. “It is modeled and that is how you pick it up or you have an experience in life that brings you to it. And because of what racism has done to the black community, it has conditioned us in a mind set and other areas in our lifestyle and how we go about life and how we see things and do things and that is pretty powerful.”

As Ondersma listened to Pittman’s story, he said he felt this stems to a bigger problem that has caused fractures in the community and especially in the church.

“I am seeing it in the church,” Ondersma said. “The same division and the same separation and I stated at our table meeting that they have said that by 2025 that if the churches continue the way they do, there will be 55,000 denominations in America. This whole separation, this whole individualism, this whole thing is a full race issue.”

Quoting Fred Rogers from the movie “A Beautiful Neighbor,” Ondesma said “You know what my philosophy is?…Every person I talk to matters. They are the most important person I am talking to at the time.

“I think we as a human race have to get the attitude that everyone we are talking to is of utmost importance and we should learn to love them and understand them and know them.”

Kidner-Smith said she hopes the backyard programs she is hosting will inspire others to do the same, hosting open conversations about racism and was pleased to learned that some in the attendance of the June event, such as Kent County Commissioner Betsy Melton, also were planning and have hosted similar programs at their homes.

“We ask you to elevate what you can do in your life, in you circle of influence, in your neighbor to eradicate racism,” Kidner-Smith said. “Let’s get the discussion moving forward, but more that simply just discussion, let’s take positive action.”