The Momentum Center in Grand Haven is creating racism in our community. It is being sponsored and paid for by many well-respected businesses and organizations in our community. It is partially funded with tax dollars and the Momentum Center has many connections to the Grand Haven Area Public Schools. This is a lot to cover so it will be broken into three separate articles.
Part 1 – The Momentum Center is Creating Racism
Part 2 – The Momentum Center Government Connections and Sponsors
Part 3 – The Momentum Center Volunteers and Connections to Grand Haven Area Public Schools
The Momentum Center in Grand Haven has an anti-racism task force. They support a number of initiatives, most of which have to do with urging the Ottawa County Commissioners and other public officials to allocate funding in support of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. In addition to working to influence the direction of Ottawa County and funding distributed by the city and county, they are hosting monthly town hall meetings where community members can participate in discussions on racism.
Surveys taken at the beginning and end of the town hall meetings show that most of the participants believe racism is always present in our community because it is systemic. One goal of the town hall meetings is to make participants more comfortable talking about race, but what actually ends up happening is participants learn that white people are racist, have special privilege, need to learn to decolonize their thinking, and need to look within themselves to examine their implicit bias.
Here are links to many of the town halls.
Town Hall Meeting on Talking about Racism (October 5, 2020)
Public Health and Racial Justice Part 1 (October 7, 2020)
Public Health and Racial Justice Part 2
Town Hall on Racism and the Educational System (Dec 2020)
Town Hall Meeting on Racism and the Media (Dec 2020)
Town Hall Meeting on Racism and Ethnic Intimidation (Dec 2020)
Racism and the Educational System Final
Town Hall Meeting on Racism and the Justice System Part 1 (New) (February)
Town Hall Racism and the Justice System Part 1: Mass Incarceration and the School-to-Prison Pipeline (Feb 2021)
Town Hall: Racism and the Justice System Part 2 (March)
April Town Hall Race and Racism in the Justice System: Returning Citizens
Town Hall: Racism in the Justice System Part 4: Local Law Enforcement (May)
October Town Hall: Racism and Religion Part 1
November Town Hall: Racism and Religion Part 2
December Town Hall: Racism and Religion Part 3
January Town Hall: Religion and Racism Part IV: Native and Indigenous Peoples
Although perhaps creating more “white guilt” than anything else, several of the meetings begin with the Land Acknowledgement Statement which you can hear for yourself at the 2 min 40 second mark of the November Town Hall: Racism and Religion Part 2.
“We recognize the people of the three fires. The Ojibwe, Ottawa and Potawatomi. Peoples on who’s land we are gathered. The three fires people are indigenous to this land which means that this is their ancestral territory. Every university, congregation, institution, business and monument here in West Michigan is built on stolen native land. We are the guests on their land, and one way to practice race relations is to develop genuine ways to acknowledge the histories and the traditions of the peoples who originated here first. Who are still here, to tend to the land always. As we make this land acknowledgement, we know it is but an important first step. There are many more we need to as we engage in the important work of social justice and equity.”
There are so many examples of racism being created in the above videos as they focus on “white folks”, who just can’t relate to the race experiences of people of color. They discuss white power and privilege, and that you can either be a racist or an anti-racist, but you can’t just can’t not be a racist person. They connect Covid deaths to race and determine that the system is racist because of the number of black people that have been negatively impacted by Covid. They state that race is a social construct and look at all aspects of society through a racial lens.
Although most of the guest speakers blame white people for the suffering of people of other races, some of them have done legitimate work in fields that relate to race such as the two panelists Honorable Judge Gregory Pittman and Matt Tjapkes from Humanity for Prisoners in the town hall Racism and the Justice System Part 2
Both of these guests relate their work to race, but have very insightful observations that deserve attention. Unfortunately, their insight is lost to many in the public as the anti-racism task force is largely focused on white power and privilege. This becomes even more clear when browsing their recommended reading list which consists of titles such as The Construction of Whitness: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Race Formation and the Meaning of a White Identity and The New Jim Crow.
Although the volunteers of the anti-racism task force believe they are helping the community and reducing racism, they are actually doing the opposite. The majority of the speakers come to the same conclusion; White people are to blame for the suffering experienced by people of color and other ethnicities. In the Racism and Religion series the conclusion is that white Christian people are responsible for the suffering experienced by people of all other religions.
Studying people of different races, religion, sexual orientation or economic status is perfectly acceptable, but the second those differences are generalized and related to power and privilege, those teachings become racist. Therefore, this well-intentioned group is unknowingly passing on the teachings of Carl Marx.
These Marxist teachings work to divide societies. The wider these teachings spread, the wider the division within our society becomes. We must stand together to stop the spread of this toxic philosophy through our community and our school system.