'The Pain Is Real Because the Injustice Is Real'
Letter from Our President & CEO
The pain is real because the injustice is real.
As a white woman, I can never truly understand the grief, fear, and despair of my black and brown colleagues and friends. But I know that to be angered by injustice is appropriate and right. I’m angry too.
Look anywhere in our society and you will see the evidence of racial injustice:
in the housing system here in Kent County, where 1 in 6 African-American children is homeless compared to 1 in 130 white children*;
in the education system, where African-American students are more likely to be suspended or arrested than white students;
in the workforce, where African-Americans are underrepresented in leadership positions and overrepresented in unemployment statistics;
in the current pandemic which is disproportionately killing African-Americans right here in Michigan;
and, of course, in news coverage of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others.
The pain is real. The anger is justified. In fact, the anger is necessary.
At the same time, our community expects and needs more from people like me than feelings and words.
Both as a person born into privilege and as the President and CEO of Heart of West Michigan United Way, I have an obligation to use my position to ensure that my organization and my community does better.
In our organization’s core values, we talk about our belief that the strength of our community comes from our diversity. For that reason, we have worked intentionally to cultivate diversity in our staff, our leadership, and on our board of directors. We intentionally direct our Community Grant Fund toward agencies that share this commitment and whose programs serve and empower those who are marginalized.
We are proud of this work — but we want to say, loudly and clearly, that it is not enough.
We have to be honest about this: The day-to-day work we do at Heart of West Michigan United Way, providing grant money to 47 local agencies through our Community Grant Fund, referring callers to resources through 2-1-1, connecting volunteers to needs through our Volunteer Center — none of this is enough to eradicate racism in Kent County.
Eradicating racism cannot be a side project for United Way. If our mission is to reduce poverty here in Kent County, then we can’t ignore the role that racism plays in perpetuating poverty. If we do, we will fail in accomplishing our mission.
To eradicate racism, we have to dig into the slow and heavy work of changing the systems that perpetuate disparities. This is the purpose of the Housing Stability Alliance, facilitated by KConnect, on which I have served for the past year-and-a-half and which is committed to addressing the deep disparities in housing and homelessness here in Kent County at the systems level.
Internally, Heart of West Michigan United Way is examining the way we execute our mission. If what we’ve done in the past hasn’t been enough, then what we do going forward must change. I’ve been talking this week with our board leadership about how we as an organization can reframe our approach to confront racism squarely and directly in our work. We are formulating concrete plans for doing so ahead of our full-board retreat this summer.
The time for putting band-aids on open wounds is long past. Attaining sustainable solutions will require us to change. It won’t be easy. But it’s necessary.
As we refine our new approach, we stand in solidarity with those pushing for change in our community and make the following commitments:
To work to eradicate racism at the systems level.
To produce a concrete plan for incorporating this systems-level work into our programs.
To support, listen to, and amplify the voices of people of color within our organization.
To partner in all of this with our black and brown neighbors so that their talents, perspectives, and priorities lead our work.
As we reflect on the actions we need to take, we invite you to consider taking a few of the actions outlined below. One of the most important actions you can take is to keep us honest. Like our political leadership and the criminal justice system, nonprofit organizations must be held to account for the ways we have failed our neighbors of color.
Progress doesn’t happen by accident. Systems don’t change themselves. Only by confronting the root causes of disparities can we hope to heal them.
A better future is possible. Let’s create it together.
Michelle Van Dyke
President & CEO
Heart of West Michigan United Way
Take Action
Become a Better Ally. White people have a responsibility to stand alongside people of color and actively work to change racially unjust systems. Those who do are called “allies.” Find out what it means and how to do it right.
Use Your Voice. Protest and advocacy are fundamental to democracy, and they can have a powerful impact. Take the first steps by registering to vote. You can also become active at the local level. City and county commission meetings are open to the public by law and are being livestreamed during COVID-19.
Educate Yourself. Positive action starts with learning. The Grand Rapids Public Library has created a list of books exploring racism in America that includes works by Ibram X. Kendi, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Ijeoma Oluo, and others available for download.
Support a Black-Owned Business. Invest in the community you want to see. That means supporting black-owned businesses. From accounting to photography, landscaping to event-planning, restaurants to retail – if you’re looking for it, there’s an African-American business owner who provides it. Explore using the Grand Rapids Area Black Businesses directory.
*Forthcoming numbers from KConnect. To see most recent publicly available data on housing, visit https://k-connect.org/housing/.