The Third Annual “Future of the Black Community” summit was held Tuesday night at the Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids. The annual event—attended by over one hundred people—sought to highlight solutions to the problems facing the black community and to develop a set of recommendations for how the black community can address the problems facing their community. Among the recommendations were to create a directory of black businesses, to prioritize the concerns of youth and to use them as organizing issues, and to educate the community about the programs in the community that work. The organizers hoped that the forum would encourage people to get involved in the community and to work towards real solutions. In the vein of promoting self-sufficiency within the African-American community, the forum was sponsored by the Urban Beanery Café along with the Messiah Baptist Men’s Ministry and the Diversity Learning Center of Grand Rapids Community College.
The forum began with a panel featuring youth leaders and a discussion on the priorities of black youth in Grand Rapids. The panelists all emphasized the need for action and improved organizing that targets the youth in black community with a particular focus on improving the education system. Calvin student Joshua VanWatson told the audience that more black men are locked up than in college and told the audience that there is a need for more college preparation work within the black community. Similarly, Oscar Perry explained the need for innovative programs in schools that can reach youth with technology and to connect with them on their own terms in order to generate increased interest in education. Panelist Azzizi Jasper also reminded the audience of the importance of combating the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) and told them that the MCRI will make or break African-Americans in Michigan. Rodney Brown, a local teacher and minister, encouraged the black community to adopt what he termed “strategic strategy” and to start asking the questions “what happens if,” asking the audience to consider what the community is going to do if the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative passes or what to do if DeVos wins the governor’s race (or for that matter what to do if Granholm wins). He urged organizers to devise a strategy that will empower black people in Grand Rapids and to abandon those tactics that are either not contributing to or are detrimental to such a strategy.
The night was divided into two panels—the youth panel and the “established leaders” panel featuring long-time community leaders—a divide that echoed what some consider to be a generational divide within the black community with the hip-hop generation on one side and the civil rights generation on the other. Azzizi Jasper brought up this divide early in the evening when he explained the need to look at black leadership and to distinguish between black leaders and leading blacks. This issue was touched on later in the discussion when panelist Jerry Bishop explained that leadership in the black community can become complacent and that it is the duty of the current leadership to nurture up-and-coming leaders in order to develop leadership within the community. To this end, he argued that it was important for youth to develop a strong work ethic so that they are worthy of a seat at the table, but if they are not given that seat, they have a right to take it. Rodney Brown supported these comments by stating that youth have to get involved and to ignore those elders that unjustly criticize them for their lifestyles. This inter-generational divide was also highlighted in a discussion of the role of the black church and its continued role as an agent for social change. Brown argued that the faith community has become involved in political issues that have nothing to do with social justice and made the point that they should only become involved in politics for social change. Jasper highlighted this divide when he stated that black pastors need to be held accountable for their complacency and silence on a variety of issues facing the black community, and in particular told the audience that if their church says the answer to violence in the community is to “pray about it” that it is time to look for another church. Jerry Bishop acknowledged that the church deserves some of the blame, but asserted that the church cannot take all of the blame when people are making the decision to blame the church and purchase consumer goods rather than building up institutions for change.
Following the youth leaders panel, an “established leaders” panel featuring community leaders addressing issues relating to the status of the black community. This second panel identified a number of priorities for Grand Rapids that in some cases overlapped with those identified by the preceding youth panel. Among the issues emphasized were education, with multiple members of the panel stressing the importance of parental involvement in the school system, the importance of Christianity, the need to teach job and leadership skills to youth, the unjust criminal system, strengthening families, and the importance of economic development in the African-American community. In keeping with the theme of the night, the panelists highlighted ways in which the community can address these issues. As a means of strengthening families, Chana Verley emphasized the need for programs to address family wellness and to promote marriage as family stability within the African-American community is essential to address many underlying economic issues. Several panelists discussed the fact that education needs to be made “hip” so that students will want to learn in school. To do this, panelists suggested culturally relevant curriculum and teaching history that presents the achievements of Africans and African-Americans in order to provide inspiration to youth. Similarly, the audience was told to support black businesses and to consider solutions such as pooling their money into their own banks to avoid the discriminatory lending practices at many banks in the Grand Rapids area. In order to address these issues—many which involve more systemic changes—the panelists encourage the audience to get organized as a community and to develop a concrete plan of where to go and the steps that need to be taken. Ellen James reminded the audience that the black community has a good record of showing up when needed but that they need to expand the frequency of this political participation.
