Last month, residents of Kalamazoo met for a discussion about race and equality at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Now the project has turned into an oral history exhibit called “Voices for Social Justice.” The display will be up through January 19th.
The exhibit is pretty simple. It’s just a TV screen showing an hours’ worth of interviews from people in Southwest Michigan who make social justice their life’s work. Combine that with comfy chairs, a few plants, and two poster boards of information.
ElsbethInglis is the assistant director for programs at the museum. She says there’s a reason why the exhibit looks so cozy.
“We set this up as a place for conversation because every single one of our interviewees said, ‘You know what we need to do to go forward? We need to sit down at the table and talk to each other,’” says Inglis.
Inglis says Southwest Michigan still has a long way to go in terms of equity. She says minorities still have problems getting access to equal housing and education. Studies also show that African-Americans in Kalamazoo have higher rates of infant mortality and are more likely to be profiled by police.
J.R. Reynolds does racial equity work in Battle Creek and is a social justice columnist for the Battle Creek Enquirer. He also does some freelance work for WMUK. Reynolds says the demographics in Southwest Michigan have changed in the past 50 years, and so has racism.
“There are mechanisms in place that create barriers for persons of color. And it’s those systems that are in place that are the major challenge," says Reynolds. "It’s not the individual who may think one way or another about a person.”
But how do we begin to fix a huge problem like institutional racism in places like work and school?
“The short answer is: you affect change one person at a time,” says Reynolds. “The challenge though is having enough people within the organization so that you can begin to address the issues, get support from management, and create change.”
There are already some organizations that are helping to start these conversations in workplaces and schools – like the Calhoun Race Impact Alliance and ERAC/CEwhich stands for Eliminating Racism and Claiming/Celebrating Equality.
But starting conversations about race on your own can be much harder. Lisa Brock is the academic director of the ArcusCenter for Social Justice Leadershipat Kalamazoo College. Brock says white people must brave enough to listen to what people from all minority groups have to say.
“We have to enter these spaces with the idea that we don’t know everything," says Brock. "We’re all vulnerable. We all make errors. We all make mistakes. If we make a mistake and someone says, you know, ‘that didn’t feel right to me,’ to say ‘I’m sorry.’ You’d be surprised how far ‘I’m sorry’ goes.”
