Uniting for racial equity, before and after the election

Photo of organizer Ellen Fred by Kelly House / Bridge Magazine

From staff reports

You’ve seen the full-page advertisements this fall in local newspapers including the Glen Arbor Sun and the Leelanau Enterprise (the County’s weekly paper of record)—advertisements declaring “it’s time to deal with our racism problem”, shining a spotlight on County Commissioners whose diversions complicated the body’s effort to pass an anti-racism resolution, explaining that the “Black Lives Matter” movement doesn’t mean “Only Black Lives Matter”, and quoting the late Congressman and Civil Rights icon John Lewis.

Those advertisements were purchased by the Northwest Michigan United for Racial Equity Committee, which formed following the racist tirade by a disgraced former Leelanau County Road Commissioner that gave the county a black eye, nationally. According to committee organizer Ellen Fred, an attorney who lives outside of Cedar, the ads sought to “educate and raise awareness around” issues of racism in Leelanau County and everywhere. We asked Fred about the committee’s goals leading up to, and after Tuesday’s election.

Glen Arbor Sun: What was the impetus for launching the Northwest Michigan United for Racial Equity Committee? Why did you decide to focus on an advertising campaign?

Ellen Fred: We launched the campaign primarily due to the horribly offensive statement made by former Leelanau County Road Commissioner Tom Eckerle in early August. When, after community pressure, Mr. Eckerle opted to resign rather than force us to undertake a recall petition, the group of us who had come together to organize the recall effort thought that would be the end of it; however, at the next Leelanau County Commissioner meeting, at which the Commissioners discussed a resolution aimed at condemning Eckerle’s statement, it became very clear that more conversation was needed in our county around issues of racism. During that discussion, as has been reported in several news articles, one commissioner requested that the words “racial” and “social justice” be removed from the resolution language, one said that calling police officers “pigs” should be considered a form of racism, and two raised abortion rates among Black women as another form of racism. All of these statements were problematic and demonstrated, at best, ignorance and misunderstandings around racism and issues of equity and, at worst, blatant forms of racism themselves. After that meeting, a group of us formed a political action committee called Northwest Michigan United for Racial Equity and began raising funds to launch the 10-week full-page ad campaign in the Leelanau Enterprise and other local newspapers to educate and raise awareness around these issues.

We opted for a newspaper ad campaign because we wanted to reach people who may not be on social media and who may look to local newspapers for the majority of their local and regional news. We wanted to reach people in a safe space—in their homes, at their kitchen tables, in their favorite armchairs—so they could explore these issues and reflect in the safety and privacy of their own homes. We strived to take a tone of education and acceptance—which is not to say that we didn’t raise difficult topics or attempt to challenge people—but we really worked to avoid accusatory or judgmental language. All of us have experienced years of conditioning that lead us to have implicit biases and force us to always be striving to be and do better. I think one of my favorite quotes I came across while working on the ads and one we included in Ad No. 4 is from Ijeoma Oluo: “The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.” I think we all have work to do and as long as we’re actively striving to make our world a safer and more equitable place, we’re doing the best we can do.

Glen Arbor Sun: Who else is on the Committee, and what role have they played?

Ellen Fred: There are about 15 active members of the Committee, almost all Leelanau County residents, who were moved to act to raise awareness about racism and hold our local leaders accountable around these issues. Our group includes people in various walks of life, professions, faiths, retired people and students, and we ran each of the ads by our local leaders of color to get feedback and input. We have also raised more than $10,000 from almost 100 different supporters since we formed in mid-August.

Glen Arbor Sun: What’s the path forward for this Committee, your goals and aspirations?

Ellen Fred: Now that the 10 ads have been printed (the last ad ran last Thursday), we are considering next steps. We’ve heard interest in having the 10 ads printed and framed and displayed at the county building. The owner of a bookstore in the county also told us she hung up one of the ads at her store, and it made us wonder whether other local establishments might also want to display the ads, such as libraries, schools, art galleries, historical museums, etc. We would love to see the ads utilized and continue to raise awareness around these issues. We also plan to organize discussion groups and speaker panels around the county, in the faith community, political organizations, book clubs, etc.

It’s also important to note that the County Commissioners will be conducting an anti-bias training on November 5, 2020, starting at 9 am. The public is invited to participate by watching the session on the County YouTube channel.

This training is one of the action items the Commissioners committed to undertake in the resolution that was ultimately passed unanimously by the Commission and is a testament to the Commission’s commitment to educating themselves on these issues.

Glen Arbor Sun: Is your initiative something that other communities can emulate? How and how not?

Ellen Fred: I think this initiative is something that other communities could emulate. Certainly, our experience started with an unfortunate racist occurrence, but other communities don’t need to wait for that to happen to begin educating and holding local leaders accountable to institute policies to counteract centuries of systematic racism and inequitable laws and policies. Our ads were drafted entirely by our group, but we drew information from numerous resources that exist in the public sphere around these issues. I think that other groups could utilize the work that we’ve done as well as the amazing resources that are available around anti-racism and develop their own campaigns in their own communities. In fact, citizens in Benzie County really liked one of the ads in particular and raised the money to pay for a more localized version to run in The Betsie Current.

Glen Arbor Sun: What else should we know?

Ellen Fred: If people would like to get involved, we encourage them to visit our website at LeelanauUnited.com and send us a note through the website form. In fact, we would love folks who read the ads to provide feedback and ideas for other efforts we could undertake around these issues. Over the next weeks, we will be refining the website, dedicating an entire page to each ad’s theme and including additional resources and action items people can do to further the anti-racism work we began. We are also still raising funds for the final expenses on the ad campaign as well as the printing/framing and other efforts, so we continue to welcome and very much appreciate financial contributions as well. Our Committee address where checks can be sent is listed on the website. And many thanks to all who have already contributed and supported our anti-racism work in the county and beyond.