Rick Dean
Registered
5
http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0405/14/a01-151940.htm
Alice King, left, whose parents are from Mexico, serves as interpreter for many Macomb County Hispanics, including Maria Guadalupe Lopez and son, Manuel, 2.
Growing diversity rattles way of life in Macomb
Blacks push county to speed up change
MOUNT CLEMENS --It took the urging of the city's first black police chief before Mount Clemens revoked a law many believed was used to unfairly target Afri
an-Americans.
From 1989 until October 2003, the law empowered officers to make arrests if someone refused to obey their instructions.
The law's revocation is just one of a number of changes
r
rec
ntly prompted by Macomb County's struggle with the challenges of its unprecedented diversity.
n
Government and education officials across the county say new school language programs, ethnic sensitivity training for police and changes to county hiring practices are evidence of their willingness to adapt.
Black leaders in the county, however, say changes come too slowly, if at all. They blame an old, mostly white power structure that is often reluctant to make accommodations for groups that represent just a fraction of the population.
We believe in the future of Macomb County, said Ruthie Stevenson, head of the local NAACP chapter, but that future should include everyone.
Many in Macomb, including minorities, see the county as a place that provides all of the social an
d professional opportunities they could hope for.
Peter Lund, a county commissioner who has worked to address the concerns of black leaders, says government is unfairly portrayed as racist. B
ut
the allegat
ions have become so common, "t's getting to the point that I'm used to it, he sa
id.
Yet, as black leaders, who represent Macomb's largest minority group, begin to find their political voice, there will likely be more growing pains in store. Many say the racial climate is worsening.
As proof, they point to:
* A burning cross left in the yard of a black man and white woman in Chesterfield Township in March.
* The pattern of whites moving north in the county as blacks and members of other minority groups move into southern communities.
* The political pressure that has been placed on two prominent local black officials --Mount Clemens School Superintendent Dr. T.C. Wallace and Mount Clemens Police Chief McKeown, who recommended revoking the law --over the pa
st two years.
* An angry tirade against blacks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. left on the voicemail in January at the Interfaith Center for Racial Justice.
* The death of 31-ye
ar-old
Makarra Sanders, a
black man, in the custody of Warren police officers in February.
As Macomb Co
unty grows, racial intolerance is growing, too, said the Rev. D.L. Bradley, president of the Macomb County Ministerial Alliance. The alliance, a group of black pastors from churches in the county, has been working on race issues with Stevenson and the NAACP.
Doing the right thing
Mount Clemens resident Dorothy Upshaw, who endured racism when her husband, Bonner Upshaw, was the city's first black officer, said it's frustrating to see how little the climate has changed.
One difference, she said, is that black residents are less willing to accept systems that have been in place a very long time.
There are a lot of people here who want to do the right thing, she said. But peo
ple get so accustomed to doing things a certain way, they don't understand how others see them.
Macomb County's reputation for intolerance continues to play a role in events t
oday. When
Sanders died in custody, f
amily members and a national civil rights organization labeled it murder
before seeing an autopsy.
That reputation was formed midway through the 20th century, said Reynolds Farley, a University of Michigan sociology professor, when whites moved north from Detroit, leaving behind a growing number of blacks in the city.
Warren residents were hostile to George Romney, secretary of Housing and Urban Development for President Richard Nixon, after he touted a federal grant program to local officials that required the city to create housing for minorities.
Warren rejected the federal money.
Within Metro Detroit --the most racially polarized region in the country --Macomb has been especially insulated. Long after middle-class Detroit families began crossing Eight M
ile to settle in neighboring suburbs like Southfield, Farmington Hills and Westland, change came slower to Macomb.
While communities like Southfield shifted almost pain
lessly from ma
jority white to majority black, Mac
omb has only just begun to deal with diversity.
In addition, gove
rnment posts also are held almost exclusively by whites.
In Sterling Heights, 45 of the 46 top administrative posts, from the mayor to the public works director, are held by whites. Sterling Heights Police Chief Barnett Jones is the lone minority officeholder.
Macomb County's 26-member Board of Commissioners has one African-American, Bobby Hill.
Some government officials say those numbers indicate nothing more than the fact that 92 percent of county residents are white.
'Old-boy network'
Black leaders see county officials as part of an old-boy network, slow to change unless they are forced to.
Stevenson pointed to the Macomb County Board of Commissioners' December
vote to make sweeping changes in the way the government hires and promotes workers.
The vote, alliance members said, came only after they pointed out to the bo
ard that qualified
blacks had been routinely passed over for
county jobs. And the changes have only been implemented in two of 32 depart
ments --everywhere else, the old hiring practices are still in place.
They say one thing, give us lip service at the beginning, Stevenson said, and then the backpedaling begins.
County commissioners bristle at the idea they are not being responsive to concerns raised by the black community.
We have worked very hard to address all of the concerns raised by the alliance, commission Chairwoman Nancy White said. ... I know the ministers thought that process went too slowly, but it moved a lot quicker than some things I've seen.
Lund, the commissioner who headed the committee's policy review, said the new employment policy hasn't taken effect because the county has yet to h
ire the new human resource workers it needs to launch the program.
Lund said the problems the committee identified had much more to do with cronyism and
nepotism than racism.
New challenges
Even if racism is
taken out of the equation, Macomb's shifting demographics
present a new set of challenges.
Alice King once accompanied her friend, a woman who spoke only Spanish, into the delivery room at Mount Clemens General Hospital to serve as a translator. After interpreting the doctor's instructions for her friend, hospital officials pulled King into a nearby delivery room to do the same for another woman she'd never met before.
It's a telling story that speaks volumes about today's situation in Macomb County for Hispanics, she said. There are services available, but not nearly enough.
King, whose family traces its roots to Mexico, has increasingly played the role of interpreter for many of Macomb County's Hispanics. She tags along on other people's trips to the do
ctor, lawyer or the bank because many Macomb County institutions are not adequately prepared to deal with the growing number of Latinos.
Even s
ome simple things like dru
g labels at the pharmacy are usually only available in En
glish, King said.
Increasingly, agencies a
re making attempts to build cultural bridges in the county.
To help educate police officers on subtleties of various cultures, Roseville and Warren sought instruction from the Arab-American and Chaldean Council last year.
Warren Consolidated School District took advantage of $167,000 in federal grant money to start after-school classes in Arabic and Russian. So far, 125 students have participated.
Since its implementation, it has proven to be an extremely popular addition with members of the community.
We have more people trying to embrace it than anything else, said Nancy Sisung, Warren Consolidated's assistant superintendent.
Macomb Township resident Lisa Olivan-Ip, who was bo
rn in the Philippines, said she is comfortable living in the county and has established a good life there.
Olivan-Ip, 36, heads her own
company, Uniforce Insurance Se
rvice. Her 10-year-old business employs four people in Madison He
ights and 10 in the Philippines.
" don't see ra
ce as a problem here any more than in other places, she said. "f anything, I've looked at (the race issue) as a positive challenge for me.
Greg Murray isn't surprised that the Macomb County experience is different for some minority groups.
Black people have come to accept that they will always be the one group that will have to agitate and take the lumps to benefit the whole community, said Murray, spokesman for the alliance. We just accept that.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0405/14/a01-151940.htm
Growing diversity rattles way of life in Macomb
Blacks push county to speed up change
MOUNT CLEMENS --It took the urging of the city's first black police chief before Mount Clemens revoked a law many believed was used to unfairly target Afri
an-Americans.
From 1989 until October 2003, the law empowered officers to make arrests if someone refused to obey their instructions.
The law's revocation is just one of a number of changes
r
rec
ntly prompted by Macomb County's struggle with the challenges of its unprecedented diversity.
n
Government and education officials across the county say new school language programs, ethnic sensitivity training for police and changes to county hiring practices are evidence of their willingness to adapt.
Black leaders in the county, however, say changes come too slowly, if at all. They blame an old, mostly white power structure that is often reluctant to make accommodations for groups that represent just a fraction of the population.
We believe in the future of Macomb County, said Ruthie Stevenson, head of the local NAACP chapter, but that future should include everyone.
Many in Macomb, including minorities, see the county as a place that provides all of the social an
d professional opportunities they could hope for.
Peter Lund, a county commissioner who has worked to address the concerns of black leaders, says government is unfairly portrayed as racist. B
ut
the allegat
ions have become so common, "t's getting to the point that I'm used to it, he sa
id.
Yet, as black leaders, who represent Macomb's largest minority group, begin to find their political voice, there will likely be more growing pains in store. Many say the racial climate is worsening.
As proof, they point to:
* A burning cross left in the yard of a black man and white woman in Chesterfield Township in March.
* The pattern of whites moving north in the county as blacks and members of other minority groups move into southern communities.
* The political pressure that has been placed on two prominent local black officials --Mount Clemens School Superintendent Dr. T.C. Wallace and Mount Clemens Police Chief McKeown, who recommended revoking the law --over the pa
st two years.
* An angry tirade against blacks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. left on the voicemail in January at the Interfaith Center for Racial Justice.
* The death of 31-ye
ar-old
Makarra Sanders, a
black man, in the custody of Warren police officers in February.
As Macomb Co
unty grows, racial intolerance is growing, too, said the Rev. D.L. Bradley, president of the Macomb County Ministerial Alliance. The alliance, a group of black pastors from churches in the county, has been working on race issues with Stevenson and the NAACP.
Doing the right thing
Mount Clemens resident Dorothy Upshaw, who endured racism when her husband, Bonner Upshaw, was the city's first black officer, said it's frustrating to see how little the climate has changed.
One difference, she said, is that black residents are less willing to accept systems that have been in place a very long time.
There are a lot of people here who want to do the right thing, she said. But peo
ple get so accustomed to doing things a certain way, they don't understand how others see them.
Macomb County's reputation for intolerance continues to play a role in events t
oday. When
Sanders died in custody, f
amily members and a national civil rights organization labeled it murder
before seeing an autopsy.
That reputation was formed midway through the 20th century, said Reynolds Farley, a University of Michigan sociology professor, when whites moved north from Detroit, leaving behind a growing number of blacks in the city.
Warren residents were hostile to George Romney, secretary of Housing and Urban Development for President Richard Nixon, after he touted a federal grant program to local officials that required the city to create housing for minorities.
Warren rejected the federal money.
Within Metro Detroit --the most racially polarized region in the country --Macomb has been especially insulated. Long after middle-class Detroit families began crossing Eight M
ile to settle in neighboring suburbs like Southfield, Farmington Hills and Westland, change came slower to Macomb.
While communities like Southfield shifted almost pain
lessly from ma
jority white to majority black, Mac
omb has only just begun to deal with diversity.
In addition, gove
rnment posts also are held almost exclusively by whites.
In Sterling Heights, 45 of the 46 top administrative posts, from the mayor to the public works director, are held by whites. Sterling Heights Police Chief Barnett Jones is the lone minority officeholder.
Macomb County's 26-member Board of Commissioners has one African-American, Bobby Hill.
Some government officials say those numbers indicate nothing more than the fact that 92 percent of county residents are white.
'Old-boy network'
Black leaders see county officials as part of an old-boy network, slow to change unless they are forced to.
Stevenson pointed to the Macomb County Board of Commissioners' December
vote to make sweeping changes in the way the government hires and promotes workers.
The vote, alliance members said, came only after they pointed out to the bo
ard that qualified
blacks had been routinely passed over for
county jobs. And the changes have only been implemented in two of 32 depart
ments --everywhere else, the old hiring practices are still in place.
They say one thing, give us lip service at the beginning, Stevenson said, and then the backpedaling begins.
County commissioners bristle at the idea they are not being responsive to concerns raised by the black community.
We have worked very hard to address all of the concerns raised by the alliance, commission Chairwoman Nancy White said. ... I know the ministers thought that process went too slowly, but it moved a lot quicker than some things I've seen.
Lund, the commissioner who headed the committee's policy review, said the new employment policy hasn't taken effect because the county has yet to h
ire the new human resource workers it needs to launch the program.
Lund said the problems the committee identified had much more to do with cronyism and
nepotism than racism.
New challenges
Even if racism is
taken out of the equation, Macomb's shifting demographics
present a new set of challenges.
Alice King once accompanied her friend, a woman who spoke only Spanish, into the delivery room at Mount Clemens General Hospital to serve as a translator. After interpreting the doctor's instructions for her friend, hospital officials pulled King into a nearby delivery room to do the same for another woman she'd never met before.
It's a telling story that speaks volumes about today's situation in Macomb County for Hispanics, she said. There are services available, but not nearly enough.
King, whose family traces its roots to Mexico, has increasingly played the role of interpreter for many of Macomb County's Hispanics. She tags along on other people's trips to the do
ctor, lawyer or the bank because many Macomb County institutions are not adequately prepared to deal with the growing number of Latinos.
Even s
ome simple things like dru
g labels at the pharmacy are usually only available in En
glish, King said.
Increasingly, agencies a
re making attempts to build cultural bridges in the county.
To help educate police officers on subtleties of various cultures, Roseville and Warren sought instruction from the Arab-American and Chaldean Council last year.
Warren Consolidated School District took advantage of $167,000 in federal grant money to start after-school classes in Arabic and Russian. So far, 125 students have participated.
Since its implementation, it has proven to be an extremely popular addition with members of the community.
We have more people trying to embrace it than anything else, said Nancy Sisung, Warren Consolidated's assistant superintendent.
Macomb Township resident Lisa Olivan-Ip, who was bo
rn in the Philippines, said she is comfortable living in the county and has established a good life there.
Olivan-Ip, 36, heads her own
company, Uniforce Insurance Se
rvice. Her 10-year-old business employs four people in Madison He
ights and 10 in the Philippines.
" don't see ra
ce as a problem here any more than in other places, she said. "f anything, I've looked at (the race issue) as a positive challenge for me.
Greg Murray isn't surprised that the Macomb County experience is different for some minority groups.
Black people have come to accept that they will always be the one group that will have to agitate and take the lumps to benefit the whole community, said Murray, spokesman for the alliance. We just accept that.