Antiracism
Why We Care:
On August 5, 2020, Governor Whitmer signed Executive Directive 2020-9, recognizing racism as a public health crisis and taking initial steps to address it within state government; under the Directive, the governor asked the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to make health equity a major goal as well as required implicit bias training for all state employees. Ironically, exactly one day before this action, on August 4, 2020, former Leelanau County Road Commissioner Tom Eckerle used a racial slur at a public Road Commissioner meeting and for several days thereafter refused to apologize for his action and continued to use such slur in interviews; however, after tremendous pressure from local, state, and even federal leaders and numerous local residents, Mr. Eckerle eventually resigned.
The Leelanau County Commissioners initially tripped over its attempt to respond to the issue, with several Commissioners making statements that indicated misunderstandings about racial equity and demonstrated their own implicit bias. With assistance from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) members of our community, the Commissioners ultimately passed, by unanimous vote, a resolution condemning racism in Leelanau County and committing to a variety of actions and goals related to achieving racial equity and inclusion in the county, including promoting implicit bias training for all county elected officials and employees, auditing local policies for racial bias, and working to eliminate racial disparities in health-care and other social services. In response to the Eckerle incident and its aftermath, a group of local residents, Northwest Michigan United for Racial Equity (NMURE), also ran a series of 10 full-page ads in the Leelanau Enterprise to educate and raise awareness around these issues.
Our Big Goal:
To make Leelanau County welcoming and safe for all by achieving racial equity and inclusion in the county.
Take Action:
Advocate for the reading of a Land Acknowledgement at the beginning of every county meeting, recognizing the history of our area and honoring the Indigenous Anishinaabe community as the original peoples and caretakers of the land in this county
Register for a locally-led course on Understanding Racial Justice
Urge the County Commissioners—by letters, public comments, and letters to the editor—to follow through with their commitments in Resolution 2020-014:
Schedule anti-bias trainings for all county officials and employees
Establish a task force to perform an audit of county ordinances, regulations, policies, and practices to screen for racial bias/institutional or structure racism
Encourage greater racial and ethnic diversity on county boards, commissions, and offices
Call on Sheriff Borkovich to explain his expenditure of $420 of taxpayer funds to purchase 40 copies of a far-right book, War on Cops, which Newsweek has described as “fantasy” and “flawed logic”, for each of his deputies. The book is said to contain factually incorrect and biased descriptions of the Black Lives Matter movement and establishes an unnecessarily divisive and unhelpful lens through which our County law enforcement will now view issues of racial equity, inclusion, and safety.