KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Two proclamations will be on the agenda at the next Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners meeting, focusing on equity for the black community.
During a gathering at Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial park on the city’s Northside on Thursday a newly formed group called the Kalamazoo chapter of the Michigan Democrat Party Black Caucus demanded that local officials get behind the Black Lives Matter movement.
Black caucus chair and Kalamazoo County Commissioner Stephanie Moore announced that a proclamation to declare racism as a public health crisis and a proclamation to address police brutality will be brought up to the board on June 16th.
A portion of her first proposed proclamation reads, “…for over 400 years racism is has existed in America. From the time of the genocide of the Indigenous people upon the arrival of Europeans, to chattel slavery beginning in the 1600s, to the Jim Crow era, to the mass incarceration and inequitable sentencing of Black people, to failing schools, to disproportionate outcomes in health, to infant mortality, to job and housing discrimination, racism has remained a presence in American society while subjecting Black people to hardships and disadvantages in every aspect of life…”
The proclamation focuses on a number of disparities in the Kalamazoo County area including discriminatory housing practices, restricted access to healthy food choices and essential resources, and several health issues among the black community like reduced life expectancy, higher rates of infant and maternal mortality, high rates of asthma, higher rates of lead poisoning, and higher vulnerabilities to public health pandemics including COVID-19.
It also states that racism affects all members of our society on a local (urban and rural), state, and national level and demands action from all levels of government and society.
The goal of the proclamation is to implement better laws to promote healthier black community members and expand the Equity Taskforce so it can assess internal policies and procedures to ensure racial equity is a core element in all of the county’s organizational practices.
The second proclamation is a push to end police brutality. As written, it focuses on “condemning the “senseless and shocking killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.”
It highlights the long-standing history of police brutality to minority groups and condemns the violence that has accompanied some initially peaceful protests in the county.
The proclamation reads, “The Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners calls on people, police unions, police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, district attorney’s and attorney generals across the nation to stand firm against all who would use hate, violence, and intimidation to achieve their ends, where private citizens or law enforcement officials.”
Similar declarations have already been made at the state level.
The Kalamazoo chapter of the caucus, which was formed this year, is made up of local Democrats running for various elected offices within the county.
The full proclamations can be read on the MDPBC Kalamazoo Facebook page.
