WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI — A Washtenaw County advisory board working to eliminate racial inequities for Black residents is holding community outreach events.
The county’s Redress Advisory Council, formed in 2023, is working to identify who it can learn from in county government and the wider community. A free film screening in September will be the group’s first outreach event.
“The focus of our council is to examine how the county government was complicit in causing harm,” said Justin Hodge, county committee chair and representative of the 5th District, “and what the county government can do in terms of redress.”
“A lot of our work so far has been focused on finding out who in the county government we want to learn from, to get a better sense of what different departments can get involved in our work.”
Advisory board members attended a closed meeting and are now in a phase where they will have “one-on-one discussions with people from different sectors” such as health, education and other areas, Hodge said.
“We are still at the very beginning,” he said. “We are working on our engagement strategy. We want to find out where there are injustices and where it would make sense for the district government to get involved and remedy the situation.”
The all-Democrats county board approved a resolution establishing the advisory board in February 2023.
In 2021, before its creation, an internal county committee was created based on research that showed that the COVID-19 pandemic only increased already existing inequalities for local black communities.
The advisory board, which reports to the county council, is tasked with advising the council and the public in developing a compensation plan for Washtenaw County, according to the resolution.
The plan will identify how county policies have harmed Black lives and include concrete actions to improve homeownership rates and access to quality, affordable housing, increase business ownership and career opportunities, strategies to increase financial equity and generational wealth, close gaps in health care, education, employment and pay, neighborhood safety, and fairness in the criminal justice system.
There are still vacancies that the advisory board needs to fill, Hodge said.
Interested candidates must apply through the county’s Racial Equity Office. Appointments are subject to approval by the full Board of Directors. More information and a link to apply can be found on the county website.
Screening of “The Cost of Inheritance”
To kick off the outreach, the Council is hosting a free screening of the film “The Cost of Inheritance: An American ReFramed Special” on Thursday, September 12, at 5:30 p.m. at the Westgate branch of the Ann Arbor District Library, 2503 Jackson Ave.
The hour-long film traces the legacy of systematic inequality into modern-day America, introducing audiences to the descendants of slaves and slave owners, painting a portrait of their complex, intertwined histories and detailing how their efforts to bridge the divides led them to collectively demand reparations, officials said.
Following the film screening, members of the advisory board will hold a discussion.
Interested parties can register in advance online at kinema.com/events/the-cost-of-inheritance-12labu for free tickets.
“Faced with such a complex and challenging emotional and social issue, we need the insights of our entire community to address it,” Conan Smith, chair of the Advisory Council on Reparations, said in a statement.
“This film is a great conversation starter that reaches back into history and yet helps us confront a very contemporary challenge. I hope people from all over Washtenaw will come out and join us for a thought-provoking evening.”
Hodge said the plan is to hold outreach events “fairly regularly.”
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