If the DEI Department was effective at making the county more welcoming to marginalized populations, wouldn’t minority percentages increase at a faster rate? While Ottawa County has been one of Michigan’s fastest growing counties, the total percentage of minority citizens has remained constant, increasing in proportion with the population. There is no detectable change in the percentage of other minority groups. Meanwhile the percentage of Hispanics in Ottawa County has risen by approximately 0.15% per year. The percentage of White people living in Ottawa County has been slowly decreasing by approximately. That’s because the racial diversity of the county has changed very little from 2016 to 2021. If you quickly glance at the donut-shaped charts above, they look identical. Ottawa County formed the DEI Department on December 11, 2018. You dissolve the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office and fire the staff, calling the office’s work “divisive” while you govern divisively, shutting out five fellow commissioners and implying that healthy conflict and diversity of ideas is a bad thing for Ottawa County governance and for Ottawa County’s residents.” In a letter to the Holland Sentinel, “ My Take: A letter to the newly named ‘majority of six,’” Marcia Mansaray, Ottawa County Deputy Health Administrator, said, “You thoughtlessly put individual departments’ funding at risk-and the people that depend on the services that funding provides.
I think folks are just scared about the future.” But as we do, Out On The Lakeshore is trying to provide a space for folks to grieve any changes that are being made and to come together in a place of safety, to support each other through this time. Kate Leighton-Colburn, Executive Director of Out On The Lakeshore, was quoted in PrideSource as saying, “I think we’re waiting to see what happens. New board members pledged to “govern with the least force and least authority required.” Meanwhile, the Facebook group, Ottawa Objects, and the organization, Out On The Lakeshore, seem to be melting in the heat of their own apocalyptic rhetoric. The Left claims that marginalized populations such as the LGBTQ community and racial minorities now are at literal risk, all thanks to the new Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.
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