Masco brings in traveling exhibit on housing discrimination across Metro Detroit
It's not often a traveling exhibit full of pull-out displays can teach about the segregation and discrimination faced right here in southeast Michigan. But such a display, one on the housing discrimination faced in Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, was the focal point at the Masco Corporation's world headquarters Tuesday evening.
"It's like a tutorial on structural racism," said Steve Spreitzer, a Plymouth resident and CEO of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion. "It's, 'How did we get to where we have a 27-to-1 wealth gap? What happened to blacks during the time of the great migration in the 1900s?
"Jim Crow had relatives, and they were up here."
Spreitzer's organization brought the display to the company, which moved last year from Taylor to Livonia, as a part of the company's efforts toward diversity and inclusion. The traveling display, which Spreitzer said has been seen by more than 400,000 people since it began more than 10 years ago, was open to the public Tuesday evening. It attracted more than 100 community, educational and business leaders to learn more about the struggles for fair housing for minorities.
Sue Sabo, a spokeswoman for Masco Corp., said the company invited the Michigan Roundtable to bring its display to the company as a means to continue its education surrounding diversity efforts.
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She said it's a part of the philanthropic efforts the company is doing this year as well.
"Masco is going to be donating $1 million to organizations of diversity and inclusion in 2018," she said. "We have partnered with the Michigan Roundtable to educate our employees on diversity and inclusion, and (to inform the community)."
The displays touched on various historical aspects of Detroit's issue with housing segregation, including the riots of both 1943 and 1967, as well as historical examples like the Ossian Sweet trial, a case where a black man was charged after defending his Detroit home from an all-white mob. He was later acquitted, and a plaque currently hangs in Detroit's Frank Murphy Hall of Justice about the historical significance of that case.
Dan West, president of the Livonia Chamber of Commerce, said seeing the efforts done by Masco on the event shows its commitment to the issue. He said Sabo, a member of the chamber's board, was instrumental in "Connecting Cultures" panel the chamber put on in September.
"You can see the company puts their money where their mouth is by bringing something like this in and making it available to their employees and the community," he said. "It's important that we learn these lessons and don't repeat them."
Spreitzer, who grew up in Livonia, said the issues surrounding discrimination and inclusion are ones that require work from both sides of the political aisle, as well as members of all kinds of communities. It's his hope the exhibit shown Tuesday played a small role in that.
"This matter should matter to all people. If it's going to be successful here beyond this exhibit, then it has to have all people," he said. "I'm hopeful I can help shape the town I came from."
Contact David Veselenak at dveselenak@hometownlife.com or 734-678-6728. Follow him on Twitter @davidveselenak.