To the Editor:
As a community organizer and Ontario resident, I’m voicing my support for the City of Ontario’s Diversity Advisory Committee. I attended the recent city council meeting after it was brought to my attention that the council was looking to disband the committee.
I was able to provide public comment along with two Diversity Advisory Committee members in support for continuing the work. The committee was created in 2017 because of ICE activity in Ontario, as many residents were in fear of being detained and deported.
Now more than ever, the committee is needed due to fears once again reaching our communities with recent ICE activity. Reasoning for disbanding the committee, voiced by councilors and the city manager, were because of two federally funded projects in the works and President Trump’s executive orders against funding any programs supporting DEI initiatives.
In that moment I thought, this is what institutional racism looks like: “Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of institutional discrimination based on race or ethnic group and can include policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healthcare, education and political representation.”
With many of our elected leaders past and present working in healthcare, housing, education, law enforcement, government, knowingly advancing policy that impacts marginalized communities and that works against diversity, equity and inclusion. Diversity, equity and inclusion is what brings funding to our communities for education, housing and more.
I hope our elected leaders see that disbanding the Diversity Advisory Committee over fear of funding is the wrong action. It started with undocumented immigrants, DEI programs, Native American communities having to carry tribal IDs in fear of deportation. Now we see mass firings of federal employees, Education Department, and threats of holding federal funds and so on.
“History will judge societies and governments and their institutions not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless.” (Cesar Chavez)
Eddie Melendrez
Ontario
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Commentary: Rural America needs investment, not abandonment