When Karen Hoene joined the East Lansing Human Rights Commission to serve as commissioner, she knew that she wanted to create a safe place for individuals of protected classes.
“I want people to know that if they are facing any sort of discrimination, as a protected class, that we have a place they can start by filing a complaint or bringing it to our attention,” Hoene said. “I don’t think a lot of people know that.”
Formerly a member of the East Lansing School Board, Hoene said she wanted to find a way to stay involved with the community civically and was appointed to the commission just over three years ago.
When Hoene joined the commission, she came with new ideas to help community members feel comfortable bringing their human rights-related issues to the table. One of these ideas was for events she coined “Coffee and Conversation.”
“It’s an opportunity for community members to get together informally to discuss issues related to human rights and human relations in our community in a facilitated conversation,” Hoene said. “So that we can continue to make East Lansing a really welcoming and inclusive community.”
Each event has been held at different local coffee shops in the East Lansing area. Topics of conversations have consisted of race, LQBTQ+ issues, disabilities and reparations.
City Councilperson Dana Watson was previously a member of the human rights commission in 2015. Since her appointment to City Council in August 2020, she still has close ties to the commission and supports their outreach efforts.
“When you’re willing to take time to organize something [like coffee and conversation], it speaks to your values,” Watson said. “It can help the community people in case they have questions or comments and want to be a part of the conversation.”
On Aug. 14, the commission plans to hold another conversation, “Coming Home,” at Foster Coffee in East Lansing. The topic will be about welcoming individuals back into the community that have been formerly incarcerated.
Members of the commission said they hope to have experts like Tony Gant, director of policy and program operations for Nation Outside, speak at the event and provide more information to the public.
“We’re a grassroots organization made up of formerly incarcerated people,” Gant said. “Our mission is to drive policy in order to create transformative systems of support for people with criminal records in their communities.”
Nation Outside is a Michigan-based organization that was created in 2014 that works to assist individuals affected by the criminal justice system. Gant became an active member of the organization in 2016.
“Our ability to organize people that are impacted by the justice system is crucial,” Gant said. “The more we can do that and educate our people about their right to vote, about how the system operates, I think the better off we’ll be overall as a community.”
Gant said that barriers faced by formerly incarcerated people include issues related to housing, employment, education and most importantly, background checks.
“Background checks tend to put people at a severe disadvantage in that a lot of times, when those questions are asked [about criminal history on applications], people are kind of weeded out with criminal records,” Gant said.
Gant works to change the ways the criminal justice system and local communities treat formerly incarcerated individuals as they reenter their communities.
“I really want to highlight how irrational it is for us to lock people out of the system and lock them into a permanent class of literally just poverty, and how harmful that is to a lot of communities,” Gant said. “I don’t think perpetual punishment is a way we should be heading in this country, because that’s ultimately what it is.”
The Human Rights Commission’s hope for this August meeting is to invite community members to learn more about the topic and get involved in creating a more inclusive community for those that have served their time.
“Folks of protected classes enhance our society and make us a better community,” Hoene said. We’re really missing out if we’re not bringing people to the table.”
Photo by Sarah Laughner
Foster Coffee Company hosts the Aug. 14 meeting.