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MISSION
Our two-fold mission is to 1) establish Metropolitan Grand Rapids as the State of Michigan’s second regional center of African-descended intellect, culture and commerce as well as to improve the quality-of-life of Michigan’s 1.4 million people of African descent by consolidating the Africentric economic power of the State of Michigan with this organization’s unifying Africentric events, products and services and 2) to initiate a new era of unity, camaraderie and prosperity for ALL people through the sharing of the most positive and universal aspects of the African-descended Experience.
VISION
To establish and develop the four-county Metro Grand Rapids area into the permanent headquarters region of an Africentric corporation that operates on the premise that African-descended culture has components that are both universal and enjoyed by people of ALL cultures. With this in mind, Michigan Black Expo, Inc.(MBEI) must never be known as merely an event or series of events. It is a corporate servant to society that endeavors to engage employment creation, racism abatement and the bringing together of all people by creating a non-profit conglomerate of Africentric events, products and services that collectively embody the most positive elements of the African-descended Experience. Combined, these elements of MBEI will serve as a spark for the rise of unity, camaraderie and prosperity among all people. For the sake of clarity, it is paramount to note that Black is used as a component of MBEI’s corporate moniker to not only signify the culture that is its organizational framework but more importantly to serve as a beacon for people of all cultures to find the positive components of the African-descended Experience that they may be seeking and that they - of their own free will - may choose to enjoy together.
The crystallization of this vision will have long-term and historic ramifications for the Metro Grand Rapids region just as the crystallization of Indiana Black Expo, Incorporated (IBEI) had on its headquarters region - Metro Indianapolis. The social impacts produced by the presence of MBEI will include:
- The ability for the Grand Rapids metro area to shed its highly negative reputation as a “white-only” sanctuary and U.S. equivalent to Johannesburg, South Africa.
- Create the impression of a vibrant multi-cultural region that will assist MBEI in the development of the Africentric infrastructure necessary for the attraction of a talented and educated African American middle class specifically and the attraction of Michigan’s much-sought-after “creative class” in general.
- The opportunity for the linking of an African-descended cultural bridge between Michigan’s two largest cities - Detroit and Grand Rapids.
- To create a template for the Latin and Asian communities to also be able to augment and expand the ongoing development and diversification of the headquarters region with their own unique cultures.
From an organizational standpoint, MBEI is designed with four facets:
- MBEI Operations (the administrative arm of the organization, i.e. - State Headquarters and the implementational body for the annual planned urban tourism events <Michigan Black Expo, MBEI Golf Classic, MBEI Metro West Urban Music Fest, MBEI Midwest Health and Fitness Exposition and MBEI River City Heritage Classic [Historically Black Collegiate Basketball]>).
- MBEI Economic Development Corporation (subsidiary dedicated to carrying out the economic development mandates of the MBEI Board of Directors).
- MBEI Local Chapters (encompassing the 13 urban areas of Michigan that contain a significant African American presence).
- The MBEI Youth Enhancement Division (to be administered jointly with State Headquarters and the Local Chapters).
From an urban development standpoint, MBEI has been able to access its President’s involvement with both the former Grand Rapids Area Transit Authority and former Downtown Management Board Incorporated Boards of Directors to create its own vision of how it intends to contribute to the metropolitan area’s forward movement. This vision includes the State Headquarters of MBEI established as a community icon (of like ilk to Steelcase or Amway) that itself is able to:
- Underwrite the development of a Midwest branch of an existing prestigious African American medical research university in downtown Grand Rapids (to ensure the broadest spectrum of intellectual capital in the locally emerging bio-technology industry).
- Develop an Africentric K-12 residential charter school system that would have its youth bio-tech component feed into said institution.
- Contribute to the development of 24-hour mass transit throughout the four-county Metro Grand Rapids (Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties) that includes light-rail, commuter-rail and line-haul bus service.
- Provide the impetus for the creation of regional 24-hour urban contemporary radio (on the internet and FM and satellite bands). These points constitute what should be considered a thumbnail sketch of our first 30-year timeline of intent.
It is ironic that a region that has become infamous among African Americans for being so distasteful to and hostile toward African-descended people has simultaneously inspired so much love for it within the hearts of some of its own African-descended children - especially MBEI’s President, Rudolph R. Treece III. Treece, as a native of his beloved Grand Rapids, has for a lifetime endured the “If you’re not Dutch (white), you’re not much” comments from within the metro area and the “Detroit is The City, Grand Rapids is Hooterville Backwater” comments from the outside. It is these two sentiments, one based on culture, the other based on intra-state provincialism (in addition to the motivation provided by a reckless prayer at his Morgan State University graduation ceremony), that sparked both the soul and imagination of Treece to follow in the footsteps of the great leaders before him that did not complain about what was wrong around them but instead rose up to do something positive about it. The two aforementioned maddening and uninformed views brought him to a critical crossroads in his life. They represented the choice of either running to some far away city were the grass appeared to be greener for African-descended people OR the choice of staying in his own hometown and offering up the necessary dedication of his life to make Metro Grand Rapids the cosmopolitan and diverse region that he knew it could become.
Obviously, with the State Headquarters of MBEI firmly planted in downtown Grand Rapids today, Treece and the rest of the Board of Directors have made it very clear what they intend to do. They have elected to sacrifice readily available financial success in the corporate structure of a city like Atlanta to instead stay and struggle to remake Grand Rapids into a regional hub where multi-ethnicity is consciously and enthusiastically integrated into the fabric of the metropolitan community (and where the sense of sincere welcome and belonging is not perceived to be reserved for any one tribe of the Human family). In the collective mind of the MBEI organization, such a Grand Rapids is the foundation on which it can confidently and truthfully call itself GRAND. Grand Rapids’ place on the stage of the world has been deferred because of this lacking diversity long enough. MBEI is here to proudly and expediently escort its headquarters region onto that stage. Onward we go…
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