Discussing the issues and ideas important to metropolitan Detroit, host Craig Fahle talks with the newsmakers, people making a difference in our community, and WDET listeners.
Tell Me More brings fresh voices and perspectives to public radio. It’s where you will hear meaningful conversations on topics you’re not likely to find anywhere else.
Akua Budu-Watkins is one of nine Metro Detroiters who will spend the next two years tracing the history of racial inequality in the region as part of a new truth and reconciliation commission modeled after South Africa's historic review of Apartheid. The nine members of Detroit's commission were selected by nomination and will serve on a voluntary basis.
Budu-Watkins, a Detroit native, says the multiracial commission is charged with creating a blueprint for healing divisions that grew out of unexamined housing practices. With a long background in community and political strategy, including managing neighborhood city halls under former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, Budu-Watkins is hopeful she can add an authentic understanding of decades old grassroots concerns and the costs of ignoring those voices.
"Detroit can't have an evolution without an honest adult conversation about the housing policies that created the city we have today. Skirting it, as we have, hasn't helped, '' she said. "We're still whispering about race's impact. It's real. It's not my truth. It's not any one person's truth. It's the truth, right in black and white actual polices. And we need to talk about it.''
The commission's main duty will be examining how racially based housing practices in the region influence life in Metro Detroit today. Commissioners will take testimony and build a regionally focused set of recommendations.
Other members of the commission: Khalilah Burt Gaston of Detroit, Dr. Estrella Torres of East Lansing, Alan Amen of Dearborn, Tom Shurtleff of Farmington, Thomas H. Priest Jr. of Novi, Robert Brown of West Bloomfield, William T. Robinson of Saginaw, and Carrie Landrum of Canton.
