The End of Church Camp:2015

              The only two paid black workers were hounded to do more every day. Subjective? Read on...
The children were not to be taken into the gym.
The children were not to be given play equipment.
The children were to be kept very quiet when a church person spoke to them for an hour on how to
pray.(Not happening. They would get so hungry, and the temperatures were high.)
Camp workers were told to take the children to play in the hot parking lot.
One day they were told to have the children plant flowers. Well, the flowers were to be planted in
the front, where no tree cover was helpful. The children threw down the trowels after a short time.
The children told camp leaders, "My mom does not want me to get mud on these Air Jordan's."
The next day the same kids brought a second pair of equally expensive, but not brand new gym shoes.
Still, they didn't stay in that hot sun long.
Part of the problem the two Caucasian staff had was that the two Black staff members didn't blame the children at all. They blamed paid black staff. 'Get those project waifs in line!'
So one day the children were allowed to get on the church bus for Belle Isle,an island recreation park familiar to generations of Detroiters. As no itinerary had been offered the kids or their
camp counselors by camp leaders, the youngsters planned a 'lil sumpn sumpn' for themselves.
As nothing had been said to any on the trip about when and where they would get to play or eat- they didn't seem to expect much.
For the "D" uninitiated, Detroit has a large island park, now taken over by the "henchmen" state of
Michissippi of course, called Belle Isle. The island has many kid-friendly features- slides,etc. but the children were always fed so late in the day that they were skeptical of how comfortable with would be with playtime, as with all the church's 'outings'. As bus began the journey, the youngsters(all Black but one) began to sing songs and do monologues from "The Boondocks". The two AA counselors looked at the kids, who stopped singing immediately, and looked caught. "Boondocks" is not for children. It is on TV, aired at midnight here; but the two counselors burst into laughter as the children began again to talk in Uncle Ruckus' voice about 'pickaninny cheelren'.
                Back at the church one day, one of the Caucasian 'leaders' told the camp workers, 'This is probably the only decent meal these kids get all day." All Caucasian workers but
one was a paid staffer. Still-
                Where does that sort of propaganda originate in a setting like this one?
Were the leaders blind? Of the several children in the camp, only three or four were from income challenged families. One family owned two houses on Virginia Park St.(a street in an older upper middle classed neighborhood built by retail middle managers mid-century) and one in Grosse Pointe; but rarely stayed at the Grosse Pointe house.(To me, all five Pointes behave like sundown towns- but then so do parts of Detroit.
                 I think many AA Grosse Pointers are of more recent African heritage. So they feel foreign
in all American settings. AA men especially, are a group no one will fully infiltrate. And if you get
too familiar, they will let you know.
                 One of the children got chided for bringing a one hundred dollar bill to camp. But some kids bought lunch for each other on "field trip" days. This particular child was related to one of the original Temptations.His grandma had told him if something happened to it, she would get him another one.
                 So many of these Methodist churches have opened their arms to the white gay community or whites who say they have black people as relatives. And truthfully, they are some of the worst 'leaders'.
                 They are often the new overseers no one dares accuse of anything.
They believe their family bona fides or cries of newfound acceptance give them privilege to demean, degrade, and announce their knowing dominion over everything in black culture; and to twist it into majority straight jackets. For one thing, they change dialect in Negro spirituals, which are classic around the world just as they were published. Sigh. Aargh!
                  Black congregations are somewhat  themselves to blame for giving at huge levels to these sorts of churches. This church is endowed by The Kresge Foundation, and the Kresges were more
progressive than POTUS probably is. I doubt they'd approve.
                 After summer's end, the only two paid black church workers were let go, even from their winter jobs at the church. Church leaders were unhappy they'd found no volunteer camp counselors. I warrant this country has seen enough unpaid black labor for...forever. Maybe more amenable black workers were hired in place of the two who were 'no longer needed'.
                 Actually, the Caucasian male who should have been releived after he
threw an adolescent male to the ground for refusing to give up his cell phone, was simply 'spoken to'.
The boys' mom, however, wasn't sure whether she'd escalate.
                 One other situation the children resented in that camp was that the top
floor of the church was populated all summer by people being trained for some sort of ministry- maybe in Haiti- and they slept there, ate there, not to be disturbed in any way.
                 So don't play, and don't disturb the all-white paid and housed delegation.
The children's parents had begun to show up more often near the end of camp.These were parents who seemed to be unaware the church leadership was going south for black families. I wonder what
they will think for next year?
                  Don't think Methodists are alone and pregnant though. Some Catholic parishes in this city
are as awful.
                   I wonder what Ralph Ellison would think of any of this all these years and all these same
sort of events later?