News Photo by Darby Hinkley Joe Gentry, United Way of Northeast Michigan executive director, talks about the 21-Day Equity Challenge, which features daily links to articles, videos, podcasts and more resources aimed at promoting equality and diving into each of our own tendencies toward racial, socioeconomic and other biases. Some who have completed the free training call it “transformational” and “eye-opening.”

ALPENA — We all have our biases, whether we admit it or not. Those willing to learn more about how to change the biases within may find the upcoming 21-Day Equity Challenge “eye-opening” and possibly even “transformational,” as described by prior participants.

The 21-Day Equity Challenge, hosted by the United Way of Northeast Michigan, is a series of links to online articles, videos and podcasts that come right into your email inbox daily from Sept. 8 to 29. There is no cost to register.

“The recent release of the ALICE and Black Households Data illustrates the inequities that are deeply rooted in our national, state, and local systems and institutions,” a statement on the UWNEMI website reads.

The ALICE project stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed,” representing those in our communities who are working yet still struggling to make ends meet.

“Over the 21-Day Challenge, you will take a self-guided learning journey that examines the history and impacts of racism and how it shapes people’s lived experience in Northeast Michigan. The Challenge is simple: you (along with your friends, family, fellow workers and neighbors in Northeast Michigan) commit to deepening your understanding of, and willingness to confront racism for twenty-one consecutive days. The Challenge will raise your awareness, change your understanding, and shift the way you behave.”

The content involves equality materials based on race, gender, religion, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation and other categories that can be the target of bias.

The program originated out east with Food Solutions New England, but made its way to Michigan.

“Washtenaw County in Michigan implemented it,” said Joe Gentry, executive director of the United Way of Northeast Michigan. “And if you look at their county … it’s the eighth-most segregated urban area in the United States.”

Washtenaw County is located in southern Michigan, and the county seat is Ann Arbor.

“It is the third-least upwardly mobile area for minorities,” he continued. “So, Washtenaw County United Way said, in response to all the social unrest that’s going on, they said ‘We need to do something,’ and so they took this project that was done out on the East Coast, and they made it more Michigan-centric. They used Michigan statistics … 14% of our population has a 40% infection rate, because of poverty, low income, access to health care.”

He said Washtenaw County did this program in January and had 5,000 participants.

The basis of this challenge is for each participant to search themselves and introspectively determine changes they may need to implement in order to become more open and accepting of others who do not have the same appearance or background as the participant. Upon completing the 21-Day Equity Challenge, the hope of organizers is that people come out of the challenge feeling empowered to engage in conversations that may be uncomfortable, but are essential to progress toward a more diverse and accepting community.

“We’re a 97% white community,” Gentry said. “You know, you read and hear all these issues in other urban areas, and you go, ‘It’s hard to relate.’ And it’s hard to understand. And this is just a way for me to better understand what’s going on in America, with racism. And even with bias and prejudice against LGBTQ communities. About the social inequities in our society. So, we’re just making it available,” he said of the 21-Day Equity Challenge.

At a workshop about bias and privilege, Gentry recounted an activity in which participants were asked to move forward if certain statements applied to them, such as if they were born into a middle-class family, and backward with each other statement that applied, such as being in a racial minority.

“In society, there are people that, just based on the color of their skin, their religious group, their political persuasion, their sexual preference persuasion, they have greater privilege,” Gentry said in explaining the term “white privilege” as demonstrated in the exercise above. “And you look at all the people that are way behind you, and they’re not any different than you. So some of those exercises really opened my mind.”

The 21 Day Equity Challenge is also endorsed by the Alpena Peace Coalition, and it will be a part of the 30 Days of Peace, which begins every September. The Martin Luther King Jr. committee also endorses this project, Gentry noted.

“I think it’s going to be beneficial,” Gentry said of the 21 Day Challenge, which is open to individuals and businesses. As an individual, to register, fill out a form online at www.unitedwaynemi.org/register-21-day-equity-challenge. As a business, become a community partner by contacting Gentry at 989-354-2221 or jgentry@unitedwaynemi.org.

Gentry said his goal is to get 1,000 participants.

“If I get 100, that’s a start, and that’s a good place to start,” he said. “But I’m encouraged,” he added, because the response from the community has been positive so far. He said Alpena Community College plans to encourage its staff to participate, and the ecumenical group in town will be putting it into their bulletins and encouraging church members to participate.

“So I think it will get a worthwhile turnout,” he noted.

He noted that Alpena Public Schools is interested in offering the program to staff and the school board, but that they will approach it at a later date when back-to-school preparations are not in full swing.

Individual registration takes less than two minutes online, and can be completed from a computer, tablet or smartphone.

“It’s a personal growth journey,” Gentry said.

He added that Judi Stillion went through the training with the Alpena County Library, and she called it “transformational.”

“It will make you see things that you weren’t aware of,” Gentry added. “It will make you think about things that you normally wouldn’t think about. About your own personal prejudices, your own bias, the way that you treat and interact with people that are different than you.”

That not only includes Black, Asian-American, or Hispanic people, but anyone who has a different appearance, belief system, or lifestyle than you do.

He added that “Alpena is changing. It is becoming, slowly, a little bit more diverse.”