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Michigan Roundtable's new CEO says his job is all about inclusion [Detroit Free Press :: ](Detroit Free Press (MI) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 31--Growing up in Livonia in the 1960s, Steve Spreitzer remembers his dad making racist remarks about African Americans, yelling at the TV whenever he saw boxer Muhammad Ali. But in elementary school, Spreitzer was taught by African-American nuns and a teacher who was Jewish, exposing him to a world beyond the prejudices of his home. Those experiences helped shape Spreitzer, now 58, to become one of metro Detroit's leading diversity and interfaith leaders. "If you don't have a meaningful encounter with the other -- racially, religiously -- your life will be much more difficult," Spreitzer said. Spreitzer of Plymouth was named this month as the new CEO and president of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, a group founded in 1941 that's one of the oldest continuously-run organizations promoting racial and interfaith harmony in metro Detroit. Spreitzer has worked with a wide range of religious leaders and diverse communities in his decades, first with the Catholic Church and later with the Michigan Roundtable, where he has worked 17 years. Spreitzer's appointment comes at a time of renewed interest in the issue of diversity in suburban police departments across the U.S. in the wake of unrest in Ferguson, Mo., following the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old African-American man by a white police officer. The population of Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, is 67% African American but only 6% of its police officers are African American, 3 out of 53 total. It's an issue that Spreitzer has dealt with at the Michigan Roundtable for years. As program director, he helped create a discussion several years ago about the lack of diversity in suburban police departments, such as Canton. Like other suburbs in metro Detroit, Canton has a growing nonwhite population, but "most suburban police forces are either all or overwhelmingly majority white," Spreitzer said. "Ferguson should be a wake-up call to suburban communities around Michigan to really take a hard look at how they recruit, how they hire, how they retain, how they treat a diverse police force," he said. "It set off a national debate about the diversity of suburban police departments and treating people fairly." On Friday, the Roundtable will help host a discussion at the Charles Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit titled "Race and Policing: 1967 Detroit to 2014 Ferguson: Illuminating Our Past to Understand Our Present." It will include ALPACT (Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust), a group of law enforcement and community leaders that meets monthly and is currently cochaired by Spreitzer. Spreitzer also worked on helping promote diversity in the Plymouth-Canton school district, helping get 25 minority educators hired after meetings with school officials and community leaders. When he was younger, Spreitzer thought about becoming a priest, but later got a master's in social work, and then worked for Catholic dioceses in Lansing and Detroit on the issue of criminal justice. Working with prison chaplains, he engaged with Muslim and Jewish leaders, the start of his interfaith work. Over the past decade, he has helped support Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and other groups when they face discrimination. On Monday, he stood with Muslims on the steps of Dearborn City Hall in a rally against ISIS, saying that Islam "is a religion of peace." In 2005, Spreitzer came out in support of non-Christians who initially weren't allowed to participate in the National Day of Prayer event at Troy City Hall. "Steve was the voice at the other end of the line when I reached out for help a decade ago because of being excluded from a potentially Christian-only, city-sponsored prayer event in Troy," said Padma Kuppa, an interfaith activist in Troy, with the Hindu American Foundation. "He continues to walk the talk of inclusion ... trying to help people understand that diversity of perspectives is what will allow us to build equity." Last month, the foundation awarded him the Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism. Tom Costello, the past CEO and president of the Michigan Roundtable, said of Spreitzer: "He's honest and earnest. He has a great passion for his work. The stakeholders in the community ... respect him." U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade said that "Steve has a quiet dignity that is powerful. Because of the respect Steve commands, he can facilitate a discussion involving very strong and different opinions where everyone's voice is heard in a meaningful way." Spreitzer says his goal is to continue the Michigan Roundtable's tradition of inclusion, to create "places where all people are welcome and treated fairly." Contact Niraj Warikoo: [email protected] or on Twitter www.twitter.com/nwarikoo ___ (c)2014 the Detroit Free Press Visit the Detroit Free Press at www.freep.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |