BENTON HARBOR, MI — On Saturday May 26, 2018, Occupy the PGA to save our children!—a coalition of Benton Harbor residents, community groups, and allies from across the region—will hold a mass demonstration, rally and march in protest of the 2018 Senior PGA golf tournament. The rally will begin at 11 a.m. at Benton Harbor City Hall, 200 East Wall St.
This year’s tournament will be the fourth since the construction of the controversial Harbor Shores golf course and luxury condominium development, backed by the Whirlpool Corporation. It also marks the fourth Occupy the PGA protest.
The coalition has demanded that the Senior PGA transfer 25% of its profit to Benton Harbor, where more than half of the residents live in poverty, where over 90% are Black. Occupy the PGA also indicts Whirlpool, Harbor Shores and the senior PGA for its unfulfilled promises of significant jobs and tax revenue for Benton Harbor residents.
The group also continues to demand a public acknowledgement at the tournament of the theft of public park land for profit, referring to the leased 22 acres of dunes on Jean Klock Park for transformation into three holes of the Harbor Shores golf course. The group attributes the transfer to the complete undermining of democratic structures via former Democratic Governor Granholm’s installment of an Emergency Financial Manager in Benton Harbor in December2010. Benton Harbor was the first predominately Black Michigan city in recent years to be subjected to an Emergency Financial Manager, and then Emergency Manager, with absolute power.
Occupy the PGA organizers see the Harbor Shores development as a prime example of racist genocide by gentrification, designed to force out Black community members who have lived in Benton Harbor for generations, instead of bringing jobs and opportunities. Such luxury developments at best bring only a few low-wages service jobs for locals.
I, the Rev Edward Pinkney of the local community group BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community Organization) say Benton Harbor continues to be a city under siege. The mishandling of public trust could not be more massive, unjust, inhumane, and unconstitutional. The Senior PGA needs to hear our voice. It’s time to stand up and fight for what’s right. We must confront Whirlpool, Harbor Shores, and the senior PGA.
