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<\/a><\/p>\nRev. Stacey Mills has reached for three things as he’s gone to walk his dog,\u00a0the leash, doggie bags and his driver’s license\u00a0\u2014 just in case he needs to justify why he, a Black man, is walking around his predominantly white neighborhood near downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘It\u00a0was being dialed in to what other men\u00a0were experiencing in other parts of our country that suggested to me that I needed to take care and be cautious,” Mills said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, he intends for his work\u00a0with\u00a0the Greenville Racial Equity and Economic Mobility\u00a0commission to change that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Co-chaired by TD Bank South Carolina market president David Lominack and Ogletree Deakins attorney\u00a0Merl Code, REEM’s goal is to bring\u00a0together local leaders from various backgrounds to address\u00a0racial inequities, social justice and disparities in key areas that negatively impact the Black community in Greenville County.\u00a0<\/p>\n “There has not been somebody hired to get up every day to do this work, and I’m certainly not riding in on a stallion to say, ‘We’re going to solve it all,'” Mills said. “But we are making the right steps in the right direction to make a difference.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n The United Way of Greenville County, the Urban League of the Upstate and the Greenville Chamber launched REEM in 2020. The organizations came together to address “race-based gaps” locally, spurred by the national conversation on race relations that was amplified by\u00a0the pandemic, according to the United Way.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Using more than 500 collective hours of research and data analysis, the commission released recommendations on June 22 for five focus areas:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n Among those recommendations was the goal to “cultivate a safe and welcoming community that promotes conversation and curiosity around the issue of racial equity” through hosting community\u00a0learning events, sending leaders through the Racial Equity Institute\u2019s training\u00a0and ensuring\u00a0events in Greenville County include “promotion and inclusion of Black culture.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Other recommendations included:<\/p>\n All of REEM’s recommendations can be found at\u00a0reemgvl.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lominack said it was “eye-opening” to see data that outlined disparities and hear how others in Greenville have experienced racial inequalities.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I grew up in Greenville, but I didn’t grow up with some of the some of the life experiences and life challenges that others in our community have faced,” Lominack said.\u00a0“When you really start letting the data drive your decisions and your thought process, it really takes it to another level.”\u00a0<\/p>\n The data\u00a0from\u00a0United Way of Greenville County’s Racial Equity Index<\/a>\u00a0might seem staggering.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u25ba Per-capita income for white residents in the city of Greenville is almost three times higher than\u00a0Black residents.<\/p>\n \u25ba Per-capita income for Black county residents\u00a0is just 67% that of whites \u2014 a larger gap than in the state overall.<\/p>\n\n \u25ba Female, Black\u00a0and Hispanic residents have higher poverty rates than male and white residents. About 22.5% of Black children and 30.2% of Hispanic children live in areas of concentrated poverty, compared to just 4.8% of white children.<\/p>\n \u25ba Black males constitute a higher proportion of Greenville County Detention Center and other\u00a0jail and prison inmates compared to their demographic representation, according to point-in-time data. Black males experience more than three times the expected rate of incarceration compared to their population demographic, according to detention center and census data.\u00a0<\/p>\n The commission took that data and implemented it into conversations and recommendations for the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Many communities have a history of having these great conversations, developing wonderful recommendations, presenting them to the public, but then they end up in a three-ring binder on the shelf and collect dust,”\u00a0Lominack said. “From day one, this commission was absolutely determined to make sure that this work continued at the completion of delivering the recommendations.”<\/p>\n That led\u00a0the United Way, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce and the Urban League to form a formal partnership to own REEM as an organization and appoint Mills as executive director in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n Going forward, REEM will focus on building relationships locally, Mills said, including holding town halls and discussing the report with residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n While some of these conversations have happened before, something feels different this time,\u00a0Lominack said. The partnerships between the organizations that launched REEM, support from the community and\u00a0the larger, national conversation around social justice and race are all contributing factors.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n “It just feels like we have this momentum in this moment that we have to capitalize on,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mills said he is doing the work for his sons, Harrison\u00a0and Zion, and other Greenville children\u00a0who believe Greenville is a great place to live.\u00a0<\/p>\n “For me, the challenge of being the executive director of REEM\u00a0Greenville is to further that dialogue every day, to make sure that that is true\u00a0for Zion and all of those guys that play on his football team at Greenville High and all of the other kids that attend other schools in this community,” Mills said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Macon Atkinson is the city watchdog reporter\u00a0for The Greenville News. She’s powered by long runs and strong coffee. Follow her on\u00a0Twitter @maconatkinson<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Stacey](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/11\/13\/PGRE\/76bd1a0d-bc0c-43e0-b564-99239487e6b2-JM.staceymills.111320.002.jpg?width=660&height=441&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp\")
<\/figure>\nREEM commission in Greenville addresses criminal justice, education<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\nBlack households lag white Greenville counterparts in income, data shows<\/h2>\n