Mount Pleasant City Commission is comprised of three men and four women. Mayor William Joseph is 29 years old, making him the youngest ever to serve in his position.

However, Mount Pleasant City Commission lacks racial diversity on its staff, and there is a direct relation to the 2010 United States Census numbers.

Of the 26,016 residents in 2010, just 3.9 percent were black or African American alone in Mount Pleasant. When reviewing the City Commission staff, one thing becomes clear – everyone is white. Joseph wants to see a change in the near future.

“A lot of community events I go to, people have a lot of diversity,” Joseph said. “People would be really receptive to that element being represented. It brings perspective.”

Joseph said there isn't any racial diversity on the commission. If everyone took a survey, Joseph claimed each member would most likely fill in the Caucasian bubble on the sheet.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of racial tensions in Mount Pleasant. Part of that is we are majority Caucasian town,” Joseph said. “I don’t see a lot of racial negativity in Mount Pleasant. Not to say there aren’t, I’m sure there are feelings on both sides from people, but Mount Pleasant is an accepting place.”

At Central Michigan University on Nov. 7, Sweeney Hall resident Yasmeen Duncan found a racist message on the whiteboard on her door. Just 13 days later, on Nov. 20, another form of discrimination occurred on a dorm room whiteboard in Robinson Residence Hall.

The on-campus discrimination is isolated to the university, Joseph said. He thinks those who reside in Mount Pleasant year-round are generally accepting of everyone.

One of the reasons why Joseph thinks City Commission lacks racial diversity is because minority residents are afraid to run for election.

“Some people might think it’s a challenge they might not be comfortable getting into or they think they’ll stick out because they are Asian American or black," Joseph said.

A few historical figures that broke diversity barriers are Malcolm X as a human rights activist, Thurgood Marshall as a member of the Supreme Court, Jackie Robinson as an athlete and Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

While none of those carry the same weight as a minority on the Mount Pleasant City Commission, Joseph said he desires for a person of color to be elected someday.

“You see a lot of stories about the first people to break barriers, whether it’s political, in a business or getting an education,” Joseph said. “There’s that element to being groundbreaking.”

While racial diversity is something Joseph and City Commission hopes to tackle, age is one of the diversity aspects in which the group excels. One year ago, City Commission was mostly women and a majority were under 40 years old. The average age is no longer under 40.

“One of the reasons I got on commission was to represent that younger background. For me, it’s important to have the voice and ear of the student age and mid-20 to 30s,” Joseph said. “I try to go to CMU and attend events as much as possible. Those ideas and interests are at the top of my head.”

Joseph’s message to minority races is to not be afraid and take a chance on running for City Commission.

“Being elected to anything is a scary process, even if you look like everybody else in the election,” Joseph said. “My impression from talking to voters in town is your sex, gender, race and religion will be less important than your ideas moving forward.”