Category Archives: Racism

The Case for Reparations: Champaign County

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Jeff Trask

According to the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation, Black people in America own 10 cents of wealth for every dollar a white person owns, have lower life expectancies and higher unemployment, will earn $1 million less during their lifetimes, are … Continue reading →

435 total views

Posted in African American history, African Americans, African Americans, Inequality, Labor/Economics, Racism, Section, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged African American history, discrimination, inequality, racism, reparations, Slavery, wealth gap | Comments Off

A Road Map for Repairing the Harm: The History of Racially Restrictive Covenants

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Aaron Ammons and Grant Chassy

Can you imagine, as a resident of Champaign County, being told you aren’t allowed to live in a neighborhood because you’re Black? By today’s standards, such blatant racism would be met with disgust and rejection—at least by the majority of … Continue reading →

1,178 total views

Posted in African American history, African Americans, Champaign County, Housing, Justice, racial segregation in Champaign/Urbana, Racism | Tagged Champaign County, housing discrimination, racial segregation, racism | Comments Off

FirstFollowers: Using Participatory Action Research to Make Change in Our Community

Posted on 08/28/2023 by James Kilgore

FirstFollowers has a tradition of doing participatory action research at Champaign-Urbana Days, the premier outdoor summer event aimed primarily at the Black community. Participatory Action Research (often called PAR) aims to gather data and information, not just for publication but … Continue reading →

512 total views

Posted in African Americans, incarceration, Racism, Section, Violence, Voices of Color | Tagged African Americans, incarceration, local community, participatory research, policing, violence in the community | Comments Off

A “Pattern of Problematic Conduct”: Urbana Officer Tests Police Accountability (Shortened Print Version)

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Brian Dolinar

This article originally appeared at WILL/Illinois Public Media on July 5, 2023. Reprinted with permission. It has been edited for space and style. See the full version here. “I had a big goose egg on my forehead,” Tianna Morrow recalled, … Continue reading →

741 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African American Women in Champaign-Urbana, African Americans, BLM, Justice, Police, police accountability, Police Brutality, Police brutality, Policing, Racism, Section, Violence | Tagged police accountability, police brutality, police review boards, racism, Urbana police | Comments Off

A “Pattern of Problematic Conduct”: Urbana Officer Tests Police Accountability (Full Version)

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Brian Dolinar

This story is part of a partnership, focusing on police misconduct in Champaign County, between the Champaign-Urbana Civic Police Data Project of the Invisible Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit public accountability journalism organization, and Illinois Public Media. This investigation was supported … Continue reading →

563 total views

Posted in African American Women in CU, African Americans, BLM, Justice, Police, police accountability, Police Brutality, Police brutality, Policing, Racism, Section, Violence | Tagged police accountability, police brutality, police review boards, racism, Urbana police | Comments Off

Code Blue: Suffering through DWB in Rantoul

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Kevin Williams

This essay, submitted to the Rantoul Press in 2009, was never published. The author shares it now to give context to community concerns with policing in Rantoul in the wake of recent police shootings of young Black men. “You were … Continue reading →

1,340 total views, 2 views today

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, Champaign County, Justice, Police, police accountability, Police Brutality, Police brutality, Policing, Racism, Section, Voices | Tagged African Americans, Driving While Black, local community, police harassment, policing | Comments Off

Growing Up “Unlucky”: Putting a Human Face on Bureau of Labor Statistics

Posted on 05/01/2023 by C. Owen

Numerous options for employment abound in our small metropolitan area nestled amid the farmland of eastern central Illinois. From warehouses to food establishments to car repair shops, job seekers have many a choice for offering their time and effort. Yet, … Continue reading →

821 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African American history, African Americans, Economics, Labor, Labor/Economics, Racism, Section | Tagged economic racism, economics, inequality, Labor, unemployment | Comments Off

Central Illinois Police Training for Mental Health Cases Questioned — Print Version

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Kelsey Turner

Tisha Bryson has been shackled, hospitalized, and shoved to the ground by Champaign-area police while experiencing a mental health crisis more times than she can count. “I try not to hold grudges,” said Bryson, of Hammond. “But some of the … Continue reading →

592 total views

Posted in health care, Mental Health, Police, police accountability, Police brutality, Policing, Racism | Tagged mental health, police training | Comments Off

Central Illinois Police Training for Mental Health Cases Questioned — Full Version

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Kelsey Turner

Tisha Bryson has been shackled, hospitalized and shoved to the ground by central Illinois law enforcement officers while experiencing a mental health crisis more times than she can count. “I try not to hold grudges,” Bryson said, a resident of … Continue reading →

606 total views

Posted in health, Mental Health, Police, police accountability, Police brutality, Policing, Racism, Section | Tagged mental health, police training | Comments Off

Why I Called Herschel Walker Coonish: The Right of Black People to Call Out their Traitors

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua

Editors’ Note: This article has been held until after the Georgia runoff election so there would be no suggestion of a political endorsement. Since Donald Trump’s incursion into US politics in 2015, deprecation and intimidation have become pervasive. Trump and … Continue reading →

1,023 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, bigotry, Politics, Racism, Voices, White Nationalism | Tagged fascism, media, politics, racism | Comments Off

How The Issue of Representation Impacts Central Illinois

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Marcus Pruitt

The issue of unequal representation of cultures has plagued the nation since its birth, often resulting in the perversion of people’s natural rights. In central Illinois, it extends that perversion through aggressive discrimination. Although minorities have seen more representation on … Continue reading →

831 total views

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, bigotry, Media, Racism, Section, Violence, Voices | Tagged African American, discrimination, media stereotypes, racism, violence | Comments Off

Donald Trump v. Shamar Betts

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Shamar Betts

I, Shamar Betts, incited a riot through a Facebook post encouraging my people to join alongside the rest of the world in an attempt to express our feelings on the tragic death of George Floyd in May of 2020. Although … Continue reading →

754 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African American, African Americans, BLM, Court System, incarceration, January 6 insurrection, Justice, Prisoners, Racism, Trump, Voices of Color, Youth | Tagged African American, BLM, incarceration, Justice, Trump | Comments Off

Juneteenth Freedom Day

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Aaron Ammons

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19 that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with … Continue reading →

622 total views

Posted in African American history, African Americans, African Americans, Racism, Remembering, Voices of Color | Tagged African American traditions, holidays, Juneteenth, Memory, Slavery | Comments Off

The Great De-Centering: The World after Ukraine

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Janice Jayes

The Ukraine war is a turning point in history, but not the one you might be expecting. It won’t revive the Cold War. It won’t determine the survival of the Liberal World Order (whatever that is). And most decidedly, it … Continue reading →

899 total views

Posted in Foreign Policy, International, International, Middle East, Politics, Racism, Ukraine, War | Comments Off

Shamar Betts Case Moves to Federal Appeals Court

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Janice Jayes

On April 8, the case of Urbana resident Shamar Betts moved to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Betts was arrested in June, 2020 in the midst of a national crackdown on protests against the murder … Continue reading →

1,250 total views

Posted in African Americans, BLM, incarceration, Justice, Racism | Comments Off

Passing: Can One Ever “Pass”?

Posted on 03/31/2022 by Jim Barrett

I recently watched one of the most beautiful and perhaps also one of the most significant movies I have seen in a long time. Passing, based on a 1929 novel by the Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larson (1891–1964), is a … Continue reading →

650 total views

Posted in African American women, African Americans, Arts, film, Racism, Section | Tagged African American women, film, race, racism | Comments Off

Urbana’s Long Search for Traffic-Stop Equity

Posted on 02/10/2022 by Durl Kruse

In 2004 the State of Illinois required all law enforcement agencies to report their annual traffic stop data to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). The Urbana Police Department’s (UPD) data shows they have enforced traffic laws inequitably every year … Continue reading →

772 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African Americans, Champaign County, Justice, Police, Policing, Racism | Comments Off

What’s Understood Need Not Be Explained

Posted on 02/10/2022 by Crushion Stubbs

I’m curious to know, as a reading eye and listening ear, what are you expecting to hear from me? That the feds were somehow wrong, and Shamar was right? Or that he was justified in putting out some call to … Continue reading →

812 total views

Posted in African American, African Americans, Arts, BLM, Justice, Local Arts, Police brutality, Racism, Section, Voices | Comments Off

The Unacknowledged and Ongoing Genocide: Violence against African Americans

Posted on 02/09/2022 by Gordon Brown

I began writing this reflection on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2021, a national holiday created by President Lincoln in the hopes of healing the wounds following the Civil War. Yet for many the wounds still run deep. One of the … Continue reading →

860 total views

Posted in African Americans, Racism, Violence | Comments Off

Police Brutality is Not Uniquely American: Try France

Posted on 09/22/2021 by Richard Esbenshade and Belden Fields

While we are rightly preoccupied with abuse by the police in the United States, almost no Americans know anything about policing and justice in other countries. France offers a particularly interesting case. In January, six nongovernmental organizations, including Amnesty International … Continue reading →

969 total views

Posted in 1968 Revolt, France, International, Justice, Police, Police Brutality, Police brutality, Policing, Racism, Students | Comments Off