Winter Issue Back Cover

Posted on 02/11/2024 by Public i

Spring Semester Friday Forum Schedule

Friday Forum is in its 98th year at the University YMCA! In recent partnership with Conversation Café, the program is a weekly forum to learn about and discuss pressing public concerns while enjoying free lunch from the Y Thai Eatery. Our weekly events are held at noon in Latzer Hall at the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright St., Champaign. All events are free and open to the public.

An audio recording of each program can be heard the following Wednesday at 6-7 pm on WEFT 90.1 FM community radio.

  • 2/2 Rev. Terrance Thomas, Pastor of Bethel AME Church
    • Exploring the Radical Black Church
  • 2/9 Keith Knight, nationally acclaimed political cartoonist and musician
    • Cartooning Can Save the World! A comic strip slideshow by Keith Knight
    • This FF+CC coincides with the Art @ the Y exhibition that will be on display.
  • 2/16 Carol Ammons, Illinois State Rep.
    • Good Ole Abe and Emancipation and Reparations
  • 2/23 Nadia Bolz-Weber, Lutheran Pastor, NYT Bestselling Author,
    • Illinois Interfaith Conference Keynote Speaker in conversation with Rev. Leah Robberts-Mosser from Community United Church of Christ
    • This FF+CC is the prelude to the Illinois Interfaith Conference that will take place on 2/23 and 2/24
  • 3/1 Ozge Yenigun, UIUC Dept. of Urban and Regional Planning
    • Overcoming Inequalities and Barriers in Refugees’ Labor Market Participation in Germany
  • 3/22 Charlene Teters, artist and activist
    • The Education of Charlene Teters (Spokane Nation)
    • This FF+CC coincides with the Art @ the Y exhibition that will be on display from March 19-24.
  • 4/5 Jay Rosenstein, UIUC Dept. of Media and Cinema Studies
    • ‘In Whose Honor?’ 30 Years Battling Native Sports Mascots and Chief Illiniwek
  • 4/12 Awad Awad, UIUC Salaam MENA Cultural Center
    • The Mission and Vision of the Salaam MENA Cultural Center
  • 4/19 Samantha Auerbach, Urbana-Champaign Reproductive Justice
    • Envisioning Reproductive Justice in the Post-Dobbs Landscape
  • 4/26 McKenzie Johnson, UIUC Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
    • Earth Day and Environmental Justice: Allies or Enemies?
    • This FF+CC takes place during Earth Week

This semester’s sponsors are:

Center for Advanced Study, Center for Global Studies, Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning, College of ACES, Counseling Center, Department of Religion, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Education Justice Project, EU Center, First Presbyterian Church (Champaign), Gender & Sexuality Resource Center, Humanities Research Institute, Latina/Latino Studies, League of Women Voters, Office of Minority Student Affairs, Office of the Provost, School of Social Work, Social Action Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign, Women in Gender and Global Perspectives Program, Women’s Resources Center, Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting, Urbana-Champaign Reproductive Justice.

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November/December Issue Front Cover

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Public i

GAZA CEASE-FIRE NOW!

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal area in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Photo by Wafa and APAImages, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED

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Israel’s Violence Will Never Bring “Safety” to Anyone, Including Jews

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Sarah Lazare and Maya Schenwar

Protesters in Washington, D.C. on November 4 demand a cease-fire in Gaza. Photo by Kirby Jayes, used with permission

This article was published in Truthout on October 18, 2023. It has been updated to reflect numbers as of November 2, and lightly edited for style.

The horror and heartbreak in Gaza reaches new proportions each minute: Israel’s siege has killed at least 9,000 people and injured at least 22,000 in the past 26 days. Israeli forces and settlers have also killed more than 100 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The death tolls climb even as Palestinians and those in solidarity with them are marching and rallying worldwide in powerful and urgent protests.

For us, as anti-Zionist Jewish journalists, the past week and a half has been a flood of many griefs.

We grieve and struggle against the ongoing, now catastrophically heightened violence of Israeli colonization, occupation, apartheid, and genocidal campaign against Palestinians, carried out by a government that is cynically invoking the names of Jews to intensify the oppressive policies it was already invested in.

And we watch with rising horror as the Israeli government instrumentalizes the grief of Jewish people who’ve lost loved ones in the Hamas attacks, which killed 1,400 people and injured 3,400. The Israeli government is fashioning this grief into a weapon, exploiting it to justify the annihilation of Gaza (even as some Israelis who lost loved ones in the attacks urge against taking vengeance against Palestinians). Continue reading →

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The $1,686,170 Slap: The Shamar Betts Case Continues

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Janice Jayes

There has been little transparency on how losses were calculated or what insurance payments have been received by businesses filing restitution claims

It is hard to understand the magnitude of the restitution fine imposed on Urbana resident Shamar Betts as anything other than the persecution of one young black man. Despite a recent stay on collection of the debt pending a response from the federal Appeals Court for the Seventh Circuit, Betts is still a hostage of the state. How is it that a 19-year-old with no previous record was saddled with a seven-figure fine for damage caused in the Market Place Mall riot that followed George Floyd’s murder, when the January 6 rioters have been handed restitution fines of between $500 and $5000?

Apparently, the judges imposing the fines averaging $2000 on January 6 actors thought that amount was a sufficient life lesson. The scale of the fine imposed on Betts, along with the lack of clarity regarding the claims, continues to make this one of the most important cases in Champaign County history. Continue reading →

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Securus is Charging Families Six Dollars for Phone Calls from Jail

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Brian Dolinar

This article originally appeared at Smile Politely on September 28, 2023; reprinted with permission. It has been lightly edited for style.

Phone calls are a lifeline for those incarcerated to stay in touch with their families and loved ones. The phone calls you and I make from our smart phones without a thought cost a person incarcerated at the Champaign County Jail six dollars.

Many bemoan the existence of private prisons, but Illinois has banned such facilities. Much more common are the prison profiteers like Securus, which currently has the contract to provide phone services at the county jail. Securus is what well-known local writer and activist James Kilgore has called a “carceral conglomerate,” owned by the investment company Aventiv, which is invested in electronic monitoring, computer management systems for jails and prisons, video visits, email, and JPay, a money-transfer company. Continue reading →

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At the Feds

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Shamar Betts

Shamar Betts (left) joined Alex Horton of Ubuntu at the YMCA Friday Forum podium October 13, as Horton described the real-life stakes of Black community organizing in Champaign-Urbana

Shamar Betts had no previous criminal record but was sentenced to three years in federal prison for “inciting a riot” through a Facebook post he wrote after witnessing the video of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. He was also made responsible for all the property damage and theft ($1.68 million) committed across town during that time of national anger. This excerpt from his forthcoming memoir describes his early impression of federal prison.

 

The online photo for the United States Penitentiary Hazelton (USP Hazelton) shows a grim, gray-colored brick wall marked by an entrance typical of any secure facility. But beyond the entrance a three-story chain link fence topped with razor wire is visible, a reminder that this is a facility for keeping people in, not out. USP Hazelton describes itself as a high-security prison for 1600 male offenders. An adjacent minimum security “camp” houses an additional ninety prisoners. Shamar Betts was transferred to federal custody in USP Hazelton on November 30, 2021. He would spend the next ­­­­­­18 months behind that gray wall.

I had been in several prisons by this time, but this was different. Hazelton was very structured, but until I learned the rules and routines it was a pretty confusing situation to walk into. For example, if you want to ask the guard a question you can never go by yourself. Why? People might say you were working with the cops if you are talking alone, so even if you want to just ask about the shower schedule you have to find someone to go with you.

There are also certain things you can’t do without permission, and this permission isn’t from the guards, but from other inmates. Inmates run a lot of the routines in the jail and you have to learn the entire system pretty quickly. For example, phones. Each unit has about 120 people on it and there are only six phones on that unit. Each phone belongs to a region or a race. There would be the Midwest phone (for inmates from Ohio, Milwaukee, Illinois, etc); another phone would be the DC or DMV phone (for Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia people); another phone for down South (Atlanta, Mississippi, Louisiana); and so on. Continue reading →

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Champaign Police Investigate “Agency Culture” of Not Following Domestic Violence Reporting Laws — Print Version

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Farrah Anderson and Diana Leane of Invisible Institute

Champaign resident Rita Conerly writes “Protect Women” using chalk outside of the Champaign Police Department on September 28, 2023. Photo by Farrah Anderson/Illinois Public Media and the Invisible Institute

A longer version of this article originally appeared on IPM Newsroom on October 9, 2023. It has been edited for space and style. See the full version here.

This story is part of a partnership between the Invisible Institute’s Champaign-Urbana Civic Police Data Project and IPM Newsroom, and was supported with funding from the Data-Driven Reporting Project.

Champaign resident Rita Conerly called the police in October, 2020 because her former partner was outside her home.

Champaign Police Officer Jonathan Kristensen responded to the call. First, he spoke with Conerly, who shares children with her former partner. She told Officer Kristensen that her former partner did not have a driver’s license, but was driving anyway.

Officer Kristensen then asked Conerly if she wanted a present that her former partner, whom she had previously taken out an order of protection against, had brought her daughter.

He only spoke to Conerly for a minute and a half and left without taking a report, even after she told him the order of protection against her former partner had expired weeks earlier. That week, Conerly filed a complaint, writing that Kristensen failed to protect her. Continue reading →

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Champaign Police Investigate “Agency Culture” of Not Following Domestic Violence Reporting Laws — Original (Long) Version

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Farrah Anderson and Diana Leane of Invisible Institute

Champaign resident Rita Conerly holds chalk outside the Champaign Police Department building off University Avenue on September 28, 2023. Conerly wrote “Protect Women” outside the department’s building after an officer failed to file a report after she made a call regarding domestic violence. Photo by Farrah Anderson/Illinois Public Media and the Invisible Institute

This story was originally published by IPM Newsroom on October 9, 2023. It has been edited for style. See the shorter, print version here.

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 IPM Newsroom, which provides news about Illinois & in-depth reporting on Agriculture, Education, the Environment, Health, and Politics, powered by Illinois Public Media. This investigation was supported with funding from the Data-Driven Reporting Project, which is funded by the Google News Initiative in partnership with Northwestern University | Medill.

Champaign resident Rita Conerly called the police at 4:22 pm on October 10, 2020 because her former partner—who she lived with for over a decade—was outside her home.

Champaign Police Officer Jonathan Kristensen responded to the call. First, he spoke with the caller, who shares children with her former partner. She told Officer Kristensen that her former partner did not have a driver’s license, but was driving anyway.

Officer Kristensen then asked Conerly if she wanted a present that her former partner, whom she had previously taken out an order of protection against, had brought her daughter.

“That is an insult,” she later told a dispatcher when she called to complain. “That is not a way to serve and/or protect me.” Continue reading →

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There Is Only Old People Here. All the Children Are Gone

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Mrs. Marilynn Dean Cleveland

Art work by the author

There’s no hope for a better tomorrow.

There’s no vision or dream for a better reason.

The paths are darkened by fear and evil forces that dwells in the darkness that roams the corners of the street.

There is only old people here.

All the children are gone.

Children cannot be a child, playing the games of innocence. Continue reading →

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Ukraine, Hungarian Refugee Politics, and the Future of Migrants in the EU

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Richard Esbenshade

The Madridi Street refugee center. Ahmid and Mustafa are at right. Photo by author

The February 24, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine unleashed, in addition to death, destruction, and hardship on the Ukrainian people as a whole, a wave of refugees not seen in Europe since World War II. Over six million Ukrainians were living outside the country as of July, in addition to over five million internally displaced: refugees within the national borders. Ukrainians fleeing armed conflict, occupation, random bombardments of apartment buildings and other civilian sites, and/or just the constant fear and uncertainty have been by and large warmly received, with both supportive legal and economic measures by the European Union (EU) and member states; and massive civilian efforts to provide aid and comfort. Many observers have noted a stark contrast with uneven attitudes and support toward other refugees—from war, economic collapse, and climate change—from the Global South, charging a “double standard” based on racial and religious prejudice. With no end of the war in Ukraine in sight, will a long-term refugee presence lead to a more accepting attitude in general? Or will a two-tier system take hold, welcoming European refugees while hardening against those from the South? Will “refugee fatigue” set in, leading to widespread resentment against both and a rise in support for xenophobic right-wing parties? Continue reading →

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Pre-Roe Reproductive Rights Underground: The Story of the Janes

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Pat Simpson

We are back in pre-Roe Chicago. A doctor speaks about sepsis, the emergency rooms overflowing daily with feverish women dying from botched efforts to rid themselves of unwanted pregnancies. Another woman recalls her phone interactions with a mob operative. Yes, they can get her an abortion; they have three options, from most to least expensive: a Rolls Royce, a Cadillac, or a Chevy. Young and strapped for access to cash, she elects the Chevy, and her abortion is perfunctorily performed in a dingy hotel room where she is left bleeding with no closing advice on how to further care for herself as she recovered.

The woman will go on to become a “Jane,” a member of a group of young women who developed an underground abortion network in Chicago before the since-reversed 1973 US Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. The story of this network is told in the 2020 documentary The Janes. The film was recently shown at the Danville Area Community College and sponsored by Personal Pac Danville, which has been organizing the community around fighting recent anti-abortion restrictions passed by their city council, as well as the attacks on an abortion clinic scheduled to open in the area (see Barbara Kessel’s article in the September-October 2023 Public i). Continue reading →

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November/December Issue Back Cover

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Public i

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

Honoring the Sovereignty and Self-Determination of Native Student Higher Education Communities

Monday, November 27, 7 pm

Native Chicago Jam
@ The Courtyard, Illini Union
Wiliam Buchholtz (Algonquin/Métis), Mark Jourdan (Ho-Chunk/Oneidal), Lanialoha Lee (Native Hawaiian), Amber Roy (Northern Palute/MChigeeng Ojtwe), and Dr. Doree Wiese (White Earth Ojiowe)

Tuesday, November 28, 5:30 pm

Encouragement Dinner
@ Murphy Lounge, University YMCA
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Karen Francis Begy (Dine), Independent Scholar and Higher Education Consultant
Co-sponsors: Illini Union Board, Native American House, American Indian Association of Illinois

Wednesday, November 29, 12 pm

Between Virtual Roles and Sovereign Worlds: Tribal Advisors in Historically White Institutions
@ Room 314A, Illini Union
Featuring Dr. Karen Francis-Begay (Dine), Independent Scholar

Thursday, November 30, 12:15 pm

Honoring the Spirit of Relation + Kinship with our Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ Relatives
@ Room 22, College of Education
Featuring Charlie Amáya Scott (Dine), Doctoral Candidate at University of Denver
Co-sponsor: Gender & Sexuality Resource Center

These programs are supported in part by the Student Cultural Programming Fee.

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August/September Issue Front Cover

Posted on 08/28/2023 by Public i

THE STRUGGLE FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS CONTINUES

Stop Abortion Bans Rally, St. Paul, Minnesota, May 21, 2019. Photo by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr

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The Danville Abortion Clinic Troubles

Posted on 08/28/2023 by Barbara Kessel

Damage to the planned home of the planned new Danville abortion clinic from the May 20 attack

Mary Catherine Roberson, chair of the Danville chapter of Personal Pac, warns, “do not take it for granted that because you live in Illinois, you are safe. If the anti-abortion forces start organizing in your town, reach out to Personal Pac for support.”

As soon as the US Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on June 24, 2022, Indiana enacted a new total ban on abortion. After lawsuits against it were cleared away by the Indiana Supreme Court, it went into effect on August 1, causing the considerable flow of abortion seekers from Indiana to Illinois to further increase. Continue reading →

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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 to bring about change. While most people at C-U Days are focusing on barbecue, the stage performers, or meeting up with family members and friends from the past, we put on our research caps and tap into the wealth of knowledge and information the people in the park embody. Most of us are not professional researchers. We are individuals who have spent time in prison or had loved ones subjected to incarceration. But we are fully aware that those who are touched by a problem are closest to the solution. However, few people bother to ask them for their opinions. Continue reading →

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

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Brian Dolinar

Urbana Police Officer John Franquemont arguing with Laquesha Thadison before arresting her on April 5, 2020. Photo courtesy Urbana Police Department

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, after being pushed down by Urbana police officer John Franquemont. “I busted my head on the cart where the kids put their shoes.”

Morrow and her boyfriend, Lamar DeShawn Phillips, who are both Black residents of Urbana, were sleeping when they were woken up in the middle of the night by police in January, 2018. They had crashed on the couch at an apartment rented out by Phillips’s brother. Morrow says they had his permission to be there, but police were called by the brother’s girlfriend, who was also residing in the apartment. Continue reading →

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

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Brian Dolinar

Urbana Police Department Officer John Franquemont after arresting Laquesha Thadison in April 2020. Photo courtesy Urbana Police Department

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 by funding from the Data-Driven Reporting Project, which is funded by the Google News Initiative in partnership with Northwestern University|Medill School of Journalism.

This article originally appeared at WILL/Illinois Public Media on July 5, 2023. Reprinted with permission. It has been edited for style.

“I had a big goose egg on my forehead,” Tianna Morrow recalled, after being pushed down by Urbana police officer John Franquemont. “I busted my head on the cart where the kids put their shoes.”

Morrow and her boyfriend, Lamar DeShawn Phillips, who are both Black residents of Urbana, were sleeping when they were woken up in the middle of the night by police in January, 2018. They had crashed on the couch at an apartment rented out by Phillips’s brother. Morrow says they had his permission to be there, but police were called by the brother’s girlfriend, who was also residing in the apartment. Continue reading →

 342 total views

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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 put here to protect us, but who protects us from you? Every time you say ‘that’s illegal,’ doesn’t mean that it’s true.” (Boogie Down Productions, 1989)

When I was a teenager those were just words to a song. As an adult, they’ve become a motto. I have been DWB (driving while Black) for 20 years now and I’ve learned there are special Rules of the Road for those who suffer with DWB. Continue reading →

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Community of Urbana-Champaign Cooperative Housing to Reduce the Post-Pandemic Youth Housing Divide

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Marilena Prisco

Harvest House on West Washington Street in Urbana, an early COUCH house. Photo courtesy of COUCH

Housing cooperatives have a long history in the US. In university towns like C-U, those laboratories of young people assume new importance in the post-pandemic city. Escaping the logic of a typical landlord-tenant agreement, members self-manage and maintain the houses in which they live. The Community of Urbana-Champaign Cooperative Housing (COUCH) was constituted at the end of the 1990s through the efforts of a group of current and former university students. Fast-forward to 2019: COUCH has evolved to consist of three houses and 37 members. The total number of members that have at one point passed through COUCH since its foundation exceeds five hundred. For organizations like COUCH, the pandemic meant two years of crisis and deep transformation. In 2023, the first year in which the co-op has reverted almost to its pre-pandemic state by reducing the vacancy rate that characterized the previous two years, it is a good moment to reflect on the state of the group and to look at the larger role of youth housing co-ops in the US. Continue reading →

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The Kingfisher is Flying to Illinois

Posted on 08/27/2023 by The Kingfisher Task Force

2023 painting by Kingfisher team member Olivia Jean Merrell. Photo by Kingfisher Task Force, used with permission

In 2007 the UIUC Board of Trustees acknowledged the opposition of faculty, student organizations, and NCAA guidelines prohibiting the use of race-based mascots in intercollegiate athletics, and voted to eliminate “Chief Illiniwek” as the campus mascot. Tired of waiting for leadership on the issue, some students have moved ahead. You can read about this history in a May 2019 Public i article by Stephen Kaufman.

It’s hard going 16 years without an official mascot. To most people, mascots might not be a big deal, but for us at Illinois, how our university is represented is an extension of how we represent ourselves. That’s why, tired of waiting, we’ve decided to spend our time building one of our own. Our mascot is the Kingfisher, a distinctive orange and blue bird found in Illinois, with a wingspan of nearly two feet and nests that are lined with the bones of its prey. We, a group of dedicated students, faculty, and alumni, have been working diligently these past few years to make this mascot the icon it’s becoming, and for those who may not know of our work, we’d like to update you about all we’ve accomplished. Continue reading →

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