Racism has been a complex topic for years now because despite the belief of many, there isn’t just one type of racism. In fact, there are many with many different names including: individual racism, interpersonal racism, cultural racism, structural racism and institutional racism, etc. In order for progress to be made, people must first be educated on racism as a whole to gain a knowledge on what can be done fix the injustices placed upon people of color.
On Saturday Aug 10., Evanston Live TV and BLACK put together Community Conversations: Understanding Institutional Racism with panelist/speakers: Pat Quinn, Devon Reid, Bennett Johnson, Lisa Disch, Dino Robinson, Christopher Shuttlesworth and Baxter Swilley. Melika Gardner was the moderator for the event.
The event was all about action with emphases on voting, getting signatures and asking important questions of the people who are in power to make change.
So what exactly is institutional racism? Institutional racism is one of the most important forms of racism because it has a much greater impact than individual racism and can be harder to fight. It is described as discrimination in social and political institutions. Factors of institutional racism include: wealth, income, criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power and education.
Some great examples of the biggest forms of institutional racism we have had to face are the Jim Crow segregation laws and more recently how the police department handles Black and Latino males. New York police directed officers to stop Black and Latino males between the ages of 14 and 20. These types of encounters often cause people to lose hope instead of fighting for change, but the panelists (many of who have also faced institutional racism themselves) are proof that overcoming is both possible and important.
Gardner: You all have this movement that’s actually making change. Usually it’s hitting those first couple roadblocks people go back to being comfortable. No one wants to get down in the grass and make things happen. What did you all do, what did you tell yourself, what actions did you take to get over those over those roadblocks?
Bennett Johnson has dedicated his life to the power of the black community through three areas: political, business and literary. He’s done this through his work in the civils rights era and his publishing company Path Press Inc. He also helped found the Chicago League of Negro Voters in 1958, which is an independent political organization designed to support black candidates in Chicago elections.
Johnson: The obstacles is just like anything in life. You don’t grow unless you have obstacles and you don’t succeed unless you get over those obstacles. So an obstacle isn’t something you should be intimidated by it’s a challenge.
Former IL Governor Pat Quinn has dedicated his time to progressive policies and fighting for everyday people. He is adamant about taking down Donald Trump and his hateful policies.
Quinn: If you don’t vote, you don’t count so it really is important what Devon said to get everybody you can to vote in the upcoming elections of 2020. One of the reasons I’m committed to this whole power of petition and referendum is that it encourages people to understand that I’m not only voting for candidates, but there are issues. We heard some of the issues here today that’s important, whether it’s making sure people get a fair share of government money and construction dollars or making sure people have decent schools and raising minimum wage. The whole movement of raising minimum wage began with a petition drive.
Devon Reid is an Evanston City Clerk. He dedicates much of his time informing/educating people about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Reid: Here in Evanston I work to bring a voice to the table that isn’t traditionally at the table. I started to face a lot of pushback from our city council and folks within the city. One of the ways that I am overcoming is that I rely on you folks to be educated, to understand what’s going on in the government and to vote. Right now, we’re sitting in the Fleetwood Jourdain Center and what we know is that in 1931- Mr. Jourdain won the election in 1931. He was the first African American elected to the Evanston city council. The city council then voted to dismiss him from the council based on trumped up charges of voter fraud. They found a few cases where people were living in storefronts or places that weren’t properly zoned as housing and they used that to say well your whole election was fraud and they kicked him out of office. Mr. Jourdain came back a year later and won the election again. He came back and became a strong voice for the African American community here in Evanston and for the entire city, advocating for the construction of this community center, advocating for desegregating our communities and parks. So what I hold onto and what helps me get over the hurdle is knowing that we have smart, dedicated people in the community and that I am ultimately accountable to you and that is what will help us keep this movement going forward.
Dino Robinson spends his time educating people on the history of African Americans through the Shorefront Legacy Center, which he founded.
Robinson: I think we all have points in our lives that make us woke. My key point started in kindergarten and I saw the system of hierarchy about leadership and lack of leadership. And so I was living in Michigan as early as kindergarten that I borrowed from the sports apparel Nike “Just Do It”. That’s my motivation, every time somebody said no, I just did it. So in kindergarten, when I was woke up a peer of mine as I was playing with this toy- actually it’s clay, making my car out of clay. This kid came up to me and said “niggers are not aloud to play with toys” and the teacher was maybe three feet away. She looked at me and looked at him and turned away. I had a moment in that time as I thought about it that this kid did not learn it on his own, he learned it from his parents. And I had a chance to either become violent or be assertive. At that moment in my live, even though I was in kindergarten, the thing I realized is no one can tell me what I can and can’t do.
Lisa Disch is a political science professor at The University of Michigan. She discusses contemporary continental political thought, with an emphasis on the feminist theory, political ecology, and theories of democracy in both the US and France.
Disch: Information is one of the best ways of getting over obstacles. All of these problems that we think are astronomical, they’re not. The more we know about issues, the more likely we are to find solutions. It takes digging and it takes looking on social media. It takes information and information opens up points of action that you didn’t know existed.
Christopher Shuttlesworth works towards solving the issues surrounding systemic poverty and economic morality through The Illinois Poor People’s Campaign.
Shuttlesworth: I’ve had a few obstacles, but one in particular is a story. My youngest sister was having a quintillion and everyone- the family was dressed really nice. It’s a beautiful time, I wanted to leave though. So my wife at the time, my younger brother we’re leaving, it’s downtown Chicago. So as we’re crossing the street police cars cross the corner. So they get out and call me over to the car, they say put your hands on the car. They put me in the car in handcuffs and drive me to a McDonald’s and waited for the manager to come out and identify me. So of course the manager couldn’t identify me because I didn’t rob the McDonald’s so they arrested me for disorderly conduct. That’s just one of the things that really helped me to keep going- to persevere, to really get involved and join people that are doing things to really change and dismantle this society. It’s going to take all of us. It’s not a color issue, it’s a human issue. It’s going to take humans.
Gardner: I love these stories because I think everybody in the room has been met with an obstacle when you felt passionate about something and you just stopped- these people didn’t stop and I know there’s people out there who are fighting and doing things, but a lot of us stop. We let the obstacle overwhelm us and we just go back to comfort.
As the event wrapped up and the audience got to ask their own questions it was stressed that simply coming to the event to attain the knowledge, but not using the knowledge to evoke change wasn’t going to be much help. The purpose of the event was to provide residents with knowledge of what institutional racism is so they can recognize it and do their part to change it. Now that you have the resources what are you going to do?
Tell us what obstacles you’ve had to overcome institutional racism and what you are doing to fight it.