Last month, I suggested we find ways to engage, as a community, in sustained conversations and action on race. The idea is to disrupt the pattern, the episodic nature of our concern for a problem that is deeply embedded in American culture and operates continuously even when unmarked by controversy.
One of racism’s primary features is its ability to hide in plain sight, mainly from white people, I’m sorry to say. Think of it like a Klingon Bird of Prey (if you’re a Star Trek fan). It’s still there, even when you cannot see it, and it’s capable of uncloaking and inflicting harm at any moment.
When the deadly invisible space ship decloaks is not the time to figure out how to respond. It’s too late. Racism is the same. If we wait until it decloaks in our community, we’re always scrambling to respond and ill-prepared to win the fight.
A better approach is the training regimen of our public safety departments. In the past year, I’ve participated in the Homewood Citizens Academy (which included presentations about police, fire and public works operations) and the Flossmoor Citizens Police Academy.
One thing I learned was that all our village emergency response departments (plus Flossmoor Fire and MABAS 24) train all the time. Like just about every day. They train as if their lives depend upon it, because they do.
When police officers and firefighters arrive on the scene of an emergency, they don’t have time to check the manual to see how they should respond. They have to act without hesitation.
During one session of the Flossmoor academy, a presenter walked us through several real situations where officers or citizens were hurt or killed. In each case, he identified where officers had not followed best practices that they probably trained for. The results were deadly.
I think the emergency responder training analogy has another advantage. Racism is an emergency that we commonly think of as a chronic ailment. White people, especially, think its manageable, or they think it’s getting gradually better.
It’s chronic because we never treat it with the urgency it requires. It has become a chronic emergency. There’s a better analogy than a Star Trek space ship. Racism is cultural cancer.
There is no easy solution, of course, just as there is no easy treatment for cancer. If you listen to cancer survivor stories, you know the treatment is often painful — but worth it.
If you see an article titled “Solve Racism in 10 Easy Steps,” flee. There are better articles, books, podcasts and films out there that provide vivid, insightful, moving stories about how we got here, why we got here and who got us here.
Defeating racism requires rewiring our culture, and that starts with reading and listening intently, intentionally and often. We’re in this together, so one thing we, as a community, can do is read more and read together.
Anti-racism library
I’m currently reading “Rich Thanks to Racism: How the Ultra-Wealthy Profit from Racial Injustice” by Jim Freeman. The book has added to my vocabulary the term “strategic racism,” which Freeman argues is the impetus behind structural or systemic racism. Racism in our culture was engineered, and Freeman makes a case that one class was and remains the primary culprit.
The first sentence of the introduction: “I can only hope that other people are not as resistant to the conclusions reached in this book as I would have been if I had read them ten years ago.” His task is our task: Keep learning.
Election thanks
Helping voters learn about candidates for local elections is one of the most important missions for a local newspaper outside our regular coverage of local government. In the weeks leading up to the April 1 election, we produced or co-produced 39 videos, more than double the number we offered in 2023, plus we wrote dozens of stories about candidates and published dozens of candidate profiles. Of course, there were more candidates this time, and that’s a sign of health in local democracy.
There were also more readers and viewers of our election content, and that’s another sign of health in our community. Turnout was up some, too. Now that the election has been certified, we’ll take a look at the numbers for a future story.
I want to thank everyone who helped us create election preview content. Jodi Scariano, Gaia Market & Refillery and Tozer Law Office helped sponsor our Meet the Candidates video interview series. Thanks to Bionic Content videographers Marcellus Marsh and Keimanie Rush and H-F High School videographers Anthony Reynoso and Charley Dieringer for their work capturing interviews.
We enjoyed working with the League of Women Voters of Homewood-Flossmoor to record and publish the candidate forums the league sponsored.
We appreciated the lively conversations at forums hosted by the Ballantrae and Heather Hill neighborhood organizations in Flossmoor. Thanks to the many residents and businesses who opened their doors for candidate meet-and-greet events.
Thanks to Chronicle editor Marilyn Thomas for joining me in conducting candidate interviews and to Lisa Campbell for selling enough ads to support our largest print edition ever in March.
And a big thanks to the candidates who had the courage to invest the time, money and energy to get on the ballot and campaign for office. We had more competition for local seats this year than in recent memory. Even candidates who did not get elected served the valuable role of expanding the conversation and bringing to the fore issues that are important to our community.
Do you have ideas for how we can improve coverage of the 2027 election? Write to [email protected] and let us know how we can do better.
Plan ahead
Homewood Public Works Open House. This is a fun event for families. If you think learning about street resurfacing and water lines sounds boring, you’ve never seen kids delight from a ride in a bucket lift or getting to sit at the controls of an excavator and pretend to dig a trench. Kids love big machines, and public works has plenty of those. The event is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at 17755 Ashland Ave.
A Decade of Impact Celebration. You Matter 2 will celebrate its first decade from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, at Glenwoodie Golf Club, 19301 S. State St. in Glenwood. The youth leadership organization has had tremendous impact not only on the young people who participate in its programs but on the community through its many public service projects. This organization has become an integral and cherished part of H-F. For tickets and sponsorships, visit youmatter2.org/decadeofimpact.
Homewood Outdoor Farmers Market. The summer tradition will return on Saturday, May 31, and will run every Saturday through Oct. 11. The market will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday in Martin Square between Chestnut and Ridge roads in downtown Homewood.