Series on race relations opens Thursday in Northwest suburbs
A discussion with interim Chicago Police Superintendent John Escalante on Thursday, March 31 and a Community to Community workshop with the Sisters of the Living Word on April 14 will kick off a series on community and race relations in the suburbs.
The Rev. Clyde Brooks, chairman of the Illinois Commission on Diversity & Human Relations, thinks the suburbs are ripe for discussions on community and race relations, which is why the first two segments of the "Bridging the Divide" series will be held in Hoffman Estates and Arlington Heights.
A third part, the annual ICDHR dinner honoring Martin Luther King Jr., will be held April 30 in Chicago.
Thursday's luncheon, Police and the Community, will be held 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Marriott Chicago Northwest, 4800 Hoffman Blvd. in Hoffman Estates.
Escalante, the keynote speaker, has been Chicago's interim police superintendent since Dec. 1. On Monday Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel replaced him with Eddie Johnson, the department's chief of patrol, as the new interim superintendent.
Thursday's event is expected to attract mostly suburban police chiefs and other municipal leaders, but the public also can attend. Tickets are $40; visit icdhr.org,
Shifting demographics - caused largely by the gentrification of formerly poor areas of major cities like Chicago - are causing the suburbs to address policing matters they didn't have decades ago, Brooks believes.
The purpose of the event is not to lay the blame for America's racism on police, for whom Brooks said he has much sympathy. He said he considers street gangs terrorists of the poor communities upon which they prey.
America's buried racism is being driven out into the light today by blunt-speaking politicians, just as it was during the height of the civil rights movement, Brooks said.
"Race relations today are worse than when Martin King was alive, and that's because we never owned up to the truth," he said. "When Donald Trump says 'Make America great again - the way it used to be,' that means something different to people of color."
The second event is Community to Community, a discussion from 8-10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 14, at the Sisters of the Living Word headquarters, 800 N. Fernandez Ave., Arlington Heights.
It is intended to make people more aware of the subtle undertones of certain speech and to get all people, not just politicians, talking about diversity, Brooks said.
The discussion is open to all - "local municipal leaders to residents to religious groups," Brooks said - and attendees are asked to RSVP to the Sisters of the Living Word at (847) 577-5972.
Meanwhile, on April 30, Chicago Police Board President Lori Lightfoot is the keynote speaker at the ICDHR's 48th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance and Unity Dinner.
Brooks said the event has been moved from January to take the focus from King's birthday and put it back on his message.
Individual tickets for the Unity Dinner are $350, and available at icdhr.org, by emailing cbrooks@icdhr.org or calling (630) 771-1707.
Also on April 30, ICDHR volunteers and supporters are being asked to give at least an hour of their time at Comcast Cares Day at Carter G. Wilson School, 4414 S. Evans Ave., in Chicago.