What does 'candid examination' look like?

A recent op-ed from the Daily Herald responds to current anti-racist efforts across our country with a challenge for our local communities, reminding us that change means "to candidly examine whether our governments ensure equal access and equal treatment to every citizen."

One particular challenge that many affluent towns in Chicago's suburbs face is racial and socio-economic segregation. My own community of Deerfield is extraordinarily white - 91% of our residents identify as non-Hispanic white. We have also effectively shut out our lower-income neighbors. Deerfield public goods are available to a disproportionately small number of families below the poverty line (only 2.7% of our community compared to about 12% nationwide).

Socio-economic inequity and race inequity are distinct evils, but they also present intersectionalities of disenfranchisement that our overwhelmingly white suburbs have failed to address. What does candid examination look like for our community, then or for others like it in the Chicago suburbs?

If I were to focus "candid examination" on one thing, I would like to see a public conversation about Deerfield's lack of leadership on low-income housing. Opposition to low-income housing in our area is often defended in the name of local property value, as has often been the case when segregation was defended in the past by appeal to seemingly colorblind priorities.

As long as Deerfield and other North suburbs' closely guarded affluence and our rarely-discussed but overwhelming whiteness, prevents us from fulfilling our moral obligation to stand with a more diverse community of neighbors, then we will continue to dodge the "candid examination" that the Daily Herald editorial board calls for in this moment, when the demand for anti-racist action has been made explicit.

Dr. Evan F. Kuehn

Deerfield