Restaurants Help Labyrinth Outreach

A pair of Twin Cities restaurants next month will help feed the need to support formerly incarcerated women working to reintegrate into the community.

On March 2, Rosati’s Pizza in Normal is donating 25 percent of its dine-in sales and 20 percent of carry-out and delivery sales to Labyrinth Outreach Services  to Women, for patrons who mention Labyrinth when ordering. Contributions will be made for orders placed all day.

And then, on March 31, Noodles & Company in Normal will donate 10 percent of the value of all purchases between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. to the organization.

Labyrinth is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization that provides long term supportive services to women from McLean County who have been incarcerated or are on probation. It collaborates with all available local social service agencies to assist women in remaining free of future court involvement. The goal is to significantly reduce criminal recidivism in McLean County.

Labyrinth recently received funding via two grants. The Illinois Prairie Community Foundation- Women to Women fund will support pre-employment/"soft" skills this spring, while the State Farm Bank Foundation will help Labyrinth continue classes exposing women to non-traditional employment and trades this summer and fall.

Laverne: 'I'm Not Just One Thing'

Photo by Katherine Warren

Gay, transgender, straight -- no one is "just one thing," according to a critically acclaimed actress and African-American transgender woman who keynoted this week's 23rd annual Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (MBLGTACC) at Illinois State University's Braden Auditorium.

Laverne Cox, who plays Sophia Burset, an incarcerated transgender woman in the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, received a standing ovation from the Bone Student Center audience.

“I stand before you an artist and an actress, a sister, and a daughter," Cox told the gathering, which assembled for informational sessions and entertainment at the regional conference. "And I believe it’s important to name the various intersecting components of my multiple identities because I’m not just one thing and neither are you."

Cox greeted the crowd with the words of the noted abolitionist Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a woman.” She noted Truth originally spoke those words when a crowd of people accused her of being a man, exposing her breasts as proof of her femininity.

Cox discussed the challenges she has faced and the shame she hid over most of her life. Cox was born in Mobile, Alabama, and has a twin brother, M Lamar, who portrays the pre-transitioning Sophia in Orange Is the New Black. Cox stated she attempted suicide at the age of 11, when she noticed that she had developed feelings about her male classmates and had been bullied for several years for not acting "the way someone assigned male at birth was supposed to act." She is a graduate of the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Alabama where she studied creative writing before switching to dance, and Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, New York, where she switched from dancing to acting.

Not In Our Town: Bloomington-Normal's Arlene Hosea discusses the group's anti-bigotry/anti-bullying efforts with students during the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference. Photo by Camille Taylor.

Cox now speaks and writes about transgender rights and other current affairs in a variety of media outlets, such as the Huffington Post.

“All of the challenging things that have happened to me have made me who I am and I think they also made me more sensitive to other people’s issues because I’ve gone through some stuff,” Cox said.

Cox urged the community to create "spaces of healing" to minimize the damage caused by cruelty and bigotry.

Cox will return on February 25 to speak at ISU. Tickets are available for free to ISU students and staff in the Bone Student Center Box Office, with a limit of four tickets per person. They will be free and available to the public starting February 16.

Police and the Percentages

Nationally, African-Americans make up 11 percent, and Latinos make up 9 percent of police agencies in communities with more than 250,000 residents. How do the Twin Cities and McLean County fare?

The Bloomington Police Department is ramping up efforts to add diversity in new officers. Here's a breakdown of the number of minorities, women, and white officers employed with local law enforcement agencies, compiled by The Pantagraph:

• Among Normal Police Department's 83 officers, there are two African-American officers, one Hispanic female and one Asian male. Seventy officers (84 percent) are white males and nine (11 percent) are white females. (The NPD currently is over its full complement of 81 officers because several are about to retire).

• Bloomington Police's full complement is 128 officers, but four have not been replaced. The 124 officers include four (3.2 percent) male Latinos and two (1.6 percent) African-American male officers, including Chief Brendan Heffner. A third African-American officer recently retired after 30 years. There are 115 (92.7 percent) white male and three (2.4 percent) white female officers.

• None of McLean County sheriff's patrol deputies are minorities. The department has 53 officer positions, but only 44 are filled: 43 are white males; there is one white female.

• Illinois State University's Police Department has 27 officers. Three (11 percent) are African-American males, 18 (67 percent) are white males and six (22 percent) are white females. 

Demographically, McLean County is 80.5 percent white; 7.7 percent African-American, 5.2 percent Asian, 4.7 percent Hispanic or Latino and 51.2 percent female, according to 2013 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Other area police departments have a similar shortage of minority officers.

Of the Champaign Police Department's 123 officers, 99 (80.5 percent) are white males, 10 (8 percent) are white females, three (2.4 percent) are Hispanic males, one is an Hispanic female, two (or 1.6 percent) are Asian males and eight (6.5 percent), including Chief Anthony Cobb, are African-American males.

Of the 241 Springfield police officers, 195 (81 percent are white males; 11 (4.6 percent) are African-American males; five (2 percent) are Hispanic males; and two are Asian males. Springfield also has 28 (11.6 percent) white female officers.

To explore opportunities in local law enforcement, visit the Bloomington Police recruitment page at http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?recordid=2&page=201.

ISU Speaker: Katrina Culmination of a Whirlwind of Forces

The devastation that occurred in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was due to more than Mother Nature, says Cedric Johnson, associate professor of African American studies and political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In honor of Black History Month, Johnson will address the politics that enabled the chaos that followed Katrina with his talk titled  The City that Care Forgot:  New Orleans and the Future of American Urbanism at 7 p.m. Tuesday, February 17, in the Prairie Room of the Bone Student Center at Illinois State University.

The event is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Department of History and the Office of the President, the talk is part of the Speaker Series at Illinois State University.

Johnson is editor of a collection of essays titled The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalist Culture and the Remaking of New Orleans. The book examines the root causes of the disaster of Katrina, and places blame squarely in neoliberal restructuring. The book's contributors argue that "human agency" and public policy choices were more at fault for the destruction and social misery experienced than were sheer forces of nature. 

Deluge also examines how pro-market reforms are reshaping life, politics and economy in New Orleans. The book won the W.E.B. DuBois Outstanding Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

Johnson is also the author of Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics.

Johnson earned a Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland-College Park, and was awarded a post-doctoral Fellowship at the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies at the University of Rochester. His scholarly work has been published in journals such as Souls and the Journal of Developing Societies.

The Speaker Series of Illinois State University seeks to bring innovative and enlightening speakers to the campus with the aim of providing the community with a platform to foster dialogue, cultivate enriching ideas, and continue an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process. 

Pamela: Youth's 'Unique Perspective' Can Benefit Law Enforcement

Bloomington's Pamela Reinbrecht on  the Bloomington Police Department's effort to recruit diverse new officers onto the force:

"Young people have a unique perspective on how the world and community works, in real time. They understand the struggles and how it feels to be in situations where you need to call 911. They see how people react when backed in a corner and can typically see bad behavior or a criminal mind. Call it instinct, if you will. To the community, that's huge. 

"They are young, smart, athletic, great work ethics and truly do care about their community. They are more awake and alert than we give them credit for.  I would like to see them appreciated more and given the chance to thrive. After all we/they know the future is up to them doing the right thing. Let's allow them to do just that."

Willie: 'That's So Gay' Not So Cool

In the new article,  “That’s So Gay”: From a Teacher’s Perspective, in the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance publication and its accompanying website (http://www.tolerance.org/print/blog/s-so-gay-teacher-s-perspective), Ginger Aaron Brush, a lesbian elementary physical education teacher in the Birmingham, Ala., area confesses that when she was closeted, the term "immediately caused me to shudder." Her typical response to students at the time was, "We don't use those kinds of words."

"Unknowingly, I taught my students that the word gay was vulgar and that it had no place in dialogue or conversation," Aaron Brush wrote. "Although I had hoped not to bring any attention to this word, I was doing just the opposite. I was bringing negative attention to the word gay and unintentionally promoting it as a word to use when one wanted to hurt another person’s feelings. By not saying anything more than, 'Don’t use that word,' I was actually saying a lot."

In the years since, the teacher has embraced her sexual identity and learned to emphasize diversity rather than creating an air of the taboo around LGBT issues. She now sees such juvenile slights as "opportunities to help my students understand family diversity, how to steer clear of gender stereotypes and to recognize bias-based bullying." Aaron Brush recommends asking questions such as “Why would you choose that word?,” “Tell me why you think being gay is an insult?,” or “How do you think that would sound to a gay person?” over merely "shutting down the conversation."

Not In Our Town: Bloomington-Normal leader Willie Halbert recalls the value of a similar dialogue roughly three years ago at the Bloomington Public Library, when a group of Bloomington and Normal high schoolers participated in a survey that revealed they all were guilty of using "That's so gay" and other terms, "not even thinking that they were discriminatory top a group of individuals."

"They were actually in tears when they thought about it," Halbert recounted. "Those youths who participated's lives were changed, and two of them actually received the (Twin Cities' annual) Martin Luther King Award for their work with NIOT and other work toward equality."

Sadly, she said,  Aaron Brush's article demonstrates that three years later, "the same issues are still occurring."

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Teaching Tolerance is a publication free to teachers that provides “a place for educators to find thought-provoking news, conversation and support for those who care about diversity, equal opportunity and respect for differences in schools.” It is “dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation’s children.” Teaching Tolerance is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center and includes the magazine, weekly newsletters, classroom resources, film kits, and more.  Accommodating the broad range of age and developmental appropriateness needed in schools, teachers from all school levels are able to use and benefit from the resources.

BPD Chief Heffner Extends Invitation to the Force

Young Bloomington men and women -- Chief Brendan Heffner wants you.

The African-American head of the Bloomington Police Department emphasizes that "we ARE recruiting," and he's hoping March police officer testing will contribute to a more diversified force for community good.

As of mid-January, the BPD included 124 of a total allotted 128 officers -- 118 white, four Latino, and two African-American (including Heffner). Three of those officers are female.

Though Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner admits "we are not as diverse as we'd like to be," he argues his department is "better now than we've ever been," with 79 white, two African-American, one Latino, and one Asian officer. The NPD includes 10 women.

Heffner reports "minorities who are looking for a job" can earn a starting salary of $56,000, three weeks' annual vacation, and "good benefits." He urges the community to help identify and encourage potential candidates.

"This isn't for everybody, so we need everybody's help," Heffner said.

Illinois Prairie Community Foundation Announces Grant Opportunities

IPCF is accepting applications for four types of grants through Feb. 23, offering opportunities for cultural, arts, education, and health.

Applicants must represent a 501(c)3 organization or one that operates under fiscal management of a 501(c)3, a branch of local, county, state or federal government, a nonprofit school/college/university, or a religious organization as recognized by the IRS. Programs must be available to residents of McLean, DeWitt, Livingston or Logan Counties but need not operate in all four counties (one exception is the Shulman Grants, which must be available to residents of McLean County).

For each specific program application, a group may choose only one grant type. However, you may apply in multiple grant categories if the applications are for distinctly different programs and fit the criteria for that particular type of grant.

IPCF General Grants are open to programs and projects that focus on education, environment, health and wellness or youth.

Mirza/IPCF Arts and Culture Grants are open to programs and projects that focus on performing, visual, or literary arts and/or art education/enrichment.

Youth Engaged in Philanthropy (YEP) Grants are conducted by Illinois Prairie Community Foundation’s YEP group consisting of 24 area high school youth. Projects must be youth focused or significantly impact youth; adults and youth alike are encouraged to submit an application.

Sol Shulman Jewish Life and Education Grants are open to educational programs and materials for residents of McLean County that focus on Jewish-themed arts, music, and theater or Jewish cultural enrichment. Examples include books for libraries, lectures, school curriculum or the like.

More information and applications for all four grant types are available at http://www.ilprairiecf.org/ipcf-grant-rounds Direct questions to Kathi Davis, associate program director and grants coordinator, at (309) 662-4477 or (309) 662-4477 or kdavis@ilprairiecf.org.

IPCF supports local solutions to local needs by growing and preserving permanent funds

Webinar to Focus on School/Neighborhood Race Issues

University of Illinois Extension will offer Racial Dynamics in Housing and Schools, a local government information education network webinar on “the complex issues surrounding contemporary racial dynamics,” at noon February 24.

The one-hour on-line session is presented by Dr. Maria Krysan and Dr. Amanda Lewis, University of Illinois Chicago and Institute for Government and Public Affairs and Dr. John Diamond,  University of Wisconsin, Madison. It will introduce participants to issues shaping racial dynamics in schools and neighborhoods.

In small, medium and large cities throughout Illinois, children and families of different races and ethnicities routinely attend different schools and call different neighborhoods home.  Despite the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which made it illegal to discriminate against minorities in the buying and renting of housing, segregated neighborhoods persist — and their causes are complex.  Similarly, after a short period when schools became more integrated, there has been even less positive movement toward accomplishing the goals of integrated schools.  And the two are clearly inter-related. 

In this webinar, presenters will provide background on the patterns and causes of segregation in neighborhoods and schools, and explore some of the attitudinal and structural factors that underlie these patterns.  The discussion will offer insights into some of the programs and policies — particularly in schools — that inadvertently help contribute to these patterns of segregation and to the unequal outcomes that often result from them.   

For more information on the webinar and how to participate, please contact Corey Buttry, University of Illinois Extension state specialist, Community and Economic Development, buttry2@illinois.edu  217-244-2430. To register online, visit https://web.extension.illinois.edu/registration/?registrationid=11555.

Bring It On Bloomington Notes Feeling of Social Divide

Eric Stock

WJBC-AM 

Results of a city-wide survey in Bloomington are now in a hands of stakeholders who will try to see what changes - if any - can be done. 

Executive Director of the McLean County Regional Planning Commission Vasudha Pinnamaraju said while Bloomington's population actually skews younger than the national average, there's worry they'll inevitably get older and how can the city be hospitable?

"By that time, how are we going to accommodate that aging population?," Pinnamaraju asked. "Do we want to lose them to the Sunbelt communities? Do we want to help them age in place? These are all of the questions we are asking." 

Vasudha Pinnamaraju queries residents during a 2014 Bring It On Bloomington meeting at the McLean County YWCA.

Pinnamaraju told WJBC's Scott Laughlin, the survey also shows a clear east-west divide in the city, due largely to socioeconomic factors. There's a much higher concentration of low-income families in west Bloomington. 

"The sentiment exists there is a divide. People feel like we should try to find ways to dissolve that," Pinnamaraju said. 

Residents also said they want to preserve the city's historic neighborhoods. 

"People are happy with the variety we have with older and newer neighborhoods, but are extremely concerned the historic neighborhoods are not being taken into consideration," Pinnamaraju said. 

More than 2,000 residents took part in the Bring It On Bloomington survey that will guide the city's comprehensive plan for the next two decades. The working groups covering areas such as economic vitality, arts and culture and neighborhoods are expected to have a final report for the city council by June. 

From Night Riders to Freedom Rider

Zellner at immediate right behind activist and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee colleague Julian Bond. (Richard Avedon Foundation)

An Alabama native and civil rights activist who rejected his family's links to the Klan and helped organize the freedom rides of 1961 will speak Feb. 10 at Eureka College, on the 1960s civil rights movement.

Bob Zellner is the author of The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement. Spike Lee is producing an independent film, “Son of the South,” based on the book.

Zellner's talk will be at 7:30 at the college's Cerf Center. Tickets are $5. For reservations, go to www.eureka.edu/events or call 309-467-6420 or 309-467-6420.

Zellner's father and grandfather were active in the Ku Klux Klan, but the young Zellner's childhood took a unique turn when his father James traveled to Europe to help support the Jewish underground during the Nazi occupation. Isolated from English speakers for months, his father met a group of black gospel singers who were also supporting the Jewish underground.

As they worked together as equals throughout a Russian winter, James came to reject the racist beliefs he was raised with, and when he returned, he split from the KKK.

By high school, Bob began forming his own opinions on race and equality following the expulsion of Autherine Lucy (a black student) from the University of Alabama.

By college, Zellner had become the first white field secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a group involved in registering voters and working for change and equality.

As a result of his efforts with SNCC, Zellner was arrested 18 times and charged with offenses that included criminal anarchy and inciting the black population to acts of war and violence.

He later continued organizing anti-racism efforts with the Southern Conference Educational Fund.

Zellner has a doctorate in history from Tulane University. He wrote his dissertation on the Southern civil rights movement.

National School Choice Week: No Social Barriers

Bloomington Alderman Karen Schmidt celebrates National School Choice Week at God's Deliverance Outreach Ministry with Pastor Rochelle Patterson.

A record number of US governors, mayors, and county leaders took part in the reportedly largest-ever series of education-related events in U.S. history by issuing official proclamations recognizing Jan. 25-31 as School Choice Week in their states and localities.

These 158 proclamations were issued by 64 Democratic and 43 Republican mayors, including Bloomington's Tari Renner. Held every January, National School Choice Week is an independent public awareness effort. National School Choice Week 2015 will be America's largest-ever celebration of opportunity in education. Featuring more than 11,000 independently organized events across all 50 states, the Week shines a positive spotlight on effective education options for children.

National School Choice Week is independent, nonpolitical, and nonpartisan, and embraces all types of educational choice – from traditional public schools to public charter schools, magnet schools, online learning, private schools, and homeschooling.

"Families all across the country are celebrating the freedom to choose the right schools for their children this week. As people nationwide gather to support opportunity in education, it's clear that elected officials are standing up and taking note," said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week. "There's no political or geographic barrier to supporting educational options for parents and kids, which is why we see Democrats and Republicans from every region of the country recognizing School Choice Week."

According to a 2011 Education Next poll, 50 percent or more of African-Americans either “completely” or “somewhat” favored vouchers for students to attend private schools, versus just 23 percent or fewer who oppose the idea. When presented with tax credits for individual and corporate donations for private school scholarships, “somewhat” or “complete” support hits 57 percent.

A Black Alliance for Educational Options report surveyed 1,700 black voters in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi in March 2013. In each state, 85 percent to 89 percent of those surveyed wanted as many educational choices as possible. More than half of those surveyed in each state—55 percent to 57 percent—said they would send their child to an alternative to their assigned school, if given the choice.

The group Hispanics for School Choice (HFSC) meanwhile advocates "for the removal of any restrictions on the parental right to choose" between public, charter, virtual, or home schooling.

"We are excited to start working on our advocacy goals for the upcoming year, all of which will break down barriers that are preventing too many children from reaching their full potential," Said Jason S. Crye, executive director of HFSC.

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Gender and Needs Part 2: Police Working to Understand LGBT Issues

Physical abuse is not the domain merely of heterosexual men -- male victims and partners in gay or lesbian relationships face special challenges when they call 911, seek court relief, or attempt to deal with the abuse at hand, Bloomington counselor Cheryl Strong advises.

Strong notes how the system has adapted -- or sometimes has failed to -- in seemingly unorthodox domestic abuse cases. She argues a male partner in a relationship who has been assaulted by or fears escalation to violence or a violation of orders of protection by his female partner should call 9-1-1 as readily as would a female abuse victim. It's not a matter of a partner's ability to physically defend himself, but a matter of being able to legally protect himself in the event a physical episode occurs.

"If you're at risk, and you're a male, you need to let the police know what happened," Strong maintains.

Same-sex couples can experience "very similar dynamics" as regards domestic abuse, but Strong rejects the "myth" that two male partners or two female partners are an equal physical or emotional match in a conflict. That myth may cause some law enforcement officers to respond differently to a domestic incident involving an LGBT couple, potentially underestimating the threat to a victim.

"It's not really about strength -- it's about who is being the abuser and is taking the liberties of power and control in a relationship," Strong relates.

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The National Domestic Violence Hotline offers this overview of the dynamics of power and control in various relationships and gender orientations.

Further, reporting same-sex partner violence or abuse may require victims to "out" themselves before they are willing or ready, and even today, Strong warns some LGBT couples may feel isolated within the community and thus reluctant to seek official assistance or highlight abuse. Most domestic abuse shelters aren't designed to meet the needs of same-sex partners, further limiting options for victims or potential victims.

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, conducted in 2010 and published in 2013, interviewed 9,086 women and 7,421 men who self-identified as heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual. The survey focused on sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence in the 12 months before the survey and over the respondents' lifetime. The federal Centers for Disease Control measured intimate partner violence across five categories: psychological aggression and coercive control, control of reproductive or sexual health, physical violence, and stalking.

The CDC determined a lifetime prevalence of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner was 43.8 percent for lesbians, 61.1 percent for bisexual women, and 35 percent for heterosexual women, while it was 26 percent for gay men, 37.3 percent for bisexual men, and 29 percent for heterosexual men.

The good news is, the local law enforcement community is responding to the special issues of LGBT citizens. Illinois State University Police Chief Aaron Woodruff recently helped local police and correctional officers gain greater insight into issues facing the transgender community. Woodruff was one of the main presenters at police training sessions sponsored and moderated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Other presenters at the sessions included members of the transgender community from Champaign, Peoria and Chicago.

“The training sessions gave officers and staff members a greater understanding of the transgender community and issues surrounding gender identity and expression,” said Woodruff. “Greater awareness of those issues helps to build trust and foster better communication between police officers and members of the transgender community.”

All University Police officers and dispatchers took part in the training, along with police officers from Bloomington and Normal, McLean County Sheriff’s deputies and McLean County Jail correctional officers.

In addition to general cultural competency, the training sessions addressed specific situations involving interactions with law enforcement, such as victim interviews, searches and even jail placements.

For more information, check out the National Domestic Violence Hotline at http://www.thehotline.org/is-this-abuse/lgbt-abuse/.

Heart Association: Social Environment Can Affect Kids' Health

Bigotry and bullying bad for the health? A new study may suggest as much.

Children with favorable "psycho-social" experiences may have better cardiovascular health in adulthood, according to research in the January 27 American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Positive psycho-social factors include growing up in a family that practices healthy habits, is financially secure, is a stable emotional environment and where children learn to control aggressiveness and impulsiveness and fit in socially.

In a Finnish study, participants with the most psycho-social advantages in youth scored higher on a cardiovascular health index in adulthood than those with the least psycho-social advantages.

Cardiovascular health index was calculated by looking at activity level, cholesterol and blood pressure control, healthy eating and weight, blood sugar control and stopping cessation.

Results from the study revealed that those with the most psycho-social advantages in childhood had a 14 percent greater change of being a normal-weight adult, 12 percent greater chance of being a non-smoker as an adult and 11 percent greater chance of having a healthy glucose level as an adult.

"The choices parents make have a long-lasting effect on their children's future health and improvements in any one thing can have measurable benefits," said Laura Pulkki-Raback, study author and research fellow at the University of Helsinki.

Researchers initiated the project with 3,577 children and teens ranging from age 3 through 18 and measured socioeconomic status, emotional stability, parental health behaviors, stressful events, self-regulation of behavioral problems and social adjustment.

Twenty-seven years later, researchers assessed 1,089 of the original participants to determine cardiovascular health.

Favorable socioeconomic status and self-regulatory behavior — meaning good aggression and impulse control — in youth were stronger predictors of ideal cardiovascular health in adulthood.

"Scientific evidence supports the fact that investing in the well-being of children and families will be cost effective in the long run because it decreases health care costs at the other end of life," Pulkki-Raback said.

Famed Olympian/Civil Rights Advocate Speaks Feb. 17 at Eureka

Carlos at right, offering the gesture of solidarity that sparked Olympic controversy and global awareness of racial issues.

1968, Mexico City. Olympic bronze medalist John Carlos made headlines not only with his feet but also with his fist -- an upraised fist that told the world social change was coming in America.

During the awards ceremony following his loss to fellow American Tommie Smith in the 200-meter run, Carlos grabbed global attention when he bowed his head and raised a Black Power salute as a statement on racial inequality in the U.S. Eureka College welcomes Carlos as a guest speaker at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, in the college's Cerf Center. The program is free and open to the public -- reserve tickets at www.eureka.edu/events.

Carlos was joined in his gesture of protest by Smith, as well as by Peter Norman, the silver medalist and white athlete from Australia who participated by wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge. Carlos and Smith wore black socks and no shoes on the podium to represent African-American poverty in the United States.

Then-International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage deemed the statement unfit for the Olympic Games, and ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village. As a founding member of the OPHR, Carlos originally advocated a boycott of the 1968 Olympics unless South Africa and Rhodesia withdrew from the games, Muhammad Ali's world heavyweight boxing title was restored, Brundage stepped down, and more African-American assistant coaches were hired.

The boycott failed, but Carlos saw his greatest year in track and field in 1969, leading San Jose State to its first NCAA championship. He continued on to a stint in U.S. and Canadian football and a career as a coach and staffer at Palm Springs High School in California.

In April 2008, Carlos was a torch-bearer for the Human Rights Torch, which ran parallel to the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay and focusing attention on China's human rights record. On July 16, 2008, John Carlos and Tommie Smith accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for their salute, at the 2008 ESPY Awards, and Carlos is an honoree of the National Track & Field Hall of Fame.

One Billion Rising Mobilizes Against Violence

YWCA McLean County's Stepping Stones assists and counsels local victims of sexual assault. The Y focuses on fighting violence and ending racism.

Leave your work, leave your school, interrupt the day, rise for revolution, dance, drum, and demand an end to violence against women!

Members of the community are invited to participate in One Billion Rising on Friday, February 13, from 12 to 1 p.m. at Heartland Community College's Community Commons Building, Room 1406, for Zumba, drumming, yoga, community resources, raffle items, refreshments, and more.

One Billion Rising Revolution is an escalation of the first two stages of a YWCA-supported campaign, One Billion Rising and One Billion Rising for Justice. The last two years, organizations have "mobilized, engaged, awakened and joined people worldwide" to end violence against women. The campaign highlighted the fact that violence against women is a global human issue "not relegated to country or tribe or class or religion, further exposing it as a patriarchal mandate, present in every culture of the world."

 The community agencies sponsoring this year’s event are Children’s Home + Aid, McLean County DVMDT, Mid Central Community Action, The Om Tribe, and YWCA McLean County. To learn more about One Billion Rising for Justice, visit www.facebook.com/TwinCitiesOneBillionRising or www.ywcamclean.org/1billionrising.

Black History Month Pt. 1: Santa and Civil Rights

History highlights the monumental deeds of giant men, but it also documents the great small steps of ordinary but courageous citizens and the events that moved the wheel of social progress, if even an inch. Over national Black History Month beginning next week, we will examine the lives, deeds, and struggles of McLean County African-Americans who made a difference. Here's one unusual but significant episode in the community's history.

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In November 1966, the Twin Cities tasted a yuletide sampling of the social discontent that was continuing to mount across the nation, as city fathers decreed there was only one Santa Claus -- and he wasn't black.

Merlin Kennedy challenged that assumption, as he had for much of his adult life. Kennedy later challenged State Farm, spurring new corporate opportunities for African-Americans, and in 1977, he was honored for his efforts on behalf of his community with a local Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Adult Human Relations Award.

Kennedy was born in Decatur and drafted into the Navy right after high school graduation in 1945. He was discharged a year later, and spent several years in Detroit, moving to Bloomington in 1958 for better employment opportunities. He soon became involved with the local chapter of the NAACP and civil rights issues. He also served as chairman of the Bloomington Human Relations Commission.

Kennedy in 2010

In 1966, the annual Chamber of Commerce Christmas parade featured a float with a white Santa Claus; another float, with Kennedy, a black man also portraying Santa Claus, was not allowed. The NAACP float arrived at Franklin Park as promised, with Merlin Kennedy in his Santa Claus costume in a sleigh, but according to the Nov. 20, 1966, Pantagraph, the float was blocked at Main Street. Kennedy, then NAACP president, and three other companions climbed down from the float and led a protest on the Bloomington courthouse square before Kennedy was told by a Bloomington policeman he was under arrest for disturbing the peace."

He reported also being "pushed around" by a policeman and "a couple other strong arm boys." The quartet was detained temporarily, but Kennedy ultimately was not arrested, and the incident gained some national attention.

It wouldn't be the first time Kennedy shook local sensibilities in the interest of social equality. Kennedy “got on State Farm’s case” about not hiring minorities and convinced the corporate giant to hold night classes to improve minorities’ skills. The company began hiring minorities, and at the prompting of Kennedy, also approached the colleges to find minority students.

His wife, Beulah Jones Kennedy, was his partner in the struggle. Mrs. Kennedy was born and grew up in Bloomington, attending Bloomington public schools through high school, and Illinois State University for 1 1/2 years.

She worked at St. Joseph's Hospital and was active in the local NAACP, where she was a firsthand witness to Bloomington-Normal's employment and housing situations.

Breaking Barriers: Police, Residents Come Together to Eye Future Needs

McLean County law enforcement agencies and citizens came together Thursday for a dialogue on police and their relationship and rapport with the community.

Bloomington's City of Refuge Church hosted and Not In Our Town: Bloomington-Normal co-sponsored Breaking Barriers, a discussion between locals and the police organized to address concerns in the wake of Ferguson and other nationwide incidents between the public and law officers. The meeting gave residents the chance to question the Bloomington and Normal Police Departments, as well as the Mclean County Sheriff and State's Attorney and the head of Illinois State University's police department.

Organizers hope the program opens the lines of communication between residents and local leaders.

"Education is key. If you know why they do things or if you disagree with why they do some things, you can head off some problems ahead of time," said John Elliott, Bloomington NAACP president and NIOT:BN steering committee member.

Elliott hopes people will continue to speak up and get more comfortable with polices and procedures that local police officers have to follow.

Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffner told WMBD-TV "some things will come up yes, but it's how you handle them. And when you have lines of communication open with your civic leaders, we can work things out and they have the faith in us that we will handle it."

Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner and Bloomington Chief Brendan Heffner with a young participant in Thursday's Breaking Barriers forum.
 

The chief echoed Mayor Tari Renner's recent assurance that Sgt. Ed Shumaker's 2013 statement that an African-American stabbing victim should "bleed to death" following an altercation at a local restaurant is "not what we're about." While the new chief said Shumaker's reprimand -- deemed by some in the community as inadequate -- reflected the remark being a "one-time incident" for the officer that Heffner deemed "out of character," he noted "we brought it out and we did address it."

"His comments were terrible," Heffner told residents at the forum. He said he could not address whether Shumaker himself would proffer a public apology for the remark.

Meanwhile, residents among other things inquired about the racial makeup of local police departments and the psychological screening procedures for prospective and new officers.

Heffner, who extended an invitation for new community recruits for his department ("We're going to recruit"), said three more Breaking Barriers-style meetings are planned for the near future. Twin Cities Stories will provide a more in-depth analysis of Thursday's discussion and conclusions later this week.

On January 22, members of the Bloomington-Normal came together with representatives of McLean County, Illinois, law enforcement in Breaking Barriers, a dialogue aimed at addressing concerns about police-community relations. Here's a sampling of the dialogue, including Bloomington Police Department Chief Brendan Heffner on a recent racial remark by one of his officers.

Here's a video snapshot of moments from the forum, from NIOT:BN's Darlene Miller. Twin Cities Stories will provide more in-depth analysis of forum discussions and conclusions this week.

Uma: Youth a Focus For India Association in 2015

When you speak of McLean County’s Indian “community,” you’re covering a wide swath – from Indian-American residents of long standing in the Twin Cities to university and college students to visa’ed workers and specialists in the U.S. seeking a community with which to temporarily share the cultures and traditions of their homeland. Bloomington-Normal is home to Indians representing a number of the subcontinent’s states and culturally diverse regions.

And Uma Kallakuri sees it as her mission to reach out and unite them all. Kallakuri is 2015 president of the McLean County India Association (MCIA), a group formed in the late ‘70s to support what she deemed a “handful” of Indian families across the cities. Now, McLean County is home to a reported 600-some families of Indian heritage, a new Hindu temple opened its doors last year at 1815 Tullamore Ave. in Bloomington, and a new priest was installed in December.

Members of McLean County's Indian community celebrate during "PARAMPARA - The Heritage," an Indian classical dance performance last February in Bloomington, featuring artists from Nrityamala Dance Academy.

Kallakuri pledges to continue MCIA’s central goals of “bringing together the community and inspiring them to keep up their traditions and their roots, while at the same time helping them integrate into the community and give back to the community.” Kallakuri, a local classical Indian dance instructor and adjunct professor with Illinois Wesleyan University and, understands the need to keep fresh blood flowing through the community, and MCIA currently is focusing especially on younger members of the community.

That includes working to engage Illinois State and Wesleyan and, increasingly, Heartland Community College students in events and celebrations for the overall Indian community. Kallakuri hopes to foster a broader mentoring program offering youth the opportunity to develop professional and life skills and insights from established members of the community.

 “Youth are our future, and we want to create a platform for them so that we can keep working on understanding better and then work more on diversity,” she maintains. “We are trying to bring them all together.”

With State Farm, two hospitals, and two universities to a growing retail/restaurant sector, McLean County suffers no dearth of Indian mentors. Through her local Nrityamala Dance Academy (NDA), launched in 1984, Kallakuri has helped keep classical Indian dance vividly alive and provided cultural insights for the broad community through local performances that often have helped support causes such as the Community Cancer Center, Children's Hospital, Red Cross, Salvation Army, American Heart Association, and Hindu temples. The academy has contributed as well to Hurricane Katrina and Asian tsunami relief.

MCIA is co-sponsoring a marrow donor registration drive this Sunday, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Normal Community Building, 1110 Douglas Street, while NDA students will perform at 2 p.m. March 21 at the Hindu Temple of Bloomington-Normal.  

MCIA attempts to reach out to new members of the local Indian community, including temporary workers and employees, “to let them know there is a place they can call upon and come forward and connect with other Indians,” Kallakuri relates. MCIA also helps coordinate orientation/training sessions on the community for area businesses and agencies, and offers cultural education for area schools. Kallakuri points out that while many Twin Citians may be aware of the fall festival of Diwali, they may be unaware of Indian New Year, celebrated in March or April. The annual Festival of India, held on the ISU quad each September, offers a glimpse of Indian regional cultures, art, food, and folkways. While there are often significant differences in observances and customs across the various Indian states, MCIA sponsors generalized seminars, celebrations, and other events designed to bridge all subcultures.

“We do come together, especially at the Festival of India,” Kallakuri said. “Everyone enjoys coming together and watching one another. Each state and each region has its own way of cooking, its own way of dressing, its own way of doing things. But basically, there’s the same idea behind it all.”

Kallakuri finds Bloomington-Normal “generally, a good place to live.” She has taught not only at Wesleyan and ISU but also at other regional universities and in surrounding towns, and has found her fellow Illinoisans generally “encouraging.”

“I’ve had good experiences here – I love this place,” she said.

For more information on the Indian Community and MCIA, visit http://ourmcia.org/.

Robert: Feb. 13-15 Conference Aimed at Community, Empowerment

Steve Barcus

Originally published on STATEside

Illinois State University will host the 2015 Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (MBLGTACC) February 13–15. The three-day conference is expected to draw 2,700 attendees from 13 states to educate and unify the LGBTQIA community in an open and welcoming environment.

Senior social work major Robert Alberts is leading 20 of his peers in planning and executing this massive event. STATEside caught up with Roberts to get an inside look at the conference.

What is the MBLGTACC?

Alberts: For any student in the minority demographic, they are always the “other” student. They’re always “that one LGBT student.” They’re always “that one student of color in the classroom.” So you’re always “othered” no matter where you go. It’s not anything that forces you to feel insecure or unsafe, but it definitely weighs on you.

Walking into this environment and knowing that while people may identify differently than you, they’re all a part of the same community is one of the most incredible feelings. You feel like you have a sense of purpose and you belong. And you don’t feel worried that you’re going to be this other person because you’re standing in a group of people who have so much in common with you. So it’s empowering to stand there and know that all of these people are there not only to learn but also to form a community.

Read more about Alberts and the conference on Illinois State’s daily blog STATEside, at http://stories.illinoisstate.edu/magazine/illinois-state/state-side/qa-big-lgbt-conferences-student-leader/.

To learn more about the MBLGTACC or to register, visit www.mblgtacc2015.org. Volunteer opportunities are still available. Learn more on the conference website.