Bruce Weik: Recognizing racism - It's a new day for Galesburg
Have you ever just sat down and thought about where racism comes from? How is it some of us become programmed to believe that skin color or country of origin becomes the most significant thing defining our character and worth as a human being?
I realize that there are a lot of ingredients that go into someone being racist, or whole institutions practicing systemic racism. It seems so trivial, so insignificant, the color of a person’s skin, or country that person is from, or sexual orientation. Yet there are many people in Galesburg who think different should be treated different, that they are to be less respected than your average, run-of-the-mill white person. This shows up in all sorts of ways.
Galesburg has just under a 25% minority population. Yet our police department has a mere 9% employment rate for minorities, most being in the office, not on patrol. And it gets worse with our fire department, which has zero percent minority employment. You can’t help but wonder how this happens? The indifference that has to exist to allow this to happen is inexcusable. It is the same type of indifference that exists to allow for a whole section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to be burnt down by white racists a hundred years ago, with barely a mention of it. Not even people in Tulsa knew about it. At least not until fairly recently. Thousands left homeless, and hundreds killed, merely for being successful Blacks. Asians are being hassled for being Asian. Mexicans for taking our jobs. Gays, lesbians, trans., for leading a life they feel is honest to themselves. And now again, the right for a women to control their own bodies.
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Systemically, these things happen for multiple reasons. If we think in terms of a circle representing the whole, we need to look for how many pieces that whole, that pie, is cut into. How many pieces go into allowing for these types of injustices to occur. Each piece adds to the whole, which becomes greater than the pieces. The result is institutional racism and hatred. Solving one piece of the whole will not solve the problem. We need to take each piece individually, until all are resolved, or at the very least improved.
We have a lot of work to do to expose racism and inequality in our city, our institutions, and in ourselves. A new mayor for Galesburg breathes new possibilities. The ex-city manager, Todd Thompson, put together a good working document regarding the systematic examination of every department of our city government, including the police and fire departments. So far, I’m not sure it has seen the light of day, particularly with his exit. Hopefully, a new manager will take up this challenge, with encouragement from the mayor and council. These things, and others, are promising developments and show signs of a new day.
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A Southside Task Force was formed to get a better understanding of the neglect that has resulted in our economic development strategy that has favored the north side, to the neglect of the rest of Galesburg, particularly the southside. Unfortunately, as fast as it started, it has pretty much come apart. One of four subgroups is all that is left, but it continues to work on developing the parks and organizing the neighborhoods on the southside. Much of the city administration underestimated the hard work that has to go into righting this wrong. Citizens are tired and disheartened by our talk and lack of past action. They feel powerless. This makes the job of organizing the Southside very difficult and will remain a constant challenge.
Once we open ourselves up to creative solutions to racism, hatred, and economic injustices, many other ideas will come forward. We seem to be off to a good start. It’s a new day for Galesburg. Hopefully, we will take advantage of it.
Join us on Aug. 31 for a podcast entitled “OUR MINORITIES STRENTHEN US,” 6-7:30, at The Vault. Watch for additional information on the Many Paths Galesburg Facebook page. Any problem first has to be talked about before it can be resolved.
Bruce Weik, was a longtime columnist for The Zephyr, and is co-creator of Many Paths Galesburg.
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Bruce Weik: Recognizing racism - It's a new day for Galesburg
