LARGE BLACK LIVES MATTER
PROTESTS IN HINSDALE AND DOWNERS GROVE
By Chris Hotchkin
On Saturday June 6 about a
thousand people peacefully marched through downtown Hinsdale, and on Sunday
June 7 four to five thousand peacefully gathered in the streets by Downers
Grove North High School, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and to
protest for equal justice and racial equality. Both events were organized by
young people and mostly attended by young people. The Hinsdale event was
organized by Hinsdale High School students. The Downers Grove event was
organized by Kessie Olekanma and Prevail Bonga, graduates of Downers Grove High
Schools. People of all ages, skin tones, and cultural backgrounds walked
together and sat in silence together for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in memory of
George Floyd and the all too many people of color in America who have been
murdered by police action. Along the route of the march families sat in their
yards with signs of support. We joined hundreds of thousands across America and
even throughout the world in saying we want justice and fair treatment for all.
My late father-in-law, who was
African American, served in WWII. When Corporal Childress returned home from
fighting on Guadalcanal, he was not allowed to sit at a lunch counter and order
a Coke, not even while wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army. Can you imagine
how angry that would make you? Multiply that anger by thousands and thousands of
individuals so disrespected across our nation and hundreds of years of terror
and subjugation. We who are white and privileged cannot know what this is like.
But we are tired of watching videos of fellow Americans being killed, having
their lives choked out or bled out because of the color of their skin. We are
tired of watching videos of people of color or who speak a different language
being judged and persecuted. So we march—because we know it is up to us to
fight the racism that has been our heritage and continues to be an ugly disease
in America. We are the problem and we must educate ourselves and our children
and stay resolved to eliminate the disease and heal our divided and unequal
country.
When I saw the crowds in Hinsdale
and Downers Grove I thought, this is how we begin to heal. We are healing from
a ravaging pandemic, and hopefully we will soon be able to heal our democracy that
has been ravaged by a racist, ignorant, self-serving president. But the Black Lives
Matter movement and the participation in it by so many Americans is a beginning
of the healing of systemic racism. We need laws to reform policing. We need
more and more education into the long history of racism in America and its
systemic effects. We have made progress, sure. Jim Crow was outlawed (but
redlining continued). Voting rights laws were passed (and diluted by the Trump
administration and voting by people of color is currently being suppressed by
the GOP). Schools were integrated, (although many have de facto segregation and
there is great disparity in school funding). People of color must live in this America
fearful of the police, fearful of jogging through their neighborhood, being falsely
reported on by prejudiced people while gathering in a park. People of color
still live in an America where they go to poorer schools, earn less, have less
health care, and are judged guilty by the color of their skin.
What can we do? VOTE! And get
everyone we know to vote, especially young voters! Trump’s America is a
divided, unequal, unjust America and we must rid this country of him and the
legislators who support him. Call out prejudice and racism whenever we see it,
every time. Do not turn away. Be actively anti-racist. Advocate for laws that
reform policing and adequately train police to preserve and protect human
rights for all individuals with whom they have contact. Advocate for better and
fair funding for all schools that will help to create an American that provides
equal opportunity for all. Advocate for teaching our children the truth about
racism in our country. We must face our very ugly history and the persistent cancer
of racism honestly and openly and then work toward an America that truly embodies
liberty and justice for all. The young people who are organizing and marching
in these protests will lead the way.
