chicago
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If You Live in One of Chicago’s Black Neighborhoods, Stop Reading This and Go Check on Your Car
While you’re probably familiar with the phenomenon of “driving while black,” a new investigation on Chicago police officers’ tendency to issue multiple tickets for the same parking violations has ushered in a new, absurd phrase into the cultural lexicon. We shall call it “not driving while black.” WBEZ and ProPublica Illinois analyzed a decade of…
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Chance the Rapper Finally Took a Chance and Proposed
Chance the Rapper took a chance and is now engaged to longtime girlfriend Kirsten Corley. Chance, born Chancelor Jonathan Bennett, proposed to his girlfriend at a Fourth of July cookout. The two have been together since 2013, according to Music News and had their daughter in 2015. The momentous occasion took place in front of…
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Chicago Activist Rides Progressive Wave in Mayor's Race
Ja’Mal Green is standing inside the entrance of the 87th Street Metra station, on Chicago’s Southside, with a fist full of business cards, telling passersby that he wants to run the city. “Hello. My name is Ja’Mal Green, and I’m running for mayor,” he says. Sometimes he stops mid-sentence, because some commuters dash past him…
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Chicago PD Settles for $2.5 Million After Police Point Gun at 3-Year-Old
The headline above is why it is imperative that we support and affirm Black Lives Matter. It’s why Colin Kaepernick kneels. It is why African Americans have a “complicated” relationship with law enforcement. For some of us, contact with the police is as ubiquitous as it is existential. And sadly, the random killing or trauma…
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Jury Finds that Chicago Cop Acted ‘Reasonably’ in 2015 Fatal Shooting of Quintonio LeGrier
Another cop has evaded repercussions after being involved in the fatal shooting of a black person. On Wednesday, a jury in Illinois determined that Chicago Police Officer Robert Rialmo acted “reasonably” when he fatally shot 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier in December 2015. That shooting also resulted in the death of 55-year-old Bettie Jones, LeGrier’s neighbor, who…
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A Hero’s Journey: Father Comes Home From the Wars Is a Reckoning with American History
A war. A hero. A conflict. A journey. These are the components of any timeless tale, dating as far back as the ancient Greeks. In fact, they are the prototypical “hero’s journey,” as epitomized by the second-oldest known Western text in history, well-known to many high school and college literature students as Homer’s The Odyssey.…
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Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters Return, More Relevant Than Ever
Respect your elders. I don’t know a child who wasn’t raised with that admonition, which in my household was often accompanied by a swat on the butt or a swift side-eye when due respect wasn’t paid. But it’s generally far later in life when most of us learn the value of also listening to our…
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Dressed for Success? This Charter School’s Policies Are Humiliating Its Female Students
As if puberty isn’t humiliating enough, the award-winning Noble Charter Schools network of Chicago was recently accused of instituting what several former teachers call “dehumanizing” policies to monitor their high school students. In addition to boasting high test scores and graduation rates, the schools, which are located in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods, go above…