Racial Justice

delete

My name is Jen Chen and I’m currently a student at UIUC. Prior to college, I attended Chicago Public Schools for my elementary, middle, and high school education. In my 15 years of being in the system, I’ve experienced some incredibly traumatic moments that have changed my life for the worst and one situation in particular has continuously affected me for the past 2 and a half years. This is Susan Kenny and she’s currently a PE teacher at Senn High School in Chicago. Aside from this position, she’s also a Driver’s Ed coach at Amundsen High School and during the time that I was receiving my training there. Susan was blatantly racist and biased towards me for being Asian and if you’re familiar with racial stereotypes. Then you would know that Asians are perceived to be bad drivers even though that’s not always true. However despite this stereotype not being true to every Asian individual out there, Susan failed to leave this bias behind and repeatedly treated me poorly in a way that wasn’t shown towards all of the other students that weren’t Asian. From saying that I practically “killed” someone when I accidentally hit a cone to not letting me get into a car with her, it seemed like she had no shame in showing her racist biases. Even though I wished I’d spoken up about this sooner, I was afraid to do so as CPS handles these situations poorly and above all. I didn’t know what was her name, however. Not too long ago, I stumbled upon an article on social media regarding a different teacher from the same school who had been fired for being racist and decided to learn more about this situation. I came across the school’s website and saw Susan’s picture next to her name. Afterwards, I decided that it was time to speak up and I reached out to the school’s principal to talk about this situation. However even after the conversation, not much has happened and Susan Kenny is still a teacher at Senn. This is completely unacceptable and this situation cannot further escalate, especially with what the Asian community has been through since the start of this pandemic. Racism til this day is still incredibly normalized towards community and if Susan Kenny isn’t fired. She will continue to be part of a problem that has plagued the Asian community for centuries to the point where our existence feels like a death sentence.

Da Baby makes good music and is pretty hot so I think he belongs on the dollar bill.

Robert Moses has left behind a long legacy of prejudice and gentrification, specifically targeting the Black and Jewish communities. Through his role in building infrastructure throughout Long Island, he supported tactics leading to housing segregation so Long Island neighborhoods were predominantly inhabited by White Christian folks. Yet, many still praise him for his work, calling him a “true visionary.” Specifically, the Babylon Village Public Arts Commission funded a project to erect a Robert Moses statue in 2002, which now stands in front of the Babylon Village Town Hall. A plaque included with statue contains exaggerated language glorifying Moses, saying that he had an “eye to the future” and “preserved the integrity of the Long Island shoreline while creating a legacy for future generations.” The true “future” that Moses envisioned was divided and prejudiced. The plaque only mentions his injustices once, saying that he was a “dominant and sometimes controversial force.” This statue clearly fails to adequately acknowledge his disregard for human lives for the sake of superficial innovation. Moses also built the Lincoln Center area of New York City after he misplaced communities of color. He gave Fordham University the land to build a second campus, and the university named the outdoor plaza after him and erected a statue commemorating him in 2016. This was met with immediate outage on behalf of the students, and the university swiftly removed the statue. We are asking that Babylon Village does the same, as the statue represents a long history of systemic racism and anti-semitism.