Illinois poised to be in class by itself
Middle Eastern community celebrates state becoming first to add its racial classification
With just a few short words, lawmakers passed a bill that, once signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, makes Illinois the first state to add the racial classification of Middle Eastern or North African for state data collection purposes.
State senators, representatives, Arab community activists and the mayor of Worth gathered Thursday in the south suburb to celebrate the change they say will improve the lives for the thousands of people near Palos Heights and around the state.
“We soon learned that we could not provide the demographic or scientific data that funders required to justify giving us program fundings,” said Itedal Shalabi, the co-founder and co-director of the nonprofit Arab American Family Services, who has been working on making this change for years.
“Today marks a significant, historic step in changing this scenario — at least in the state of Illinois.”
The legislation passed both the Illinois House and Senate without a single no vote earlier this year.
State agencies will be required to use the Middle Eastern or North African classification for reporting workforce or hiring data by July 1, 2025.
This is especially important for Chicago’s south suburbs.
“We have one of the largest Palestinian communities, probably in the United States of America, in our congressional district,” Worth Mayor Mary Werner said.
“As a mayor, we’ve had a lot of requests over the years and sometimes you feel like it falls on deaf ears. But this is an amazing accomplishment.”
Census data affects decision making on a multitude of issues including allocation of government funding.
“We need data. We need to do the outreach to better understand what makes up our communities,” said the bill’s chief sponsor, Chicago Democratic Sen. Ram Villivalam.