Exchange in Glencoe inspires group to chalk new messages
Balancing Act
On Thursday afternoon, shoppers and walkers and diners who ventured onto downtown Glencoe’s sweltering streets were greeted by anti-racist messages chalked in bright pastel colors by a group of North Shore residents.
HAVE YOU GOOGLED WHITE PRIVILEGE? LEGALIZE MELANIN DON’T KILL MY KIDS RACISM ISN’T THE SHARK IT’S THE WATER
BLACK CHILDREN MATTER
WHITE SILENCE EQUALS VIOLENCE
The sidewalk tables at Hometown Coffee & Juice, on the corner of Park and Vernon avenues, were full. People strolled in and out of the Starbucks a few doors down.
“These are very cool,” a young woman called out to sidewalk chalker Jasmine Sebaggala.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Sebaggala, wearing a TOGETHER WE RISE T-shirt, answered.
The event was arranged by Highland Park resident Ashbey Beasley. On Fourth of July, Beasley and her husband and son drove to Glencoe to grab coffee and doughnuts from Hometown Coffee & Juice and noticed a man using soap and water to wash chalk messages off the sidewalk out front. Beasley started to record him with her phone and asked him why he was removing the messages.
One of the messages said, “We are not all free.” Beasley, who is Native American, told the man the message was true and should remain there.
“His response was, ‘What country do you live in?’ and my response was, ‘Native Americans are not free. Native Americans live in oppression today,’ ” Beasley said.
He made a derogatory statement about Native Americans and continued to wash away the message. Beasley continued to record him. She posted the video on Facebook and invited people to return to that same corner this week and fill it with new messages.
“Someone in his community wrote that and he erased his neighbor’s words,” Beasley said. “That was someone’s powerful statement of personal pain and he erased that.”
Glencoe resident Eva Roytburg said she and a group of high school students called Chalk for Justice North Shore were responsible for the “We are not all free” message and others that were erased on Fourth of July. On July 3, they had gathered for a BYOSC (Bring Your Own Sidewalk Chalk) outing in Glencoe and Winnetka to share messages calling for social justice. Roytburg said she was heartened by Thursday’s turnout.
Karla Thomas saw Beasley’s video on Facebook and drove to Glencoe on Thursday from Evanston. She brought her 9and 7-year-old children.
“When I see things like that and I think about my kids, I need to make sure the voices like his are drowned out with way more voices fighting for equality,” Thomas said. “So my kids know all of the world doesn’t look like that and that we’re fighting against his voice. I’m not going to say his opinion, because racism is not an opinion.”
Thomas helps run a Facebook group called Every Single Person Committed to Anti-Racism. She said different members plan to return to the same corner in Glencoe to chalk new messages whenever they get washed away by rain or footsteps or scrub brushes.
Sebaggala came from Skokie to join the action. She said she grew up in the North Shore and faced racist taunts from a young age, particularly in school.
“I’m working to make this world a better place for my kids and for every other child that needs me to, honestly,” she said. “I just want to stop racism in its tracks the best we can. It’s time for the world to change. I’ll work as long as I’m here and my kids will work as long as they’re here and their kids will work until this world is a just place for all.”
Glencoe’s population is 92.9% white, according to 2010 U.S. Census data, a fact that found its way into one of the chalk messages: REDLINING CREATED YOUR 93% WHITE BUBBLE.
The chalkers received a warm welcome Thursday, with passersby calling out compliments and families with young kids grabbing sticks of chalk and joining the effort.
Olivier Alexandre said that wasn’t the case a day prior. He showed up on the corner Wednesday, a day before the organized action, to chalk a few messages. He said the police came by and told him someone reported a man writing violent messages. He said he showed the police what he’d written — BLACK LIVES MATTER. BLACK CHILDREN MATTER — and the officers told him to carry on.
“Everyone should feel safe and welcome to live here,” Alexandre said. “To live in any town.”
And on Thursday, he worked to make it so. A beautiful little scene, with the potential to create ripples of lasting change.
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