Let the kids guide us through this reckoning on race, violence
Almost exactly one year ago, the Chicago Tribune shared Erikson Institute’s data analysis plotting murders from 2016-2018 on a heat map by community area. This data was overlaid with census numbers showing 60% of children younger than 5 in Chicago live in neighborhoods where most of the city’s homicides occur.
The call to action garnered public attention and interest from policy leaders. But one year later, we face a blatant reminder that we can and must do better.
The first half of 2020 has been unlike any other in history, and Chicago is facing unprecedented challenges. COVID-19 remains a serious concern in Cook County, with Black and Latino people hit the hardest. The city is also reeling from mass uprisings against police brutality and systemic racism, while simultaneously digesting the headlines that young children are repeatedly falling victim to fatal shootings. The recent July 4 holiday marked three weekends in a row where a child was killed by gun violence.
The competing crises create the perfect storm for children to show us the way forward. Children are inherently social justice oriented, and their keen sense of fairness reveals a deep intolerance for slow change. Just think about when a 4-year-old points out something is unfair. Their unfiltered candor and sense of urgency to solve problems tunes out any distractions or “special interests.” They demand reconciliation and immediate change. We would do well to listen and learn from the youth who are leading efforts to transform Chicago.
As with any movement that changed the course of history, young people have been at the forefront, whether in life or death. In 1955, Emmett Till, 14, was lynched and mutilated by white men when he was accused of whistling at a white woman. The murder, and subsequent opencasket funeral, ignited a national outcry that forever changed the course of history and helped spark the civil rights movement.
Whether it was Ruby Bridges who courageously walked into an all-white school in 1960, the student-led sit-ins of the early 1960s in Greensboro, North Carolina, or the murders of four Black girls at the hands of the KKK while they were attending a Birmingham church in 1963, young people have always been the drivers of change.
Many have drawn parallels to these historic turning points with our modern-day collective outrage in response to the 8-minute and 46-second death of George Floyd. The ensuing protests, now classified as the largest movement in U.S. history, were packed with diverse groups of millennials and Generation Z members (those born between 1997-2012). There have been “child protests” in cities across the country, where young kids led marches and chants through the streets.
A closer look at the recent uprisings reveal young people are effectively leading the efforts. Youth-led organizations around the city are stepping up to the challenge. Their planning and execution reveal methodical rebellions that apply pressure to institutions and leaders to reimagine systems that honor and preserve humanity and dignity. Their proposals demand a shift in power to those living with the brunt of our social problems versus perpetuating paternalistic and colonial power structures that continue to reproduce the same results. And of critical importance, they are creating inclusive platforms with youth, elders,
LGBTQ members, immigrants, Indigenous communities and people with disabilities.
As our country observed another Independence Day, it is well-documented that it was founded through state-sanctioned violence, domination and exploitation of Indigenous and Black people on stolen land and cultivated on the backs of slave labor. The reoccurring historical nightmare continues today as we regularly witness murders of Black, Latino and transgender people, removal of Native Americans from sacred lands, separation of families and detention of children at the southern border, and the perpetual colonization of Puerto Rico.
To overcome the aftermath of that history , policies and practices, we need to take cues and direction from children and young people. It is imperative we recognize their inherent leadership and stand behind them as they charge ahead to reboot the world they will inherit. This is our moment to get on the right side of history and not allow the recent murders of Chicago’s children to be in vain.