Racial Equality
How Small and Ugly Can We Get?
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Racial Equality on May 2nd, 2010
I received this email from a colleague with whom I team-teach classes from time to time. It speaks for itself. “One of my IUPUI journalism students was enjoying coffee at a Greenwood, Indiana Starbucks while chatting with his friend José. They were speaking Spanish. A woman interrupted them saying, “You need to start speaking ‘American’ [...]
Continue reading...Follow the Money
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Racial Equality on November 5th, 2004
In today’s political environment, a smart politician quickly learns that using the right language is more important than doing the right thing. In most cases, the electorate won’t know the difference, because the real business of government is done through that most boring, least-understood, least reported-on mechanism—the budget. If we really want to know what [...]
Continue reading...Rules in Black and White
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Racial Equality on August 4th, 2000
It was a warm and sunny spring day, and the park was filled with families and children playing. At the eastern perimeter of the park, on a low fence constructed of railroad ties, three young African-American boys sat talking quietly. An IPD patrol car pulled up directly in front of them; the officers got out [...]
Continue reading...Rules in Black and White #2
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Racial Equality on September 5th, 1999
One of the most basic responsibilities of local government is the supervision of traffic. We depend upon municipal officials to engineer our streets and highways, erect and maintain traffic signals, and to promulgate rules that foster safety on the streets…
Continue reading...Saddened But Not Surprised
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Racial Equality on January 9th, 1998
Within a recent, two-day period, Indianapolis media reported on two separate, ugly incidents. In Greenwood, racist flyers were distributed on cars parked at the Greenwood Park Mall; in Carmel, anti-Semitic tracts were thrown on driveways in selected neighborhoods.
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