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1. Beyond Erasure and Profiling: Cultivating Strong and Vibrant Arab American Communities in Chicagoland

Author:
Nadine Naber, Nicole Nguyen, Chris D. Poulos, Ivan Arenas, and Louise Cainkar
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP), University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract:
This report captures the conditions and experiences of Arab Americans in the Chicagoland area. The report uses demographic research, surveys, focus group data, as well as expert commentaries by organizers and academics to analyze how systemic inequities and anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism affect the lives of Arab Americans in employment, education, health care, housing, and policing. The report engages with the diversity of experiences among Arab American communities and their common challenge in navigating being at once hypervisible as a result of commonplace stereotypes as well as invisible due to being classified as white by government agencies and due to the general lack of knowledge about Arab Americans in our society. This report was produced in partnership with several Chicagoland Arab American community organizations: UIC’s Arab American Cultural Center, Arab American Action Network, Arab American Family Services, Middle Eastern Immigrant and Refugee Alliance, Sanad Social Services, and the Syrian Community Network. By mapping the challenges facing Arab American communities and making proposals for change, the report will be used as a resource for advocates working to build strong and vibrant Arab American communities.
Topic:
Minorities, Community, Racism, Arabs, and Racial Profiling
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

2. Deadly Disparities in the time of COVID-19: How Public Policy Fails Black and Latinx Chicagoans

Author:
Cal Lee Garrett, Cynthia Brito, Ivan Arenas, Claire Laurier Decoteau, and Fructoso M. Basaldua Jr.
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP), University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract:
In this report we center the lived experiences Black, Latinx, and white residents of three neighborhoods — Austin, Little Village, and Albany Park — in order to explore how the pandemic has impacted different communities in the city. Drawing on over 150 interviews with residents and policy makers, we find that while COVID-19 has been treated as a health crisis at the federal, state, and local levels and thus has been fought through a series of public health strategies, the residents we spoke to experienced it as a much broader crisis related to housing, jobs, childcare, schooling, and healthcare. The policy response to COVID-19 gave explicit attention to racial equity but, for a number of reasons we lay out, often fell short in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable. Longstanding structural inequities meant that low-income and working-class Chicagoans were more vulnerable both to the disease and to the impact of disease mitigation strategies (e.g., economic fallout of the shutdown).
Topic:
Minorities, Discrimination, Urban, Community, Health Crisis, and Equality
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

3. Adversity and Resiliency for Chicago's First: The State of Racial Justice for American Indian Chicagoans

Author:
William Scarborough, Faith R. Kares, Ivan Arenas, and Amanda E. Lewis
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP), University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract:
Although Native American Chicagoans play a central role in the social fabric of the city, relatively little attention has been directed to documenting the experiences of racial discrimination and inequities for Native American Chicagoans. In this report, we examine the state of racial justice for Native Americans in Chicago. Our report is organized across five substantive areas, Population, Housing, (Mis)Representations of American Indians in Popular Culture, Education, Economics, and Justice, each focusing on a different aspect of racial equity. In each section, we draw on available data to describe the current conditions and experiences of Native American Chicagoans, including areas where they are thriving and areas where they are negatively affected by the legacy of racial exclusion as well as ongoing discrimination.
Topic:
Civil Society, Race, Minorities, Inequality, Discrimination, Local, and Community
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

4. A Tale of Diversity, Disparity, and Discrimination: The State of Racial Justice for Asian American Chicagoans

Author:
William Scarborough, Amanda E. Lewis, and Ivan Arenas
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP), University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract:
Relatively little attention has been directed to documenting the experiences of racial discrimination and inequities for Asian Americans in Chicago. In this report, we examine the state of racial justice for Asian Americans in Chicago. The data in this report illustrate the diverse and often divergent experiences of Asian Chicagoans who have to navigate the complexity and contradiction of model minority and forever foreigner stereotypes. Asian Americans are both imagined as hard working and high achieving, and at the same time are often treated as permanent outsiders. A central finding of this report is that while diversity is a defining characteristic of this pan-ethnic group, racial inequities affect the opportunities and life experiences of all Asian American Chicagoans.
Topic:
Race, Minorities, Discrimination, and Local
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

5. A Tale of Three Cities: The State of Racial Justice in Chicago Report

Author:
Amanda E. Lewis, Ivan Arenas, Deana G. Lewis, and Kasey Henricks
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP), University of Illinois at Chicago
Abstract:
Chicago’s largest racial and ethnic groups—blacks, Latinxs, and whites—each make up roughly one-third of the city’s population. As this report reveals, these groups generally live in separate neighborhoods and have divergent experiences when it comes to housing, economics, education, justice, and health. Capturing life in Chicago today is in many ways a tale of three cities. The central finding of this report is that racial and ethnic inequities in Chicago remain pervasive, persistent, and consequential. These inequities affect the lives of Chicagoans in every neighborhood; they have not just spatial but also deep historical roots and are embedded in our social, economic, political, and cultural institutions; and they have powerful effects on the experiences and opportunities of all Chicagoans.
Topic:
Race, Minorities, Inequality, Ethnicity, and Discrimination
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America