On March 11, I picked up my mail and my copy of Wednesday Journal to peruse over my tomato soup and grilled cheese. I was gleefully looking forward to the latest installments of the drama over the Ridgeland Common Pool referendum. I plopped down at the table and became momentarily physically ill at the headline:
“Oak Park police share 2025 field data; over 70% of stops were black”
My husband and I moved to Oak Park five years ago after many years living in the southeastern U.S. For over two decades, the central precept of our ethos as a couple has been to address our own racism. Our basic format is:
1) Recognize where we were taught to be racist
2) Recognize moments when we choose to perpetuate racism
3) Honestly assess why we choose to perpetuate racism in that circumstance.
During our years in the South, we were given numerous opportunities to study the fictitious social institutions of whiteness and blackness. Superimposed race is economic disparity and educational deficits, to say nothing of gender or sexual orientation. All these social classifications intersect to determine the social privileges that enable you or the encumbrances that burden you.
This headline creates the pernicious narrative that racism in Oak Park is perpetuated by the police. While the headline was factually correct, it is diametrically opposite of what the data within the article indicated. The headline failed to note that the vast majority of those stops were not initiated by the police but by Oak Park residents calling to report a “suspicious” Black man or youth. The headline left the implication that the police were racist rather than the very distressing truth that it is Oak Park residents who are racist in this context. The article itself was well written with correct and appropriate use of statistics, but the headline was misleading and offensive to me.
The insidious point of this is that the headline is so easy to believe for people of color who are constantly stopped by police. There is an incontrovertible need for widespread reconsideration of policing in America. The last two decades have brought an alarming rise in the militarization of police forces. In January 2021, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a study, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement,” which identified a rise in white nationalism in local, state and federal law enforcement.
However, the sacred memory of Detective Allan Reddins is still tragic proof of the dangers our police face every single shift.
I will not offer a conclusion but invite a new beginning. I would love for the editorial staff of the Wednesday Journal to offer an apology to the Oak Park police for the headline. I would like for my neighbors to find a forum where they can be in consideration of what it is that causes you to perceive Black men (and other men of color) as a threat. And finally I would invite you to consider the experience of others, especially men and women of color.
Love your neighbor.
All your neighbors.
Carol Porfilio, BSN, M.Div., an Oak Park resident, has held a number of positions in health care, religion, and the arts.