In preparation for the town hall, AAAN youth went door to door in the heart of the Arab and Muslim community in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, as well as canvassed community-owned businesses. Youth spoke face to face with community members of all ages to ask about their experiences with racial profiling and racism, to inform them of the work we do in the community, and to invite them to join our campaign.

 

The MC for the town hall, youth leader Nora Qatanani, opened the event with a passionate speech on the historical role the AAAN has played as the longest standing Arab community-based organization in the state. She emphasized our model of combining social services with grassroots community organizing.  Following the intro was a cultural performance by AAAN youth veteran and accomplished spoken word artist Manar Daghash, who praised our youth program as the space where she was initially encouraged to practice spoken word to express her identity and culture.  

 

AAAN youth leaders gave impressive presentations from their own research conducted by the youth program, on each of the actual tools used by law enforcement to racially profile our community. These include Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program, and the Illinois Fusion Centers. Audience members were encouraged to participate by reading aloud real copies of Suspicious Activity Reports placed under their chairs. Later on, Fatmah Tabally of the AAAN's Arab Women's Committee summarized the campaign in Arabic.

 

The town hall concluded with break-out groups facilitated by youth and staff of the AAAN, on different action steps that community members can take to be part of the campaign. One group focused on discussing circulation and collection of petition signatures, while the other discussed collecting personal stories of community members who have experienced racial profiling.

 

This community town hall represents a step forward in the campaign, towards educating and mobilizing greater numbers of our community to end racial profiling. In the upcoming year, we plan to grow more community support by gathering petition signatures, facilitating story collection, organizing rallies and protests targeting local and federal law enforcement, and facilitating more open meetings for community members to participate in and join the campaign.

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Over the past few days, 17th District Cook County Commissioner, Sean Morrison, has been vocal about his disappointment with a disturbing ad released by Republican State Representative Jeanne Ives . The ad perpetuates harmful stereotypes and expresses xenophobic, homophobic, trans-phobic, racist, and severely problematic speech that we as a campaign WILL NOT tolerate. After seeing the ad, it is easy to see why the city of Chicago has expressed outrage, and why County Commissioner, Sean Morrison has been vocal with his disapproval, but what about the hate speech going on in his very own district?

What we find most disappointing is County Commissioner Sean Morrison's lack of response to the harmful rhetoric incited by Brannigan and taking place within his very OWN district. Morrison has a duty to vocalize his concern and disapproval for ALL forms of hate speech.