We are long past the denial stage in the face of increasingly open attempts to reassert white racial dominance. In just the past week:
- The Department of Justice began soliciting discrimination claims from white men while reportedly closing thousands of other civil rights cases without investigation.
- A Supreme Court decision opened the door for states to further restrict voting access and reduce representation so long as discriminatory intent cannot be explicitly proven, regardless of demonstrated impact.
- Immigration agents dressed in military-style gear conducted “wellness checks” targeting Black and brown families and children.
- Tens of thousands of immigrants, including children, continue to be held for months in hundreds of for-profit detention facilities where dangerous conditions and inadequate care have raised serious human rights concerns.
- A proposed Martin Luther King Jr. statue reportedly omits meaningful reference to the civil rights struggle for which he lived and died, reducing his legacy to a sanitized celebration of perseverance and personal optimism.
Race and white supremacy were socially constructed in Europe to justify the permanent enslavement of people based solely on skin color. That system became the economic engine of this country and helped shape many of the structures that continue to influence the U.S. economy, government and society today including banking, insurance, industrial agriculture, housing, education and criminal legal systems.
Racism has always operated through authorized, even sanctified, systems. Those systems have historically been enforced through both physical and emotional violence. They were never neutral; they were designed to preserve inequity. Their continued operation does not always require explicit intent. Inaction is often enough.
This reality is national, but it is also deeply local.
It exists in our education systems, banking and lending practices, public infrastructure, and community development decisions. It is reflected in law enforcement and carceral systems shaped by histories of slave patrols, convict leasing, and Jim Crow segregation.
It is reflected in economic development decisions that reinforce isolation and deepen economic gaps when equity is ignored. Governing Magazine identified Springfield as the most segregated municipal area in the Midwest in 2019. Census data cited in Illinois Times articles published on May 12 and Aug. 21, 2025 suggest that many of those disparities have widened rather than narrowed.
It is evident in who is invited into rooms where power is exercised and decisions are made, and who is excluded because the changes they seek are systemic and the conversations they want to have are uncomfortable.
We cannot solve a problem we refuse to define, or insist on defining only in ways that distance ourselves from responsibility. White discomfort, denial and defensiveness about racism often function to protect racism itself. Dismantling it requires intention.
This summer presents a rare opportunity for Springfield and Sangamon County residents to engage those conversations honestly and begin reimagining what we mean when we say the word “community.”
In addition to two Interfaith Antiracism Workshops sponsored by First Presbyterian Church on June 7 and June 27, the Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Network will host workshops on May 30, June 13 and June 20.
Together with a diverse group of fellow residents, we will:
- Develop a foundational understanding of structural racism, xenophobia, and the antiracist practices required to dismantle deeply entrenched inequities.
- Reckon honestly with history and examine how racism and white supremacy continue to shape organizations, institutions, and systems — including the ways we may unknowingly participate in them.
- Build practical tools, relationships, and organizing skills rooted in our shared humanity and collective responsibility.
This is essential learning and unlearning. It is not a self-improvement course, although personal transformation is often part of the process. It is about understanding systems, confronting harm, and dismantling the racism embedded within them that ultimately harms all of us.
One of the things we learn is how much power and beauty exist at the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, disability, nationality and faith traditions when we truly become community.
In spaces where honesty, accountability, and shared humanity can be reclaimed, we have an opportunity to build something different together.
But it must be community-led. No institution, politician or organization is coming to save us. No saviors are needed.
The work belongs to all of us.
And despite everything, the possibility of building a more truthful, healed, and connected community together remains a profoundly beautiful thing.
Please contact SIAN at springfieldimmigrant@gmail.com for registration information.
Beth Langen is co-chair and board member of the Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Network.
