In addition to being situated within America’s larger legacy of racism and violence, Chicago has its own unique history and methods of institutionalizing and perpetuating racism. To achieve our vision of a just and equitable Chicago, it is crucial to develop and deploy a curriculum that will educate Chicago’s youth on the specifics of the city’s discriminatory history. Such a curriculum will ensure that youth fully understand the context of their city and why certain neighborhoods face marginalization while others flourish. The curriculum would give youth the tools to move from a general understanding of American racialized, economic exclusion and violence to a context-specific understanding of how those practices have manifested within Chicago.
Through the 2015 Reparations Ordinance for the Chicago Police Torture Survivors, Chicago mandated that 8th and 10th graders learn the history of the violence perpetrated on Chicago’s Black and Brown communities by state figures such as Jon Burge. However, the mandated curriculum does not look beyond police violence to other forms of institutionalized racism—such as redlining—that have direct implications on the continued marginalization of certain Chicago communities. This curriculum would contribute to ongoing initiatives such as Together We Heal, Healthy Chicago 2025, and CPS’ Equity Plan.
Curriculum Development
Drawing on the successes of the Reparations Ordinance’s curriculum design, the development process would engage local historians, education experts, and community organizations, but most importantly, solicit public input. Engaging community is critical to identify aspects of Chicago’s history that all Chicagoans should understand and should be paired with an intentional centering of those that have been most affected by Chicago’s discriminatory practices. The curriculum will leverage data, storytelling, and narrative accounts from residents. Opportunities for community leaders to speak with students should be created to complement the curriculum, just as teachers can request a survivor of police torture to speak to classes through the Reparations Ordinance. Additionally, the curriculum would include specific analyses on the current iterations of policies and the resulting economic exclusion1 and inequities. Youth should take away an understanding of the difference between levels of racism (e.g., interpersonal, institutional, etc.) and be engaged in conversations around how to make Chicago more equitable. A public comment period should be leveraged to solicit community feedback on the resulting curriculum.
Deployment Planning and Pilot
Given the complexities and decentralized nature of CPS curricula decisions, an effort would need to be carried out to determine the best venue for implementation. A pilot deployment of the curriculum could take place at two to four private middle or high schools to help inform the design of a broader deployment given their higher degree of flexibility in curriculum decisions. Based on learnings from this pilot, CPS should be engaged to determine a deployment plan, including consulting the Office of Equity and perhaps starting with implementation in networks where Chiefs are champions of the initiative. Other venues to reach youth should also be considered such as CPL, after-school programs like After School Matters, City Colleges, and faith communities. Specific focus should be put on targeting deployment to schools where students may not be experiencing the effects of Chicago’s racism firsthand (e.g., communities on the north side of the city, etc.).
City of Chicago
Copyright 2021 City of Chicago