Event Type: Seminar/Symposium

Speaker Information: Dr. Ruby Mendenhall

In 2016, Chicago Sun-times columnist, Mary Mitchell, reported that Chicago led the country with 4,367 shooting victims, and 780 homicides. During the first and third weekends in August 2018, around 132 individuals were shot, resulting in 19 homicides. Most shootings occurred in Black segregated neighborhoods on the South and West sides of Chicago both with limited educational and employment opportunities. David Ford of ABC News refers to these structurally oppressive environments as a “Hidden America” and argues that parents, mostly Black women, are raising children in violent conditions that are “unfathomable to most of the country.” This talk will discuss how living in racially segregated neighborhoods with high levels of violence affects Black mothers’ mental and physical health, explore the cultural resources Black mothers rely on to survive, including women-centered networks and collective-cooperatives, and finally explore transformative public policy solutions that involve art, citizen scientists, public health campaigns, and small homes.

Cost: Free

Contact: Emily Teitelbaum
erteite2@illinois.edu

Sponsor: Forum on the Future of Public Education