Press Coverage

Recent Coverage

University of Illinois Chicago studies Black homelessness for the Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness
NPR Quad Cities | July 1, 2024

This article discusses the implications from IRRPP's Black Homelessness in Illinois: Structural Drivers of Inequality report for service providers supporting Black individuals and families facing homelessness.

From the article: "Black individuals and families are eight times more likely than their white counterparts as citizens of Illinois to be unhoused," Ford said in a phone interview with WVIK Friday morning. "That just doesn't fall out of the air; that's just not Black folks not paying their rent or their mortgage payments. This is a reality of the history of redlining in America, restrictive covenants...this is how vicious it was." Dwight Ford, member of the Black Homelessness Racial Equity Roundtable that supported the research discussing findings from the report.

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2023

The Veiled Bias: Arab Americans’ Struggle for Equity in the American Workplace

Syropotamia| June 29, 2023

This article explores if Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Policies Apply to Arab Americans. This article also highlights Beyond Erasure and Profiling: Cultivating Strong And Vibrant Arab American Communities in Chicagoland.

New UIC study examines experiences of Chicagoland Arab Americans

CBS News Chicago| April 18, 2023

This news segment interviews Dr. Nadine Naber, leading author of Beyond Erasure and Profiling: Cultivating Strong And Vibrant Arab American Communities in Chicagoland. A groundbreaking study out of UIC’s Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy finds that Chicagoland Arab American communities face widespread racism and a lack of support and resources from government agencies.

UIC report examines experiences, racial justice for Chicagoland’s Arab Americans

Arab American News| March 12, 2023

This article references the significance of the report Beyond Erasure and Profiling: Cultivating Strong And Vibrant Arab American Communities in Chicagoland. “While the problem of invisibility erases Arab Americans out of existence, hypervisibility paints all Arabs and Muslims as potential enemies of the U.S.,” she said. “We need to overcome both of these dynamics if Arab Americans are going to survive and thrive in Chicagoland.”

Bill that would require Arab Americans be counted in state data progresses to Illinois House vote

CBS News| March 8, 2023

This broadcast references the findings of Beyond Erasure and Profiling: Cultivating Strong And Vibrant Arab American Communities in Chicagoland, and reports on House Bill 3768, which passed the State Government Administration Committee at that time. The broadcast highlighted how Arab Americans across Chicagoland experience discrimination and inequities in all areas of life. But the authors said because their experiences are not quantified, this group is not being served by organizations and government agencies.

Bill that would require Arab Americans be counted in state data progresses to Illinois House vote

CBS News| March 8, 2023

New study examines everyday life, challenges of Chicago area Arab Americans

WBEZ Chicago| February 20, 2023

This episode of Reset features key findings from Beyond Erasure and Profiling: Cultivating Strong And Vibrant Arab American Communities in Chicagoland. One finding is that many Arab Americans would like to be able to check something other than “white” on official forms.

Study on Arab Americans in Chicago calls on not using ‘white’ as racial category

WBEZ Chicago| February 15, 2023

This article features key findings from Beyond Erasure and Profiling: Cultivating Strong And Vibrant Arab American Communities in Chicagoland.

Often overlooked, Chicago Arab Americans face widespread racism, groundbreaking report finds

CBS News| February 13, 2023

This article features key findings from Beyond Erasure and Profiling: Cultivating Strong And Vibrant Arab American Communities in Chicagoland. Without their own category, Arab Americans have long been counted as “white” on government forms. It’s a challenge that social service groups, researchers and residents say make it nearly impossible to gather critical data to understand their needs.

2020

The damaging divide: how inequality costs all Chicagoans

Chicago Crain’s Business | February 28, 2020

This article highlights findings from IRRPP’s Between the Great Migration and Growing Exodus: The Future of Black Chicago? report and notes that, while there are many competing explanations for the loss of Chicago’s black population, “one underlying narrative has been true since the 1980s, when Chicago first began to experience an outflow of blacks: Disparities between minorities and whites started widening, particularly in wages and wealth. And that inequality continues growing.”

Is Lightfoot’s war on poverty too late to stop Chicago’s black exodus?

Chicago Reporter | February 28, 2020

Between the Great Migration and Growing Exodus: The Future of Black Chicago?, a report from the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, describes a city that ballooned beginning in the 1930s as black people migrated north to avoid the constraints of the Jim Crow south reaching its pinnacle in the ‘80s. But once here, they found a new set of inequities and the population has been on decline since.

The Dispersal of Black Chicago: A new report explores how and why Chicago, and the South Side, is losing its Black population

Southside Weekly | February 18, 2020

At one point, Chicago was the land of opportunity for millions of Black Americans who were leaving the Jim Crow South. The industrial city expanded rapidly through the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, as waves of Black Southerners sought economic opportunity in Chicago and permanently settled in the city. However, a combination of factors, including the collapse of the manufacturing sector and discriminatory policies, caused this trend to reverse in the 1980s, according to a recent report on changing Black Chicago demographics from IRRPP. Since then, Black communities in Chicago have lost about 350,000 residents.

What’s Behind Chicago’s Black Exodus

WTTW | February 18, 2020

IRRPP Associate Director Iván Arenas joined WTTW on Chicago Tonight to discuss IRRPP’s latest report about the declining number of Chicago’s black population.

The Tale of Two Cities; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 29

U.S. Congress | February 12, 2020

Illinois Congressman Bobby Lee Rush cites IRRPP report on the congressional floor: “Madam Speaker, I rise today to sound the alarm among the shrinking Black population in cities across the U.S. According to a recent study by the University of Illinois at Chicago, the city of Chicago lost 350,000 Black residents between 1980 and 2016.”

UIC report details why Chicago’s black population is declining

WGN | February 1, 2020

Stacey Sutton, an assistant professor of urban planning and policy at UIC, joined WGN Weekend Morning News to discuss why the population is declining.

Racial Inequality, Not Violence, Is Forcing Black Chicagoans Out Of The City, According To New Report

Block Club Chicago | January 30, 2020

Government policies, like closing schools and creating health care deserts, are leading Black people to leave Chicago, according to a newly released report.

2019

New Community Garden Aims to Shed Light on Urban Indians

WTTW | August 7, 2019

From the article: “A primary purpose [of the Adversity and Resiliency for Chicago’s First report] is to also shed light that there is a native community here in Chicago and to bring attention to some of the challenges that the community faces,” said Angela Walden, a research assistant professor at UIC’s Department of Medicine and a featured expert in the report.

In addition to recognizing those struggles, Walden, a member of the Cherokee Nation, said it’s important to remember what native people bring to the table, and she said the First Nations Garden is a prime example of just that. “This is a really great example of youth in the community reclaiming a space of land and indigenizing it. I think just to drive by and see traditional structures in that space in a city, is pretty unique.”

Study Highlights The Challenges And Contributions Of Native Americans In Chicago

WBEZ | June 7, 2019

Natalie Moore reports on the newly released report Adversity and Resiliency for Chicago’s First: The State of Racial Justice for American Indian Chicagoans. “The story was hard to tell because the genocide, displacement and violence had been so successful. So it was a matter of trying to figure out the lack of good data,” said IRRPP Director Amanda Lewis.

The invisibility of Chicago’s Native American residents

Chicago Tribune | June 7, 2019

This IRRPP Op-Ed notes that Native Americans in Chicagoland have largely been left out of current local conversations about how to address racial equity even as they are diligently tackling issues of housing precarity, job discrimination, health disparities and stereotypical cultural representations despite too few resources and too little support. As our report highlights, much work remains to be done locally to provide Native American young people in Chicago and in Illinois a path to prosperity, and we all have a part to play in ensuring that future.

New UIC report on racial inequity for Native Americans in Chicago

Newswise | June 7, 2019

Newswise outlines key findings and contributors to IRRPP’s new report, Adversity and Resiliency for Chicago’s First: The State of Racial Justice for American Indian Chicagoans, which documents the historical and ongoing contributions of Native Americans in Chicago and examines how racial inequity impacts members of this community today.

Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy

College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs

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