Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago

About

The Institute for Research on Race & Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) promotes and coordinates engaged research on racial and ethnic justice in the U.S. Our mission is to increase society’s understanding of the root causes of racial and ethnic inequality and to provide the public, organizers, practitioners, and policymakers with research-based policy solutions. To fulfill that mission, IRRPP funds research on race and ethnicity, trains scholars to participate in policy discussions, collaborates on social justice projects with community organizations, and holds events exploring the link between policy and racial and ethnic injustice.

Infographics

Here is a link to their many graphics (pictured below)

https://irrpp.uic.edu/state-of-racial-justice/mapping-inequality/

State of Racial Justice Reports

Research Projects

Folded Map Project

Tonika Johnson is an artist who created a project showing that people who live at the same address on Chicago's grid system can have vastly different opportunities - even though they might have a lot in common personally.  Her work highlights the way that racism has created segregation and that has affected the way people interact, their opportunities in terms of education, jobs, consumerism, their accumulation of wealth, their perception of government and government services and more.  Additionally, Ms. Johnson is an artist and her work highlights the ways that art can bring people together and bridge gaps.

I had the privilege and honor to work with Ms. Johnson and a team at the

Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Here is her project's webpage.

Especially interesting to sociologists is her page about the institutional resources that are folded into Chicago's grid here.

Here are interviews with map twins from the project.  The interviews are really interesting qualitative data about the effects of racism and segregation.

Here is Tonika's photographic tribute to Englewood, called From the INside

Here is Tonika's interactive site called Belonging in Chicago (work in progress). 

Location and College Graduation

Where college graduates move after finishing their degree is an example of the social class dynamic between education, location and income.  The data from this Wall Street Journal interactive article explains some of the dynamics about where graduates move.

First let's look at LUC.  As expected a large majority of students remain in Chicago after graduation, but then look at the secondary cities they settle in:

Compare LUC to Creighton.  Both Jesuit schools and both in the midwest. What do they have in common?

They both send their graduates to the three coasts - east coast, west coast and best coast.  And it is not just these Jesuit schools that do that, take a look at the schools that send a larger share of their graduates to Chicago:

Compare that to the colleges that send a large share of their graduates to middle America, like Fargo:

And this pattern is true for schools in all regions of the country:

 

Here are some other findings from the study:

Englewood: A Neighborhood Legacy of Institutional Racism and an Example of Hope and Resiliency

Chicago's Englewood has been infamously portrayed as a violent wasteland but the media do not tell the whole story or history. Tonika Lewis Johnson is trying to change that.  She is a lifelong Englewood resident and a social justice artist.  She explored the legacy of racism and housing in Chicago in her Folded Map Project.  And now she is partnering with Sherman Dilla Thomas, an Englewood resident turned TikTok historian. Known on social media as @6figga_dilla, Thomas frequently details Chicago history and runs tours. Thomas is an unapologetic Chicago booster claiming that "Everything dope in America started in Chicago." 

One of the most noticeable aspects of Englewood are the numerous, random vacant lots scattered throughout the community.

These lots were not always vacant.  In fact, the neighborhood has numerous examples of a rich and thriving past.

But researcher Amber Hendley found that the predatory and racist housing policies of the 1950s - 1970s effectively robbed the black residents of the neighborhood of $4 BILLION, a conservative estimate.  You can read more about Hendley's research in her co-authored article from Duke University, The Plunder of Black Wealth in Chicago: New Findings on the Lasting Impact of Predatory Housing Contracts.   These contracts along with redlining, white flight, and other racist practices, led to more than 600 homes being stolen out from under black residents who lost an entire generation of wealth.

Tonika Johnson is attempting to shed light on the scope of this injustice.  Her new project Inequity for Sale publicly raises awareness of the lots that were stolen from black families. She places signs marking the lots that were taken from black families using land contracts.  The Chicago Tribune explains that here.  You can see one of the signs in the picture below where we stopped to plant love in the ground and spread the healing and love to the neighborhood.  

Another result of the housing policies was disinvestment in the neighborhood.  The shopping center at 63rd and Halsted was, at one time, the 2nd largest shopping center in the city.  But for decades, retailers have moved out including grocery stores resulting in a food desert.  Although Whole Foods opened up at 63rd and Halsted, the neighborhood remains strikingly void of grocery stores.  

But another sign of progress besides Whole Foods is the Fresh Market, a co-op that opened recently.

Another example of disinvestment is the closure of the Greenline El stop at Racine.

Despite all of the challenges and the legacy of institutional racism, Englewood is full of hope and resilience.  I saw churches, community groups, street art, mosaics, and schools. This is the Englewood that rarely gets covered in the media.

And as the Englewood community organization R.A.G.E. points out in this mural, 

Black culture influences the whole world.

Here is Tonika's photographic tribute to Englewood, called From the INside