{"id":1174,"date":"2021-01-09T21:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T21:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stand.org\/illinois\/?p=1174"},"modified":"2022-07-25T21:11:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T21:11:28","slug":"moving-closer-to-racial-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stand.org\/illinois\/our-stories\/moving-closer-to-racial-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Closer to Racial Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Illinois and America are facing a reckoning with the systemic racism we have maintained since the country\u2019s beginnings. Many people seem to finally realize that it\u2019s not enough to just \u201cnot be racist.\u201d Systemic racism keeps racist systems alive, even if we lived in a world without any racist individuals. We must commit to being anti<\/em>-racist and push to dismantle those entrenched systems that perpetuate racial inequalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our schools are among society\u2019s most racially inequitable systems. The outgoing Chair of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, Sen. Kimberly Lightford, has used her skills as an education champion and rockstar negotiator to craft a comprehensive bill to advance racial equity for Illinois students. These changes have an ambitious goal: reversing centuries of systemic racism in education and significantly bolstering opportunities for Black students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stand has previously supported many individual concepts in this bill, and now we need to work together to ensure this package becomes law.\u00a0Raise your voice and tell Springfield to move our state closer to racial and educational justice.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ACT NOW<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

You can read a\u00a0comprehensive summary of the bill in a previous blog post<\/a>, but I wanted to call out a few highlights for you here. This will give you an idea of the great ideas included in this bill and why it must become law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academic Acceleration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n