By: Diane Benjamin
Just weeks ago City Manager Mark Peterson declared everybody racist – but he is determined to fix it: https://blnnews.com/2017/08/23/we-are-all-racist/
Normal is so racist in April they elected a black council member – Chemberly Cummings. According to a Pantagraph story, she thinks rural white teachers have never seen black kids before. I wonder what her definition of rural is – Bloomington-Normal? She goes on to talk about cultural mistrust. Black culture mistrusts the police? Maybe the black cultural is the problem? See the story here: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/education/normal-unit-can-help-race-relations-effort/article_a2fd8d55-0fec-59c0-a643-733343ebc0db.html
These stories don’t happen by accident. Normal is deflecting. Starting a race war is better than admitting the obvious. The Town of Normal isn’t a glowing example of fiscal responsibility.
- Enrollment at ISU is down, it could be more than 7%. Tax revenue will suffer
- The State is returning less money to cities this year – see story below
- Bloomington ended MetroZone
- State Farm is downsizing
- Rivian hasn’t produced one car
- Portillos developer needs paid
- The financial statements from 3/31/2017 will be out soon
- The TIF reports from 3/31/2017 will be out soon
Normal can’t borrow money without a new revenue source. Where do they get revenue?
Even though the financial reports will be 6 months old, troubling trends will be obvious. Old data is presented because the Town is hiding current information. Peterson is quitting, how long before Koos joins him? Talking about race is just a way of diverting attention from the looming disaster.
Most people aren’t racist. Most people do judge by the “content of their character, not the color of their skin”. Telling people they just don’t know they are racist is racist.
America is a place where everyone can succeed. Some people don’t want that known. Creating victims creates ignorant people. Instead of encouraging working hard for success, do Chemberly Cummings and Mark Peterson want dependents?
Keep the truth in mind.
They are deflecting from what it really happening.
Always watch the other hand.
Meanwhile, instead of falling for the lies told to enslave segments of the population, make your role models people who have succeeded and want you to as well. Skin color is immaterial to that process.
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What Bloomington and Normal haven’t told you about the State giving cities less money:
Cities that impose their own Sales Tax will be hurt the most!
Illinois Budget Deal Penalizes Cities That Impose Sales Taxes
Excerpt:
Cities that are more dependent on local sales tax revenues will be the most affected, and one of the few other alternatives for cities might be to raise property taxes, he said.
This ridiculous accusation from Cummings shows what a severely limited life SHE has led. In reality it is she who is the ignorant one here. I use ignorant in it’s actual definition here and do not imply lack of intelligence, but simply lack of knowledge. I sincerely would love for her to go spend a little time with some small town WHITE people and she would see in a hurry that they do NOT tend to be racist. In fact I would bet, if she could open her closed mind for a while that she would come away amazed at the goodness and NON racist character of these small town/rural people she so openly despises and disparages yet doesn’t know ONE thing about. THAT is the epitome of a RACIST.
I also agree that it does seem as if Normal is pulling the race card to deflect from their failings and misspending of public funds, such as Rivian… – as to Rivian……I can’t wait until that is exposed for what it is, AGAIN, but Normal obviously didn’t do ANY research on this con man and his scam “Car Company”, a scam he has been running for 8 years now. Oh and first it was Mainstream Motors, then Avera and finally Rivian, and that’s all transpired over the last 8 years. I’m guessing another name change will come in about 1-2 years after they flop (again) in Normal and have to move on to the next town with a new name and a new game to sell some know it all bunch of mid size city “Geniuses”, where they will steal/scam some more money and keep on promising that car, that wonder car, that car that will never happen.
I read the article and where is anyone calling someone a racist? It’s about treating people fairly and not on the basis of how they look or where they come from. Is that racist? Suggesting that Normal is conspiring to create a race war to deflect from what is going on is a misdirection in of itself. Is that any better than wrapping the Confederate monuments and flags in “Southern Heritage”, even though many monuments were erected during Jim Crow and around times were
racial tensions were high? Yet you would probably defend the Southern Heritage defense to your grave rather than acknowledge that there are legitimate discussions around race. You talk about not judging people on the color of their skin and equality, but would you change your defense of Confederate flags if an African-American friend told you how much it hurts them that you post memes defending Confederate symbols on Facebook? More to the point, you remember how much the Tea Party was called racist? Yet you continually take exception BLM. You can quote MLK but ignore other people bringing up race. Do you know some of his other quotes? If you choose to cherry pick MLK to show how down you are with equality, and to this date I have only seem you reference his quote from the “I Have a Dream Speech”, then you probably need some more education or that is your go to say “Hey! I’m not racist!”.
MLK wasn’t trying to divide people. Cummings and Peterson are.
Seriously, Seriously, the ROOT of the problem here is, Normal has someone on city council who actually believes (and has SAID) that people from rural or suburban areas have never known any black people until they encounter one in their classroom. Does she sincerely think that rural and suburban people have never had Black friends, never gone to school with Black people or played sports with black people AND have gotten to KNOW them as PEOPLE? Does she sincerely think that most Black kids have ONLY had BLACK teachers their whole life as well? If so, she is completely out in left field. I am SICK to death of racism being given life support by race baiters and chronic malcontents. I am also sick of people spouting total nonsense as if it was truth and being given a public platform to do so and NO this does NOT mean that I am against “free speech”, in fact, the more people like Chemberly Cummings talk, the more they can be seen for the race baiters that they are.
Not In Our Town needs to issue a statement against Race Baiters.
Yeah…like that’s gonna happen. Race Baiting is their whole “playbook”.
I grew up less than 30 minutes from Bloomington-Normal and did not meet a non-white person until I went to college. To this day my hometown still has no families of any type of ethnic minority living there. So no, not everyone had black friends growing up.
You must be the rural.
Hell yeah!
“Ronin” is exactly correct on every point. “Seriously” is as ill educated as Peterson and Cummings. How dare either of them accuse people they do not know of being racist. That is a horrible accusation to level against someone when you have absolutely no evidence to back up that claim. In my opinion, Peterson and Cummings are racist, and their statements prove it. I stand in support of our police officers and our teachers.
MAYBE MS CUMMINGS should open her MIND before her MOUTH about “rural” areas NOT seeing “black people” I “SUGGEST” she SHOULD read some about Buxton, Iowa.
But I’m SURE she’s NOT interested in “black heritage” just stirring the pot!!!
ALL lives matter you non reading, non historic, non thinking trubble makers!
Speaking if truth, we’re only down 1%, not 7.
A few weeks ago WGLT predicted 7.5%. Where are the final numbers?
Final numbers come out after census day (10th day of the semester). My guess is we land at 1-2% down which is still up from 2015.
why did WGLT – run by ISU report the freshmen numbers are way down – the title is deceptive: http://wglt.org/post/isus-fall-semester-starts-strong-numbers#stream/0
I just saw them, they should be public next week.
See comment below
They reported that freshmen numbers are down because they are. The 1-2% down figure is overall enrollment, not just freshmen enrollment
Do the math on what they reported for total, it’s not 1-2%
Any decrease means less revenue, do this discussion is very immaterial
You’ll have to help me out here. I’m not seeing any figures to “do the math on” for overall university enrollment in that article. Freshmen numbers are lower than last year. New transfer students and new graduate students are higher than last year. It all evens out.
Re-read. Computer is off, so I can’t read it again easily. Maybe another reader can
I think NormalOne is the exception these days and not the rule – perhaps 40-50 years (or more) ago this did happen now and then, I suppose if someone never went on any vacations, never played on a sports team and lived their entire lives up to age 18 never leaving their small town and then went to college maybe then they would have never seen a person of a different race until then, but it is far from the “norm”.
I didn’t say I’d never seen a person of color. We did have tv after all 🙂 And of course we’d spend time in bigger cities. But that’s far different than having friends, classmates, role models, etc. that were diverse. That’s still the reality today for most of the small towns that make up the surrounding areas in central Illinois.
A lot of those “rural ignorant people” are saving many lives of minorities in Houston right now. Those ignorant bigoted rural people. In all serious to stereotype people in rural areas like this is in itself bigoted and hateful.
AMEN! to Stopthehate! it DON’T (or shouldn’t) matter what color you are, if a person is in distress, they NEED help! Big City People or small rural folks…..
You guys do realize many communities in Illinois have, in it’s not so distant past, owned the title of Sundown Town. Mt. Sterling still is. The last cross burning in our area was 1977 in Towanda. I believe Farmer City is still a sundown town as well. Farmer City non-white population = 0. Food for thought.