CHANNAHON, IL — About 90 people showed up Friday afternoon for the Channahon area’s first Black Lives Matter rally, near Central Park along Route 6. When demonstrators weren’t holding up their signs denouncing racism, they were gathered near the Spruce Pavilion where several people took turns sharing their testimonials of white privilege or being targeted for racism.
Others told personal stories about being ridiculed or harassed for dating someone who is black.
One woman in her forties told everyone she grew up in Joliet and moved to the Channahon area several years ago. She wanted everyone to know that she acknowledged her white privilege. She said that because she is a white blonde, several police officers chose not to give her a ticket when she was speeding, driving without her license, or she did not have her insurance card with her.
After George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis sparked demonstrations all over the country, the woman said, some people urged her not to become involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, telling her “this is not your battle and that it will die down soon.”
The woman said she is of Irish and Norwegian heritage. She told her fellow demonstrators that she wants to do her part to make sure that the George Floyd Black Lives Matter movement continues. She does not want to see the movement die off in another few months or year.
Madison Evans, who is pictured at the top of this Patch article, was one of Friday’s main speakers. Evans is from Channahon, and she graduated in 2016 from Minooka Community High School. Her sign read: “Racism isn’t getting worse, it’s getting filmed.”
“You just have the ability to look at it now,” Evans told Patch.
Evans was thrilled by Friday’s turnout. The overwhelming majority of people who came to Channahon’s Black Lives Matter demonstration were white.
Patch asked Evans what message she had for the motorists traveling along Route 6 who saw the Black Lives Matter demonstration.
“Hopefully it sparks conversation in their household, in the community,” she said.
During Friday’s rally, Evans also talked to the audience about white privilege, and she gave everyone examples to think about.
For instance, she said, that some retail stores keep their black hair care products locked up, saying this is done to prevent merchandise from being stolen.
Evans also told everyone that most people are familiar with the abbreviation DWI, driving while intoxicated, and DUI, driving under the influence, but for Evans, she said, there’s another scary abbreviation when it comes to the police: DWB, driving while black.
“People are getting pulled over just because they’re black,” she said. People who are white, Evans said, don’t experience that fear when they get behind the wheel of their car and get stopped by the police.
“Where, if I get pulled it over, I have to worry if I’m going to make it home,” Evans told her large crowd of supporters Friday afternoon near Spruce Pavilion.
Children who are white are regarded as “sweet and innocent,” Evans said, but when black children reach a certain age, they often become viewed as a “threat to society.”
When Evans was 15, attending Minooka High School, she said that a fellow student on her school bus called a racist slur. After the racial abuse continued, her family got her transferred to another school bus. Then, on a different school bus, another white student began calling her a racial slur, “so I just started getting rides to school,” Evans told Patch’s editor.
“Minooka is a good place for academics, but for encouraging diversity within their studies and staff, they just need to do better,” Evans said.
As for Friday’s first-ever Channahon Black Lives Matter rally, “I’m very pleased with the turnout,” Evans said. “When I grew up in this community, I didn’t think that people would turn out like this … racism, you aren’t born with it. It’s taught.”
