THOMPSON: Systemic racism has big impact on Black families
Several factors have contributed to the rise of single-parent Black families, including loss of housing, welfare criteria and inequities in criminal justice.
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FLOWERS: Virtue signaling gets in way of true progress
We need serious attempts to discuss and tackle the hard problems that plague our urban areas—not yard signs.
Tanya Bell Mckinzie: Fight systemic racism by leveling field for Black-owned businesses
Creating new businesses and expanding opportunities for existing Black-owned businesses are key ways to invest in the Black community and help us fight for racial equality.
Sheila Suess Kennedy: Our hyper-partisan politics can be deadly
In today’s highly polarized America, an individual’s self-identification as Republican or Democrat has come to signify a wide range of attitudes and beliefs not necessarily limited to support for a political party. Affiliation with a political party has made Americans’ increasingly tribal social identities most predictive—and most consequential.
Karen Bravo: Here are two ways we are addressing systemic racism
As a lawyer and law professor, I believe I can contribute by using both my legal skills and my public role as incoming dean of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
Abbey Chambers: To battle racism, apply a racial lens to policymaking
The argument that small businesses should be protected from the burdens of paying livable wages does not consider the burdens low wages put on individuals (of color) who are left struggling to navigate the insufficient, overly complex and stigmatized social safety net.
Andre Carson: Let’s seize this moment to make lasting change
we must dramatically reimagine and reconstruct policing. The Justice in Policing Act, introduced this month in Congress, is a good start.
Jared Council: Emotional dam breaks for black community, including black journalists
As black people progress in society and climb new heights in media, business and more, it brings a false sense of accomplishment that the work is done. Far from it.
Jon Laramore: Indiana needs plan to prevent tidal wave of evictions
Unless resources can be found to help renters pay current and past rent, Indiana is likely to face a tidal wave of evictions, and the worst consequences will fall on families of color. Some
Jim Scheurich: IPS board and Indy Chamber perpetuated systemic racism
Systemic racism doesn’t just hurt communities of color. It hurts the entire community by damaging racial relations and thus lowering the quality of our community. In truth, what hurts communities of color hurts white people, too.
Jim Dora: City has history of bold action in challenging times
For Indianapolis to return to economic normalcy, we must work harder than ever to mend our differences, address long-neglected problems and coalesce around an inclusive, strategic plan for renewed growth.
Marshawn Wolley: Black community needs partners in its quest for change
It is too hard being black in this city, and black people are tired.
Deborah Daniels: After a weekend in crisis, city has huge challenges to confront
The most significant theft that has occurred is not that of liquor or merchandise; the looters, by their actions, are stealing the credibility of the good people peacefully protesting a lengthy history of opportunity denied to people of color and those without means.
Erica Wells: We need proactive leadership, rather than reactive decisions
Decisions are impossible to make when leadership fails to listen to the community; fails to communicate a comprehensive plan; and falls into a reactive, not proactive, stance on protecting our community.
Vop Osili: Riots must shake us out of the status quo
We can and will address the concerns of citizens and business owners grappling with the damage to public and private spaces caused by last weekend’s violence. But we cannot do so without simultaneously wrestling, and besting, the historically tolerated race disparities that lie at the heart of that violence.
Perspectives: How we got here—and what comes next
It’s hard to find words for the horror that is the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, just as it is hard to comprehend how the anger over that death—and too many others—led to so much destruction in downtown Indianapolis. But IBJ asked several community leaders to give it a shot. Here’s what they wrote.
Tom Guevara: Communities need to plan now to rebuild after COVID-19
But drawing on my federal agency experience helping economically distressed areas and now leading an institute helping communities make better economic decisions, here is how leaders can create an economic recovery plan.
Chris Watts: Consumer spending, sales taxes show Indiana’s budget challenge
If sales taxes continue to fall in tandem with income taxes, the results would be crushing for Indiana; we collect more than half our general fund revenue from sales taxes (the 50-state average is about 31%).
Marina Hadjioannou Waters: Communication—with all communities—is critical in a crisis
We must provide as many people as possible access to health and safety information in their primary language. Failure to do so threatens the health of every one of us.
Kenny Blickenstaff: Pandemic helps explode the investment diversification myth
Reality seems to echo Warren Buffett, who famously stated, “Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing.”