Race relations will be the topic of a forum in Aurora on Wednesday.
The forum, hosted by Kane County Sheriff Donald E. Kramer and his community outreach team, will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Santori Public Library in downtown Aurora.
According to organizers, the forum will look at the persistence of racial disparities and divisions that exist across society and more specifically in Kane County.
Listed speakers include IMSA Multicultural Education Specialist Nadrienne Coleman; Living Purpose Church Pastor Tim Bailey; Iglesia El Camino Pastor Josue Valdez; Aurora University’s Dr. Eva Serrano; African-American Men of Unity’s Ricky Rodgers; Illinois attorney and civil rights advocate Sadia Covert; and Unity Partnership president Regina Brent.
Kramer said that a dialogue on race relations is important.
“I want to be part of that discussion before things happen in our community,” Kramer said. “I don’t want there to be a belief that we are unfair to a certain group, race, religious or sexual orientation. We should understand as police officers and as a community be aware.”
Most officers are white males, which doesn’t necessarily mirror the community, Kramer said.
His department has taken steps to seek more diversity in officers, and has hired more Spanish speakers in the last couple of years, he said.
While the sheriff’s office generally handles public safety in unincorporated areas with smaller minority populations than Aurora and Elgin, its major cities, everyone ends up at the county jail, Kramer said.
The sheriff’s office is trying to increase programming at the jail to help people in as many ways as possible, regardless of race, Kramer said.
In that context, he said “life skills” are key words.
“We try to help them build what would be considered a resume or help them find jobs,” Kramer said.
A program implemented in September put tablets in cell blocks, so inmates could work on educational programs, Kramer said. They can also focus on anger management and child rearing, he said.
On a recent day, when 474 inmates were in custody at the Kane County jail, 29 percent were Hispanic, 32 percent were white and 36 percent were African-American, Kane County Sheriff Lt. Patrick Gengler said.
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Overall about 70 percent were between the ages of 22 and 60, he said.
In contrast, 2015 census data state the county’s population was 57.7 percent non-Hispanic white, 31.5 percent Hispanic or Latino, 6.1 percent African-American, and small percentages of other races.
“I don’t think the jail is grossly overrepresented by any majority group,” Kramer said
In the jail’s tight quarters, though, issues related to race are bound to surface, Gengler said.
“It is a small part of the community,” Gengler said, “but man, when you talk about having all those same relationships, the same questions and differences on the outside, they are magnified when you have that small space, and people have to live together.”
During the forum, Kramer wants to look at some of the underlying problems, which can start when someone doesn’t do well in school, has trouble getting a job and gravitates toward negative choices, such as selling drugs and hanging around people involved in violent crimes, he said.
“Right now at least two African-American gangs in the Aurora vicinity are stepping up their violence,” Kramer said.
Gangs traditionally tend to make their income off of illegal transactions like the sale of illegal drugs, so the concerns are all related, he said.
“One of the reasons I wanted to address issues of cultural divide is often people in minority groups identify very strongly with certain gangs,” Kramer said.
“There might be a perception when you talk about gangs that when you’re in a minority, you must be in this gang or that gang. That’s a barrier we want to break down.”
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