Statement of
Colleen K. Connell, Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois
Re: Release of National ACLU Report titled
Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice

Monday, December 10, 2007

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois is pleased to join with our National ACLU colleagues and activists across the nation in responding to the U.S. report to the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Tragically, the Bush Administration's report ignored a number of critical and systemic examples of racial bias that despoil the civic landscape of our nation. The U.S. report mistakenly cited Illinois as an example where racial bias has been removed from most, if not all, governmental practices.

This claim - that Illinois is an exemplary place of equality - must come as quite a surprise the hundreds of Illinois African American and Latino residents who continue to be subject to racial profiling in traffic stops, as demonstrated in recent statistics released by the Illinois Department of Transportation in accord with a state law requiring all police agencies in Illinois to report on the ethnicity of drivers they stop for routine traffic stops. Moreover, that data demonstrated that once a Latino or African American driver is stopped, they are far more likely to be the subject of a "consent search" of their automobile - where an officer seeks permission to search their car and person without any clear reason.

The Bush Administration's claim that racial discrimination is no longer a problem in the United States must come as a shock to our clients - including Akif Rahman of suburban Chicago (who was featured over the weekend on CBS Evening News) - who, despite being American citizens, are regularly subjected to unnecessary delays, searches, harassment and questioning when re-entering the United States.

As we mark International Human Rights Day, we join the ACLU and other activists for racial equality in calling on the Bush Administration and governmental entities at the state and local level to live up to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, signed in 1994. In short, let us use this day to reaffirm our commitment to end racial discrimination in our nation - once and for all.

Editor’' note: You can find a copy of the ACLU's report on the U.S. Government's submission to CERDA at http://aclu.org/cerda