Page 13 - 2020 Yachting in Chicago

DIVERSITY CALL TO ACTION TO

CHICAGO BOATERS

Originally issued by the Jackson
Park Yacht Club Foundation on
July 27, 2020, on the
101 year anniversary of the
1919 Chicago race riots

JPYC Foundation -- Session 2 -- Bug Rally on Lake

JPYC Foundation’s mission is to provide outreach, Join us in our efforts to dismantle racial
ver 2 million people live in Chicago, yet
Oover 800,000 Chicagoans, many of them education, training, support and resources to inequity and change the color of boating by
low-income children of color, have never even engage young people and adults in boating considering how you can:
seen Lake Michigan, let alone been on a boat. and other activities on and around the water,
The Jackson Park Yacht Club Foundation (JPYC including non-traditional participants in boating • Provide funding to support black and brown
Foundation) sees maritime activities as one way, activities. By connecting people to Lake Michigan teens to become junior sailing and boating
though it should not be the only way, to address – one of Chicago’s greatest free assets for public instructors and inspirational examples for
Chicago’s, boating’s, and especially the sport of enjoyment – we are changing both our nation’s younger sailors/ boaters; staff should reflect the
sailing’s, racial and economic disparities. history of slave ships in the 1600s forcibly diversity of the children we should be engaging
bringing African Americans to this country in their in maritime activities. If you do not know where
In the city where one of the largest and most holds, and our city’s history – where for decades to donate, you can consider donating to JPYC
violent race riots, the Chicago race riots of African Americans were not allowed by the Park Foundation’s pipeline program.
1919, started on the water on the South side of District or the city to access the Lakefront.
Chicago, it’s particularly incumbent on Chicago • Incorporate curricular lessons on diversity,
area boaters to remember our city’s tragic history Our Open Horizons Youth Sailing Program – a empathy, implicit bias and racial equity, so
regarding access to the Lakefront, privilege and subsidized 2-week sailing camp that teaches that all boaters, young and old, boys and girls,
race. A total of 38 people – 23 black and 15 white youth, who otherwise might never have the white, black and brown, understand their
– died during this week-long period from July 27 opportunity to be exposed to sailing, teamwork, responsibility for social justice and racial equity
to August 3, 1919. Over 537 people were injured, resilience and other life skills – not only connect in our society and in our boating community.
and approximately 1,000 to 2,000 people lost young people to sailing, but uses it as a fun, • Connect with diverse boaters in Chicago and
their homes. challenging way to embrace education, including, around the world who can be role models for
maritime arts, ecology, literature, poetry and
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math all our young boaters, but especially young
(STEAM). Through sailing we literally open youths’ sailors/boaters of color so they see people like
horizons and help them to navigate a new course them thriving in our boating community.
in their lives using a sport that can provide life- • Create a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee
changing opportunities that extend beyond sailing to discuss ways that we can educate our
such as college admittance, first jobs and careers. community and empower our youth boaters of
We are proactively dismantling racism, in society, color on and off the water.
boating and the sport of sailing, by building a • Extend the influence of your organization to
pipeline of African American instructors and support facilitators and remove barriers for
sailors of color who – this time around – will be boaters of color when participating with other
steering the ship instead of being cargo in its hold! boating groups (e.g., yacht clubs, high school/
JPYC Foundation -- Session 2 -- Bug on Lake college sailing teams, fleets) and events such
We are and will continue to do our part. Now we
This prolonged conflict arose from the murder of are calling upon the extended boating community as regattas and clinics.
Eugene Williams, an African-American child, who in Chicago to do its part. Only by acting together can we ensure that
inadvertently drifted into a white swimming area Social and racial equity will not come without all Chicagoans have access to and enjoy our
at an informally segregated beach near 29th intentional responses by the entire boating great Chicago Lakefront. And if we can achieve
Street. One white beachgoer, indignant at this community. We have both the ability and the diversity, equity and inclusion on the water – then
affront, began hurling rocks at Williams, causing obligation to bring about change. Doing anything we can certainly achieve it on land.
him to drown. The official coroner’s report less is being silent, complacent and continuing to We look forward to your actions.
cited that Williams drowned because the stone contribute to the systemic racial inequities that
throwing kept him from coming to shore.* have been the Achilles heel of our society, the
* Ready to Explode: How a Black Teen’s Drifting boating community and the sport of sailing.
Raft Triggered a Deadly Week of Riots 100 Years
Ago in Chicago, William Lee and E. Jason Wambsgans, 2020 yachting in chicago 13
Chicago Tribune, July 21, 2019.