Illinois Public Media News

From declaring racism a public health crisis to how can white people support black people who might be feeling battle fatigue, or simply overwhelmed in the wake of the kiling of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breona Taylor and others... The 21st sought answers from Helen Neville, professor of Educational Psychology and African-Americans Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

On today's 21st, we talk with educational psychologist Helen Neville about racism and revisit a conversation about scams during COVID-19.

Last week’s killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis made clear that policing needs to change. Just a few years earlier in 2015, the city had participated in a multi-million dollar, multi-year partnership between academics and law enforcement. It provided anti-bias training, better data collection and surveying of both police and community members.

The 21st speaks with Teresa Haley, president of the Illinois State Conference and the Springfield Branch of the NAACP, about the killing of George Floyd, the protests that followed, and her priorities for police accountability.

Today on The 21st: as protests continue over the police killing of George Floyd, a conversation about policing, protesting, and what comes next with Teresa Haley, the head of the Illinois NAACP. And we talk to the head of a police academy and a criminal justice expert about how and why law enforcement needs to change.