Orland Park's ethnic diversity comes out at Taste of Jerling event

Orland Park's ethnic diversity comes out at Taste of Jerling event

A woman came up to me who has been reading my columns since the 1980s said she has been living in Orland Park more than 35 years, and that during that time "It really has changed."

I was at the Jerling Junior High school "Taste of Jerling" event which featured food samplings from 17 ethnic groups, including "United States," which I thought was cute.

"When we first moved here, it was all White. All Irish, some Poles and Italians and maybe a few Koreans," she said. "Now there are so many Arabs, Mexicans and Asians. Indians. It's really changed."

We talked. She wasn't being racist or bigoted. She was just remarking about the reality of Orland Park that the community had changed, and become more diversified. And in truth, she was right. Orland Park has changed over the years. I noted that I moved in 30 years ago, too, and jokingly said, "It seems like there are more and more White people living here, don't you think?"

I was being facetious, of course. In a nice way. I mentioned that when I moved in, people stayed int heir homes and you didn't hear or see them. Now, as the population has become more and more diverse, you see more and more White people rising up and speaking out about it.

Maybe for some, this would be an uncomfortable conversation. But it was genuine. The woman I spoke with honestly was not being racist, and neither was I. She was just noting a fact. And she was so excited to see all the different cultures and taste their foods which were on display in the Jerling Gymnasium Friday night.

The event was held to celebrate the "rich cultural and ethnic diversity" of Jerling and the community. There were 17 ethnic groups represented at the Taste of Jerling. China, Croatia, France, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Phillpines, Poland, Serbia and the United States.

I told my wife, who is Jewish, that I was proud to see three Arab cultures represented, Jordan, Palestine and Morocco.

Sandburg students joined in to provide some ethnic entertainment. Students performed traditional dances from Lithuania, Mexico and India.

It was really nice to see all the parents and the kids attend to show support. Each of the food displays included some ethnic artifacts that represented their culture. Some of the kids did extra-credit work and completed a survey of each display and wrote down something important about what they learned from the ethnic cultural displays. One student wrote down, "In their culture, they give away wives." And he wasn't talking about my ethnic group. Apparently, the host of one of the ethnic groups had said that in their country, women are not allowed to chose their husbands and the wives and chosen for the husbands.

It's not a racist thing to say, I thought. It is a fact. A fact in several of the cultures. The reality of our world. Why shouldn't kids know that?

Of course, as a Baby Boomer, it's hard to identify with today's young kids Their world is so much different from my world. But I can identify with the adults.

I wanted to explain to the woman who observed that it appeared that Orland Park has changed with so many new ethnic and cultural groups moving in, that the reality is that the numbers don't support that conclusion.

I understand why, though. Arabs, for example, are among the ethnic group that has moved into Orland Park over the past 30 years. Most are Christian Arabs, something many Americans don't even realize exists (especially based on how Americans ignore the plight of Christians in Israel and the Arab World). But many are Muslim and some of the Muslim women where Hijabs, head coverings that are very similar to the head coverings Polish women would wear in my old neighborhood on Chicago's South East Side. So they stand out, even though there are only a few of them. They appear like there is an invasion, even though there are really not that many.

Darker skinned cultures, too, have increased. And again, even though there are really not many, they stand out. Years ago when the community was nearly all White, culture was not noticeable. That's what I had meant by how there seems to be more White people today than before. It's not until you get diversity that you actually start to see everyone. Some, more than others, even if the numbers don't match the perceptions.

Here are some numbers about Orland Park's diversity.

The population, according to the 2012 U.S. Census, is 57,392.

86.1 % of that population is White. That's a big population number, folks.

1.7 % are African American. While that is negligible, it is noticeable.

6.2 % are Hispanic.

4.9 % are Asian.

That leaves 1.1 percent of "Other," which according to the U.S. Census which does not include "Arabs."

Has Orland Park really changed that much over the past 35 years?

Not really. And not enough.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. Reach him on his website at www.TheMediaOasis.com.)

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For more on diversity, visit www.TheArabDailyNews.com

Hypocrisies abound in handling of Christian versus Muslim hoaxers

Dueling hoaxes expose more than youthful lies in bonfire of the bigotries
By Ray Hanania

The incidents happened weeks apart, a young Christian girl in Palos Heights, a community notorious for anti-Arab hatred and racism, told police that she had been sexually assaulted by an man she described as “Arab looking.”

Police developed a sketch of the suspect and the community response was immediate. The sketch was posted on nearly every store window not just in Palos Heights, but throughout the Southwest Suburbs across a 15 mile span that happened to correspond with the regional settlement of Arabs.

Although widely reported, the story even made America’s Most Wanted and host John Walsh repeated the description of the assailant being “creepy” looking.

Several weeks later, a Muslim girl reports she is assaulted at Elmhurst College. The news media covered the event and Muslim organizations stood up denouncing the attack as an example of rising anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes.

In contrast, there wasn’t a peep from Arab American groups as they are ineffective and dysfunctional. And, America’s Most Wanted, which always seems to highlight cases where the victims are White and the Assailants are Black and “creepy” looking Arabs, didn’t bother to even give the incident 15 seconds on their popular national weekend TV program.

Safia Jilani, 19, told Elmhurst Police that she was attacked in the bathroom at the Southwestern suburban college and the incident was declared a “hate crime” when police found threatening graffiti written on the bathroom’s mirrors and walls.

Just about the time of the Muslim attack, the family of the Christian assault victim hired an attorney and the attorney announced his client had lied to police and that no such sexual attack had taken place.

The attorney expressed genuine remorse from the family, apologizing to the public, the police and later to “ethnic groups” who felt targeted, a reference to the Arab American profile of the hoax. Police said they would not prosecute, although the investigation into the crime cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The girl has agreed to do community service.

But when Jilani’s hoax was discovered, after she admitted to police that she had made up the attack details, police immediately announced they would file charges against her. She is charged with a Class 4 Felony and can face up to 4 years imprisonment.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) which helped lead calls to declare the event a Hate Crime, responsibly and immediately issued a statement saying that false reports like Jilani’s undermine efforts to fight the many other, frequent incidents of discrimination that do occur.

Hate groups immediately flooded the Internet with statements denouncing Muslims as anti-American and citing the Jilani case as evidence that claims of discrimination are false.

Arab groups remained silent, reinforcing their view that doing nothing is oftentimes the best course of action.

What caused these students to do what they did?

In the case of the young Palos Heights girl, who is under-aged and her identity is therefore not made public, she was afraid to tell her parents about something she had done. The sexual assault would help her cover that up.

In the case of Jilani, earlier before she made up her lies, there was a clash between rightwing conservatives on the campus and students, including many Arabs and Muslims, who were protesting the abuse and violation of the rights of prisoners at Guantanamo, a detention center many compare to a concentration camp and a Russian Gulag. Many of the prisoners there are victims of politics and have never been charged with any crime, other than being Arab or Muslim.

Tensions were high at Elmhurst College but college officials acted responsibly to address the issues. Tensions were also high at Palos Heights but officials there have notoriously refused to address the rising incidents of hatred that have given the community the shameful moniker, “Palos Hates.”

Palos Heights was the site of the 2000 community protest to prevent their Muslim neighbors from establish a Mosque where they could pray. Palos Heights has two dozen Christian Churches, and no Synagogue.

While both girls are responsible for their lies, they are also victims of societies that put ethnic and religious faces on crimes. It’s not enough to capture a criminal. The suspects are used to argue racial issues that dominate American society and politics.

But there is one thing very clear.

When a Christian girl, who is White, cries wolf and it turns out she is lying, society is more willing to excuse her actions and not punish her with imprisonment of fines.

When a Muslim or Arab girl cries wolf and it turns out she is lying, the bonfires of bigotries and racism are ignited.

Although most of the police sketches of the phony “creepy” Arab assailant have been taken down from store windows, the mental sketches of hatred remain seared into the racism of a community disabled by hate.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist and Chicago radio talk show host. He can be reached at www.RadioChicagoland.com or by email at rayhanania@comcast.net.)