Chicago Reporter (https://www.chicagoreporter.com/author/saeed-richardson/)
Rev. Saeed Richardson is the Programs and Operations Officer at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference and Senior Pastor of The First Baptist Church of Waukegan. He is the former director of policy at the Community Renewal Society, and holds graduate degrees from the schools of Divinity and Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, and a BA in Statistics and Leadership from Virginia Tech.
Congregations must rise up and fill in the gaps of preparedness and support for those in society most adversely impacted by the new reality of social distancing measures.
As cannabis becomes legal in more states, religious leaders should be truth-tellers of the racialized history and disparate impact of the war on drugs in recommending how their congregations and communities should respond.
Phrases like the ‘working homeless,’ ‘doubled up,’ ‘homeless youth’ and others are becoming more common, amplifying the need to address the problem and create lasting change.
An archaic law that even its originators no longer use is especially harsh in Illinois.
Most Americans don’t think about how painful and complicated our Independence Day can be for Black people to whom it never applied.
The inaccurate perception that African American families are devastated by absent fathers that need to return to their responsibilities informs policy and law formulation in a variety of harmful ways.