Diversity in Bloomington-Normal? (Peoria, Springfield, Berkeley: neighborhoods, theatre, high schools)

[max123]

Hi,

My family and I are considering moving to the Bloomington-Normal area. We were wondering what are the best areas and school systems for supporting diversity. Most of my family currently lives in southern Illinois where there has been a lot of hatred for anyone who is different. I was wondering what the communities around Bloomington-Normal were like. Are they supportive and accepting of different ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, and cultures? Our daughter is getting ready to start school soon and I would like her to go to school in a more tolerant atmosphere.

[Erdbeerkuche]

I'm taking a class on multicultural education here in B/N now. I don't have much personal experience with the schools, but I believe the unit 5 district is more diverse than district 187.
District 187 is completely hemmed in by Unit 5.
If you can get her in to it, Metcalf's population is carefully chosen to reflect the diversity of the area.
I'm not really a townie though, I come from the Springfield area originally & have lived here a few years now.

[Bob Osborne]

We are a mixed race family of five. We live in Rio Linda, Ca. A city famiously known as backward-red neck-racist. The anti Berkeley. We are very comfortable here. Never once a look of disaprovial or harsh word said to any of us. Or I might add, to other families we know of similar family makeup.
If your diversity gripe is'nt fiction then you must be doing something to bring out whatever negativity you see.
I would'nt be suprised if we come to find that all of these "diversity " posts are from a single source. Be it a single person or small group.
I do'nt know about you but I have better things to do than twist over this foolishness. It's time to get my little half breeds up and to school !

[runninfiend]

B/N is a white collar, largely white town, but my personal experiences would put it down as a largely tolerant place.

There certainly are racially mixed neighborhoods and the presence of two important universities and huge global employer such as State Farm add to the mix in terms of cultural presence. White is still the majority, but I would be really surprised if you caught any serious problems in terms of intolerance.

Another thing, all the entrances to the city have "no racism--not in our town" signs. That's a positive sign.

[linicx]

Bloomington is a mostly white, ultra-conservitive, compact farming town. Springfield is a politcal town. Peoria is a sprawling river town due to the bluffs, hills and river valley. Peoria is also has a large religious community that embraces Judiasm, Greek Orthodoxy, Ba'hai, Federalist. AME, Catholic; most Cnristian religions are represented here, too. It is cultrally diverse. There are schools for the gifted as well as for the slow learner. And there is job opportunity.

[Paxtonian]

Are we talking about the same Bloomington? I lived there for a long time, it's diverse and there are all kinds of people there Peoria on the other hand is a dive, I wouldn't live there if you paid me.

[IlWesleyanGuy]

I'm not from the B-N community originally, but I've been here for a year now. From what I have seen, this community is pretty friendly. I have seen quite a few interacial couples here -most of them teenagers and young adults. That is definitely encouraging. Though, I must confess that I have not seen many GLBT people and so I am not able to determine just how tolerant/accomodating the community is to them. If you are primarily concerned about racial diversity in the B-N high schools then I suggest that you view each high school's state report card. These reports give the racial break down of each school. Bloomington High School is about 65% white and 23% black. After that there's only about 6% Hispanic people and it seems only a handful of people of other races.

[steve_holt]

Bloomington is far from a "ultra-conservative white farm town", certainly not in comparison to other areas of Central IL. That may have been true 30 years ago, but it really isn't applicable today. I would suggest refraining from continuing to spread that perception in every thread that mentions Bloomington.


There is a fair amount of racial/ethnic/religious diversity. As most others have said, while the percentage of population that is white is probably higher than national averages, it is a fairly tolerant group as far as other cultures and ideas.

U-High / Metcalf are the most diverse schools, but you apply to get into them (and if you are white, it is harder to get in). But all of the other city schools are fine. Unit 5 has a larger % of asian indian population, while district 87 has a larger % of african american population. So each is unique in its own way.

PM if you have questions about specific schools or areas - I know a fair amount about the area.

[runninfiend]

Two nights ago there was a news story that a noose was found at the international hall on the ISU campus. Although an isolated incident, it's the kind of thing you hate to see in any context anywhere.

[Paxtonian]

A noose? I found one of those at Illinois State when I attended. It had a body hanging from it under a bridge over the creek. Some freshman theatre major hung himself. Ever since then when I see a drawing of a hanging I keep saying it's all wrong, the feet don't stick straight ahead, they should be at a downward angle....