So wrong: Chicago mayor declares she will only grant interviews to ‘journalists of color’ By Joe Concha
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” — Martin Luther King, Jr., Aug. 28, 1963.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was just two years old when Dr. King gave that speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. But like many Americans, she probably read or watched it in its entirety when she got older. And that’s one reason why it’s so stunning that Lightfoot, the first Black woman elected as the Windy City’s mayor, would declare the exact opposite regarding race this week, in terms of granting media interviews.
“By now, you may have heard the news that on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of my inauguration as Mayor of this great City, I will be exclusively providing one-on-one interviews with journalists of color,” Lightfoot said in a letter to Chicago media. “As a person of color, I have throughout my adult life done everything that I can to fight for diversity and inclusion in every institution that I have been a part of and being Mayor makes me uniquely situated to shine a spotlight on this most important issue.”
So, there you have it: An elected official of one the country’s biggest cities states, openly and without apology, that interviews marking her second year in office (as if that’s some kind of big deal) will not be given to anyone in Chicago media who is white. Lightfoot says she is fighting against what she believes is systemic racism in the media, but she excludes certain races in her quest to do so.
If that’s not irony, I’m not sure what is.
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