Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot revealed she will only grant interviews to journalists of color as she reaches her two-year anniversary in office. Naturally, the announcement came just one day after her Monday appearance with white journalist Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC.
The announcement sparked controversy, to which Lightfoot defended her racist actions on Twitter: “I ran to break up the status quo that was failing so many. That isn’t just in City Hall. It’s a shame that in 2021, the City Hall press corps is overwhelmingly White in a city where more than half of the city identifies as Black, Latino, AAPI or Native American.”
“Diversity and inclusion is imperative across all institutions including media. In order to progress we must change” she added in a follow-up tweet. Someone should explain to her what the word “inclusion” means.
Her Wednesday Twitter rant about why she is being discriminated in order to be inclusive continued: “This is exactly why I’m being intentional about prioritizing media requests from POC reporters on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of my inauguration as mayor of this great city.”
She goes on. “This is an imbalance that needs to change. Chicago is a world-class city. Our local media should reflect the multiple cultures that comprise it.”
Not done yet! “We must be intentional about doing better. I believed that when running for office. I stand on this belief now. It’s time for the newsrooms to do better and build teams that reflect the make-up of our city” she tweeted.
I am a Latino reporter @chicagotribune whose interview request was granted for today. However, I asked the mayor’s office to lift its condition on others and when they said no, we respectfully canceled. Politicians don’t get to choose who covers them. https://t.co/YMW8M8ZgJm
— Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt) May 19, 2021
One brave Latino reporter had the gall to stand up to her. Gregory Pratt tweeted, “I am a Latino reporter @chicagotribune whose interview request was granted for today. However, I asked the mayor’s office to lift its condition on others and when they said no, we respectfully canceled. Politicians don’t get to choose who covers them.”
Chicago To Require Vaccine Passports To Enter Certain Events And Crowded Spaces
In order to coerce citizens to get vaccinated, Chicago’s Public Health Commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady, will be pushing a new vaccine passport program that will be required for admission into certain events.
The city of Chicago wants businesses to offer savings incentives to those who are fully vaccinated as part of their “Vax and Relax” program. In order to take advantage of the savings or even get into many places, patrons will have to show their “Vax Pass.”
Dr. Arwady says that the city is not “requiring” anyone to get vaccinated but said that those who are not vaccinated may be refused entry into events as determined by the city’s Public Health Commission.
The initiative is specially targeting younger Chicagoans who the Public Health Commission says many have expressed willingness to get vaccinated but claim it is “not the first on the list of things to do” so the city is seeking “creative ways” to encourage them to get the jab.
Vaccine passports have received lots of backlash with 8 states either banning them or pledging to ban them. Florida and Texas are the largest states to ban the use of vaccine passports while many smaller states like Idaho and Nebraska have followed suit.
While places like New York have their own vaccine passport program called the “Excelsior Pass”, other states Governors such as Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts said that the state will not participate in vaccine passports because vaccine passports are a violation of “two central tenets of the American system: freedom of movement and healthcare privacy.”
Affluent Chicagoans Fleeing Due to Leadership Inability to Calm BLM Violence
Many people, including President Trump himself, noted during their Republican National Convention speeches that Democratic-run cities are experiencing violence and looting, as the leaders whose policies are to blame are safely hidden in privileged areas. However, areas like Chicago have become so bad, affluent neighborhoods are no longer safe and citizens are getting out of dodge.
“Incidents of widespread looting and soaring homicide figures in Chicago have made national news during an already tumultuous year,” writes the Chicago Tribune. “As a result, some say residents in affluent neighborhoods downtown, and on the North Side, no longer feel safe in the city’s epicenter and are looking to move away.”
Liberal leadership has been unsuccessful at subduing violence from the Black Lives Matter’s highjacked movement. With no end of destruction in sight and spontaneous eruptions of violence, while residents say “they understand why protesters and rioters have poured onto the streets of downtown, and some acknowledge that crime is worse in other parts of Chicago” they still want out reports the Chicago Tribune.
Some people “agree with protesters that something systemic needs to be changed” but they “don’t want to wait it out here in the city, fearful of stepping outside at night and hoping for things to maybe get better.” A 30-year-old nurse who lives in the River North area said, “not to make it all about us; the whole world is suffering…but I do think that I’ve never had to think about my own safety in this way before.”
Hopefully, this will be a lesson to Chicagoans and similar cities, that they need to vote out their Democratic leadership who refuse to stand up to the violent protesters and also refuse to accept help and assistance offered directly from President Trump. 60-year-old Neil Spun has lived in Chicago for over half his life and is deeply conflicted about moving. A state worker, Spun said “there have been rights before, and looting. It just seems to me now that the city isn’t doing anything about it. I don’t see this getting any better, and so I’d like to leave.” Residents would be far better off voting in new leadership instead of succumbing to liberal policies that change their communities beyond recognition.
