Segregation and Exclusion
Last week Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot sent a letter to local media outlets offering sit-down interviews exclusively to black and brown journalists.
“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. 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.”
In the letter, she goes on to decry the effects of systemic and institutionalized racism as well as the “overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically.” In speaking about the reporters assigned to cover City hall she says that “Many of them are smart, hard-working, savvy and skilled. But mostly white, nonetheless.”
Stories like this one have become more and more common in recent months as the ideology of “diversity and inclusion” has taken hold in many American institutions. People like Lori Lightfoot think of themselves as purveyors of progress—apparently oblivious to the irony that today’s version of diversity and inclusion looks a lot more like segregation and exclusion.
The nice-sounding talk of racial equity and social justice masks the fact that blatant discrimination on the basis of race is required to achieve the kind of diversity that’s being advocated for. The new wave of anti-racists have convinced a whole generation that the quest for equal representation is an end that always justifies the means.
As the intellectual leader of the movement Ibram X. Kendi puts it, “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
And the only thing more concerning than this kind of sentiment is the speed at which it has become normalized in our society. This story should be both shocking and appalling but the American mind, captured by the Woke movement, has become increasingly desensitized to the grotesque nature of the new status quo surrounding racism. We’ve become far too comfortable speaking about race and “whiteness” in the way that Lori Lightfoot does.
While she’s busy banning white people from interviewing her, the city she’s in charge of will continue its tragic downfall into becoming a garbage heap of violent crime and rampant poverty. Lori Lightfoot touts herself as the “first black, female, and openly gay” mayor of Chicago, not realizing the sad irony that she’s a walking example of the devastating effects of an ideology of “diversity and inclusion” which values identity above character and credentials.
