chicagodads

Chicago, as our very own Tribune has recently pointed out for those who have not traveled through the North, West and South Sides, is one of the most segregated cities in the US. Dr. King knew this and dared shed light on it some forty years ago and got a bottle upside his head for his troubles. Two generations later, things have changed little. If you go through a neighborhood or live in a neighborhood in Chicago where there is a mixture of races, either you’re in one of the few that are genuinely multiracial (as Lincoln Square was when I was growing up. More so and still currently Devon Street, both of which were types of welcome ports to immigrants and where many multiethnic businesses thrive. Hyde Park can also lay claim to that, although socio-economically they are on different ends of the spectrum) or in a neighborhood where one group is moving out while another moves in (which, sadly, is the case in my own current neighborhood of Logan Square and my old neighborhood of Lincoln Square, as well as the old Cabrini Green projects and innumerable places).

If whites are moving in, generally speaking, the rents and property taxes are going up until most non-whites can no longer afford to live there. Usually, these white people would be young professionals, people just out of college and wanting to move closer to the heart of the city. For a while, whites had fled the city (which was called White Flight. The principal difference is that whites left because they wanted to, not because they were genuinely forced out) for the safety and unclutteredness of the suburbs. Then their children went off to college and decided that the ‘burbs were boring and they want to live closer to where the jobs and the action are. Which led them into areas formerly or presently occupied by blacks and latinos (note: for some strange reason, I decided that I’m not going to capitalize racial categories today. I may tomorrow. Also, we tend to say ‘latinos’ in Chicago, rather than ‘hispanics’ or other names).

For instance, one of my friends remembers growing up when the now-asture and immutable Lincoln Park (yes, we like Lincoln around here. Even though he’s a Republican and all) was a Puerto Rican neighborhood. Two generations later, it’s rare to see a Puerto Rican walk around the area, although the reminders are still there.

Now, while more whites are moving into these apparently (and sometimes honestly) blighted communities, others are being forced out of their areas, their communities, their homes, their businesses, their environs, and their schools because they can no longer afford to live, work or operate there any longer. Which is fine by the city government because they figure that they will receive more money and more prestige as more professionals (read: college educated whites) move back to the city and make it home.

Of course, although young whites are moving into the city and changing the landscape of it, they are not staying. As they contemplate raising families (usually about ten years after they graduate university), they see that the price of living in the city is getting astronomically higher, that the streets still are not adequately safe, and that the schools are probably even more dangerous. So, they pull their selves and their little ones out of the city and even many suburban areas (where do you think those displaced black and brown families are living now?) and move to exurbia, in the far reaches of the cornfield galaxy where a Target and Best Buy is sure to land. Along with all the boring comforts of their own boring adolescence.

Well, it’s a good thing that somebody’s speaking for the children of minorities, right? Well, this being America and all, that’s just not the case. Hizzoner Mayor Richard Daley and Sir Secretary Arne Duncan had concocted a plan and set it in motion years ago. This plan is called Renaissance 2010. This plan does not seek to reverse the ouster or poor education of our minority and underserved. It’s chief aim - to view it in its context - is to retain white children in Chicago while making public education cheaper by tearing down the power of the Chicago Teacher’s Union.* Further proving the maxim that No Child Left Behind means that the powers-that-be are merely tossing out the undesirable children so there will be no trace of them.

And Chicago’s at the forefront of this ‘reform.’ Is the entire country going to further displace people of color now?

*FWIW, I am no advocate of the CTU. It is corrupt and inept. But it is protection against two larger and even more corrupt and inept systems, the Chicago Public Schools and the City of Chicago.

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