Lori Lightfoot chooses racism by accepting POC interviews ONLY

Racism Score: 5.1

Ladies and gentlemen, we have now entered the Twilight Zone.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot has decided to grant one on one interview requests to people of color only. Per her decision, she deliberately decided to exclude white people.

Actions such as this creates strife, tension, and manufactured division we presently see in the world. The fact that an elected official decided to be the catalyst for intentional accelerated racism is mind boggling.

Coming from a Black person, Black people can be racist, despite what “white fragility experts” tell you as Lightfoot demonstrably proved. Also, any person, of any race is capable of being racist, period.

WGN9 reports Charles Thomas, a political analyst and former political reporter questioned the mayor’s anti-inclusive interview preference.

“This is a distraction,” he declared. “Instead of talking about crime, talking about disarray in her administration, talking about education, talking about city finances, we’re talking about this.”

Spot on.

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) also made statements.

NABJ:

While the mayor has every right to decide how her press efforts will be handled on her anniversary, we must state again, for the record, that NABJ’s history of advocacy does not support excluding any bona fide journalists from one-on-one interviews with newsmakers, even if it is for one day and in support of activism. We have members from all races and backgrounds and diversity, equity and inclusion must be universal. However, the mayor is right in pointing to the fact that Black and Brown journalists have been quietly excluded from a number of access points over the years. We know first hand it is painful and unhealthy for our communities.

NAHJ:

While it’s important to address long-standing newsroom inequalities, and it is imperative that leaders in power help hold news organizations accountable, NAHJ does not condone restricting press access based on a journalist’s race/ethnicity. Any action that threatens the cornerstone of our democracy and First Amendment rights is unacceptable. We must take more effective steps to achieve lasting equity in newsrooms and news coverage.

Delving deeper into the dimensions of the Twilight Zone…Lightfoot is married to a white person, the irony!

Dear white people world, please do not assume all Black people agree with Lightfoot’s actions.

The condemnation of Lightfoot should be directed solely at her ineptitude, and not all Black people.

Lightfoot woke up in the morning and chose racism, what a shame.