Did you know? The Patriot Post is funded 100% by its readers. Help us stay front and center in the fight for Liberty and support the 2024 Year-End Campaign.

May 20, 2021

Lori Lightfoot’s Rank Racism

The Chicago mayor decides she’d rather not talk to white reporters.

Get lost, cracker.

That seems to be the message from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who’s decided to give one-on-one interviews only to journalists of color.

You read that right. And we wonder: Has there ever been, in the post-Civil Rights era, such a nakedly and despicably racist act from an elected official anywhere in America?

As the Associated Press reports, “Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Wednesday that she will grant one-on-one interviews to mark the two-year anniversary of her inauguration solely to journalists of color, saying she has been struck by the ‘overwhelmingly’ white press corps in Chicago.”

Welcome to wokeness, and welcome to “antiracism,” whose proponents, like critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi, are nodding in approval. “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination,” Kendi has written. “The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

Lightfoot’s present discrimination surfaced late Tuesday, when the request for an interview from a journalist of pallor was denied by the mayor’s office — denied with an explanation. “As Chicago’s mayor reaches her two year midway point as mayor,” tweeted NBC 5 Chicago political reporter Mary Ann Ahern, “her spokeswoman says Lightfoot is granting 1 on 1 interviews — only to Black or Brown journalists.”

Within minutes, a disbelieving Chicago alderman replied to Ahern: “How is that even true, be serious.”

Moments later, another journalist weighed in: “I can confirm, alderman,” tweeted local reporter Heather Cherone.

Perhaps sensing that she was about to become national news, Lightfoot tried to rationalize her racism: “I ran to break up the status quo that was failing so many,” she tweeted. “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.”

But like every inept politician, Lightfoot just doesn’t know when to shut up. So the tweets kept coming: “Diversity and inclusion is imperative across all institutions including media. In order to progress we must change.”

And coming: “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.”

And coming: “This is an imbalance that needs to change. Chicago is a world-class city. Our local media should reflect the multiple cultures that comprise [sic] it.”

At least one fair-minded journalist had heard enough, and he went straight to the source. “I am a Latino reporter at the Chicago Tribune whose interview request was granted for today,” tweeted Gregory Pratt. “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.”

While it’s noble to say that politicians don’t get to choose who covers them, it’s not entirely accurate. Think of Barack Obama’s efforts to freeze out Fox News, and Joe Biden’s months-long stiff-arm of a campaign-season interview request by FNC’s Chris Wallace.

But imagine if the reason were race-based instead of ideological. Imagine the outrage if, say, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who is white, had announced that he’d only be granting interviews to white journalists.

It’s unimaginable. Even in this day and age. Except maybe in Loathsome Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.