Mayor Lori Lightfoot chooses only reporters of color for interviews ahead of 2-year-anniversary, sparking debate over media diversity and access
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday defended her decision to grant interviews on her two-year anniversary in office only to journalists of color, saying it was intended as an effort to confront the issue of what she described as a mostly white and male City Hall press corps.
But the move, revealed Tuesday by her office, was greeted skeptically by some in the Chicago media and beyond, with questions about whether excluding white reporters is a discriminatory act from a mayor who has had an often contentious relationship with reporters of all backgrounds.
Lightfoot emailed a two-page letter to Chicago journalists on Wednesday saying her choice was a continuation of her campaign’s promise to “break up the status quo.”
“I have been struck since my first day on the campaign trail back in 2018 by the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically,” Lightfoot wrote.
She wrote that there are no women of color assigned to the City Hall beat, saying, “I find this unacceptable and I hope you do too.”
WBEZ disputed the mayor’s observation in a Wednesday story, noting that two of its three City Hall reporters are women, one Hispanic and the other South Asian.
Interviews to mark Lightfoot’s two years in office were set for this week and come as she faces mounting problems over crime, policing, turnover in her office and ongoing battles with the Chicago Teachers Union.
The Tribune declined to participate in an interview with Lightfoot to object to the restrictions.
The NYC Board of Regents on Monday eliminated a requirement that aspiring teachers in New York State pass a literacy test to become certified after the test proved controversial because black and Hispanic candidates passed it at significantly lower rates than white candidates.
So in an attempt to so call "equalize" more people of color in teaching professions, if you are a person of color you don't even need to pass a literacy test to teach kids literacy.
The NYC Board of Regents on Monday eliminated a requirement that aspiring teachers in New York State pass a literacy test to become certified after the test proved controversial because black and Hispanic candidates passed it at significantly lower rates than white candidates.
So in an attempt to so call "equalize" more people of color in teaching professions, if you are a person of color you don't even need to pass a literacy test to teach kids literacy.
When I was in high school (about a million years ago) we had a Black English teacher. On the first day of class she announced (in her best stereotypical drawl), "Attention claaaassss! This heah is English! And we-uns is gunna learn us some English!" All the kids sat there, dumbfounded.
Then she grinned and coughed. "<ahem> Now that we have that out of the way, lets get to work. Shall we?" Very cool teacher.
[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 05-23-2021).]
"It’s official: New York’s prospective teachers will no longer have to pass controversial literacy exam"
quote
State officials, and the state teachers union, also argued that the test was unnecessary since teachers already need to pass several other certification exams.
[Instead of depending upon a passing grade on the Academic Literacy Skills Test], the new measure approved by the Regents would modify a different certification exam to include additional assessment of reading and writing skills.
The NYC Board of Regents on Monday eliminated a requirement that aspiring teachers in New York State pass a literacy test to become certified after the test proved controversial because black and Hispanic candidates passed it at significantly lower rates than white candidates.
So in an attempt to so call "equalize" more people of color in teaching professions, if you are a person of color you don't even need to pass a literacy test to teach kids literacy.
Thus perpetuating and solidifying the continued cycle of ignorance beggeting poverty which begets increased crime to be blamed on a White supremacist environment...an environment that doesn't enforce some level of merit based system. Meritocracy is racist.
I've read some highly racially insensitive comments online saying it's unfair to expect Black people to live in and compete with White people. The NYC Board of Regents is officially saying this now, in agreement with the comments I read from assumed White people. Maybe they were fed posts but probably not.
[This message has been edited by sourmash (edited 05-23-2021).]
"It’s official: New York’s prospective teachers will no longer have to pass controversial literacy exam" Monica Disare for "Chalkbeat"; March 13, 2017. https://ny.chalkbeat.org/pl...ersial-literacy-exam
So it's a few years old and now can't be called racist?
Being racist to fight racism? Its not about equality, they gave up on that. Now its role reversal. Problem with that is most of us don't fit into that mold.
I believe in equality for all of us, but I will judge you based on your character, hire you based on your skill and buy you a beer, what a beer is a beer.
[This message has been edited by Jake_Dragon (edited 05-23-2021).]
No one here knows anything of substance about that literacy test for public school teacher candidates in the state of New York. How it was in 2017. About the changes that were made in 2017. About where it stands now.
No one here, including myself.
It's a mistake to think that anyone could arrive at any meaningful conclusion or inference, based only on the fragmentary reports about it that are on display here; i.e., the small anecdotal remarks about it from Wichita, or the small "Chalkbeat" report about it from 2017, that I posted.
The forum members might just as well be talking about Mr [strike that] and Mrs [strike that] Potato Head or about Dr Seuss.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 05-23-2021).]
No one here knows anything of substance about that literacy test for public school teacher candidates in the state of New York. How it was in 2017. About the changes that were made in 2017. About where it stands now.
No one here, including myself.
It's a mistake to think that anyone could arrive at any meaningful conclusion or inference, based only on the fragmentary reports about it that are on display here; i.e., the small anecdotal remarks about it from Wichita, or the small "Chalkbeat" report about it from 2017, that I posted.
The forum members might just as well be talking about Mr [strike that] and Mrs [strike that] Potato Head or about Dr Seuss.
Do you have kids? Wouldn't this give you pause? But can we get back to the first racist before we tackle another one? Do you support Lightfoot's stand on reporters?
[This message has been edited by Jake_Dragon (edited 05-23-2021).]
As I understand it, this is only for the one day. The two-year anniversary day of the mayor's mayoralty. The press conferencing that the mayor is going to have on that one particular day.
I don't think it's a big deal one way or the other. I'm sure that the day after, the mayor and many of her supporters will say that it was a positive thing, for the mayor's press conferencing to have been set up that way, for that particular occasion.
I'm not going to know enough about it to have any strong feelings about it, one way or the other. "Six of one" VS "a half dozen of the other." In all likelihood, that is where I expect to be about it, one day after it happens.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 05-23-2021).]
What I see in your last 2 posts is: apologetics, apologetics, apologetics, apologetics, apologetics, apologetics, apologetics.
Everybody has seen the coverage of highly compensated school employees doing no educating, but are instead sent to some building where no kids are even located because of some incident that never gets resolved. L
And if anyone has ever witnessed an inner city class room in city school systems you come away shocked, feightened, and angry, disgusted, etc..
No one here knows anything of substance about that literacy test for public school teacher candidates in the state of New York. How it was in 2017. About the changes that were made in 2017. About where it stands now.
No one here, including myself.
It's a mistake to think that anyone could arrive at any meaningful conclusion or inference, based only on the fragmentary reports about it that are on display here; i.e., the small anecdotal remarks about it from Wichita, or the small "Chalkbeat" report about it from 2017, that I posted.
The forum members might just as well be talking about Mr [strike that] and Mrs [strike that] Potato Head or about Dr Seuss.
Who needs to know more than "white people have to take a test for employment, and black people are exempt from the employment test" to make a decision on the policy being racist or not? Seems like someone is saying people are not equal?
There's way, way more people of African descent than White people in the world. They will be right about half the world population in 1 lifetime according to the UN. Whites are 8% and shrinking.
Originally posted by Rickady88GT: Who needs to know more than "white people have to take a test for employment, and black people are exempt from the employment test" to make a decision on the policy being racist or not? Seems like someone is saying people are not equal?
What I read in that “Chalkbeat” report from 2017 was that the Literacy Skills Test that they had been using was to be eliminated for ALL applicants.
Please refer to my earlier message which has some text that I duplicated from “Chalkbeat.”
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 05-23-2021).]
My guess is, Mayor LIghtfoot is trying to make a splash of notoriety that might help her in future elections. Other than that, she's Chicago's problem.
Originally posted by 2.5: Havent ya'll heard, choosing based on race is the new "virtue signal", but seems like ya gotta only choose certain races...
I hope that the people here that are commenting on this have at least looked at the article that was posted to start this thread. The second half of that article. Only the first half of that article was duplicated as part of the Original Post.
Mayor Lightfoot is framing this as an Affirmative Action kind of preference for media outlets and reporters that she believes have been neglected by previous Chicago administrations. Framing this (in so many words) as "Chicago Affirmative Action Day for Media of 'Color' . . ."
Mayor Lightfoot's plan for this day has many detractors, including People of Color and one person (in the article) named "Joie Chen" who is luke warm (if even that) in terms of being enthused about the mayor's idea.
The way that this thread was set up, so it reads (as the Topic) "Mayor Lori . . . Lightfoot says won't talk to White reporters."
As if the mayor had said that she will not talk to white reporters "period." Instead of--as the mayor actually said--on this particular day.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 05-24-2021).]
I hope that the people here that are commenting on this have at least looked at the article that was posted to start this thread. The second half of that article. Only the first half of that article was duplicated as part of the Original Post.
Mayor Lightfoot is framing this as an Affirmative Action kind of preference for media outlets and reporters that she believes have been neglected by previous Chicago administrations. Framing this (in so many words) as "Chicago Affirmative Action Day for Media of 'Color' . . ."
Mayor Lightfoot's plan for this day has many detractors, including People of Color and one person (in the article) named "Joie Chen" who is luke warm (if even that) in terms of being enthused about the mayor's idea.
The way that this thread was set up, so it reads (as the Topic) "Mayor Lori . . . Lightfoot says won't talk to White reporters."
As if the mayor had said that she will not talk to white reporters "period." Instead of--as the mayor actually said--on this particular day.
one day or 100 days its still racist. there is no way to spin this and not be racist. you can't fight racism with racism.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot chooses only reporters of color for interviews ahead of 2-year-anniversary, sparking debate over media diversity and access
“I have been struck since my first day on the campaign trail back in 2018 by the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically,” Lightfoot wrote.
She wrote that there are no women of color assigned to the City Hall beat, saying, “I find this unacceptable and I hope you do too.”
WBEZ disputed the mayor’s observation in a Wednesday story, noting that two of its three City Hall reporters are women, one Hispanic and the other South Asian.
She's proven a liar by one of the entities she accused. She is exposed as a sexist and racist. There is no excuse for racism, as we're taught by the controlled media.
"This is exactly why I'm being intentional about not talking to white reportersprioritizing media requests from POC reporters . . ."
"Framing this", yes that is that is the name of the game, and how they became trapped in their little frames, and want you in there with them, may even think they are trying to accomplish something "good". You don't hire based on race.
Almost everything he said is fundamentally wrong. Another indoctrinated fool, and yes, virtue signaling.
[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 05-24-2021).]
"Re-engineer your head, is really what the door mouse said Push the lies away ... If you take time and look for clues ...scrape the sh** off Your shoes, you'll feel the real today ... Hey, one more thing, these things are hard to explain. For Some, it seems strange to swallow ..."
