ID Politics Rears Ugly Head In Chicago Ward Map Battle

One of the dirty secrets of Identity Politics is on full display in Chicago where Latinos now outnumber Blacks but BOTH sides are fighting tooth ‘n nail to gerrymander voting districts to capture city council seats for selfish reasons...

The down n dirty backdrop is provided in WSJ’s “As Black Exodus Continues in Chicago, Latino Caucus Seeks Stronger Voice.” As the editors noted, “Latinos recently surpassed the number of Black residents here for the first time. In the 2020 Census, Chicago’s Hispanic population grew by 5%” since 2010 to 819K, while the non-Hispanic Black population fell 10% to 787K. In essence, Blacks are moving to the safer burbs in droves and the Latinos are moving in. But, that also means the political map being redrawn (every 10 yrs) to reflect the latest Census demographics should include more aldermen in the city’s 55 Wards so as to be Latino, even though Blacks have dominated certain of those elected posts since the 1980s, when Blacks finally started outnumbering white ethnics in many places.

Guess what? The city’s Black Caucus doesn’t think one particular Southwest Side ward (where I was raised) should “go” to the Latinos who are now in the clear majority and demanding it. “We feel we are entitled to it,” insists Gilbert Villegas, head of the Latino Caucus. But, while Jason Ervin, head of the Black Caucus agrees the Latino population has pulled ahead of the Black population overall, he argues it still lags behind in the “voting-age population”. Not a single word uttered for "what's best for OUR city." Suggestion: Why not have Chicago’s Democratic Machine dig up the numbers in the cemeteries to see if the "overall" count changes in favor of the whites living there, too, so they can get in on the argument?

Davd Soul