Black leaders have ‘fair share’ fears - Chicago Sun-Times

Black leaders have ‘fair share’ fears - Chicago Sun-Times

We already know from what happened with the report of a new Chicago Police Chief - the Newark Police is under Federal investigation and McCarthy used to be the police chief there - there are Black alderman who are less than happy that Blacks aren't the heads of any of the public safety departments in Chicago. So basically Laura Washington writes a column about that in the Sun-Times.

Basically it's about Mayor-elect Emanuel's picks to head his administrative teams:

While black and Latino elected officials are scrambling to kiss the ring, many are privately wary that their “people” won’t get their “fair share” of appointments, and even more important, the jobs and resources that emanate from City Hall.

Ethnic and racial politics are embedded in the DNA of big-city governing. Interest groups — and the mayors who appoint them — have long played racial “gotcha” politics with top appointments. Mayors — and their enemies — keep excruciatingly close tabs on the racial composition of their Cabinets and other top appointments to ancillary agencies and boards and commissions. Hence, black/white or black/Latino “teams” are transparently common, especially in areas like education, human services and police services.

Optics are key. Hence, the three press secretaries who fronted for Daley over his 21 years in office were all African American.

Contrary to Emanuel’s stand down on the aldermanic complaints, you can expect him to continue the tradition. It’s just good politics.

But is it good policy? It’s one thing to have black faces at the helm. It’s another to truly deliver for black people.

Do you think that there should be black faces at the top of our city government under Mayor Emanuel - who will take office next Monday - or do you think that there are some things we should have expectations of in this new mayor administration?