Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Sun-Times: Rahm Emanuel’s cabinet comes up short in diversity

I'm sure there will be comments from those who believe we should see more minorities in the top echelons of city government. This article argues that there isn't at current:
When Mayor Rahm Emanuel convenes meetings of his cabinet, the racial breakdown of those top aides hardly reflects the diversity of the city they serve.

In a city in which no single racial group makes up more than a third of the population, almost two of every three City Hall department heads is white. Of 30 Emanuel appointees to the highest-ranking city government positions, only five are black, and three Hispanic, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows.

“It’s abysmal,” Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) says of blacks’ under-representation in the upper ranks at City Hall. “We have talked about it with the mayor, but apparently it has fallen on deaf ears.”

In contrast, Gov. Pat Quinn has tapped African Americans and whites to serve in top state posts at a rate that roughly mirrors the size of their communities in Illinois, though Hispanics are relatively scarce in Quinn’s cabinet despite their growing population.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has 15 whites and 13 blacks in the 34 top posts in her administration. As in the Quinn and Emanuel administrations, though, few Latinos occupy top positions under Preckwinkle. She has four Asian cabinet members and two Hispanics, even though Hispanics are four times as numerous as Asians in the county’s population.
Hat-tip Newsalert!

1 comment:

  1. And why is anyone surprised by this? Democrats disrespect the Black community at every level. However, Blacks continue to keep putting them back into office.

    Democrats keep Blacks in Urban Plantations.
    Republicans ignore Blacks because Blacks ignore Republicans.
    Sad All The Way Around!


    Two different but equal perspectives:

    1) Rahm has made it clear over the years that he doesn't think much of African Americans, unless they are "high class" enough to do something for him!
    Also, I don't want to hear that "we don't judge by skin color but by the most qualified" crap! In a city with such a huge African American presence, are you telling me he couldn't find any qualified Blacks?

    2) The weak and stupid Black Aldermen are complaining because they can't exercise their "Black Plantation Power" over their Black supporters by offering them high level jobs!

    Why?

    Alderman Brookins says that he and other Black Aldermen did not vote against confirming Emanuel's choices because they believed the mayor's election victory meant he should be allowed to pick his cabinet.

    HOW STUPID!!!

    These Aldermen thinks they're so smart, yet this personifies the lack of political intelligence in the city's Black Caucus. The time to represent their communities was right at that moment.

    Or could it be that, as Brookins and Hairston noted, Emanuel got little backing from African-American elected officials? Contrast that with the large number of Black votes for Emanuel. From Rahm's perspective, why should he care what Brookins, Hairston, and the rest of these weaklings want?

    Rahm KNOWS Black politicians are PATHETIC! And I agree with him!


    Bottom Line:

    We voted Rahm in because he was previously in the presence of our "beloved one" in D.C., and we are going to suffer for this stupidity!
    We shall always be disrespected and ignored by Democrats, until we diversify our votes. Period!
    And don't give that "Republicans are even worse" nonsense! Black life is terrible in Chicago, but there are no Republicans running anything in City Hall, Cook County, or in State Government!

    THINK FOLKS, THINK!!!

    ReplyDelete

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