WASHINGTON: The growing Chicago gap between white ‘haves’ and black ‘have nots’

Chris Kennedy steamed up icy Chicago when he convened a sizzling news conference last week to pronounce that African-Americans are victims of a “strategic gentrification plan.”

“I believe that black people are being pushed out of Chicago intentionally by a strategy that involves disinvestment in communities being implemented by the city administration, and I believe Rahm Emanuel is the head of the city administration and therefore needs to be held responsible for those outcomes,” the candidate for governor declared.

“We’re cutting off funding for schools, cutting off funding for police, allowing people to be forced to live in food deserts, closing hospitals, closing access to mental health facilities,” Kennedy added. “What choice do people have but to move, to leave?”

It’s all part of a plan, he said, to make the city “smaller” and “whiter.”

Kennedy’s incendiary rationale sparked hotly dismissive responses from the media and pundit classes. “Bonkers and crazy talk,” said one. “Irresponsible,” said another. “Opportunistic.”

A “divisive fantasy,” the Chicago Tribune editorial board derided.

The only strategy, some opine, is Kennedy’s, a cynical, politically expedient ploy to tap into black discontent with Emanuel. The winner of the March 20 Democratic primary for governor must get significant support from black voters in Chicago and Cook County. By railing against the city’s white power establishment, Kennedy hopes to corral that vote.

Indeed, more than a few African-American voters will agree with Kennedy. Black folks have a long history of believing in conspiracy theories.

The thing about conspiracy theories: They are often rooted in painful truths. We know our communities have been criminally neglected for decades.

We know Kennedy’s right when he argues that Chicago crime is concentrated in our neighborhoods. “We have an 80/8 rule,” he said, “where 80 percent of the violence occurs in just eight percent of our city.”

Eighteen public schools have been closed in Bronzeville, Kennedy noted. And the Chicago Public Schools plans to close “every high school for an entire year” in Englewood.

And, yes, the mayor has closed half of the city’s mental health clinics. Gov. Bruce Rauner has cut funding for anti-violence programs, along with an array of other, state-funded social services that support low-income families of all races.

Recent investigations show that state, county and city elected officials have profited from what Kennedy rightly calls a “corrupt and discriminatory” tax assessment system.

But black folks don’t need white politicians to tell us that black Chicago is in deep trouble.

That’s why many of us won’t be around to vote in the March gubernatorial primary. Chicago has lost more than 177,000 black residents between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census. Cook County’s black population has fallen by more than 50,000 since 2010.

We have given up on Chicago’s political leadership.

I’ve noticed that none of Kennedy’s six gubernatorial rivals stepped up to respond. Nor did most of the city’s army of black elected officials. A notable exception: Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who said Kennedy’s “statement is correct.”

Planned or not, strategic or not, it is unacceptable.

It’s emergency time. Those of us left behind have an urgent mission: to address the vast and growing inequities between the white “haves” and the black “have nots.” To force the city’s powers, in all quarters, to respond.

With a real plan.

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