February’s Chicago mayoral election ended in a “to be continued,” the runoff election planned for April 4, 2023. But since the race has narrowed to two players, Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s community leaders have expressed significant concern.
A podcast from 2021 resurfaced, where Vallas said that teaching Black history in schools “distracts from quality instruction,” and gives Black students an excuse to become criminals. And that viewpoint aligns with Vallas’ horrifying past in education and policing.
Previously the CEO of Chicago Public Schools and funded by wealthy conservatives, Vallas had his hand in other states, too. Under his leadership, he cut funding to public schools, and fired teachers en masse.
Vallas called for more cops and surveillance in schools in his career, and has plans to add armed cops to transit, crack down on low-level offenses, and relax foot pursuit policies for CPD.
Coincidentally, Vallas’ police officer son fatally shot a Black civilian during a foot pursuit in 2022.
The combination of expanding policing, dismantling public schools, and attacking Black education, is a dangerous move backward from where Black Chicagoans already are.
And from Mississippi’s 2023 “Jim Crow” legislation to Texas’ Stop WOKE efforts, this kind of political harm isn’t just limited to Chicago. Across the country, Black communities deserve better.