Progressive Zine 'In These Times' Discusses CNN's "ChicagoLand"
In These Times disses CNN's "ChicagoLand"
From the article:
The team behind "Chicagoland" (including producers Mark Benjamin and Marc Levin) clearly understand the beauty, diversity and vibrancy of Chicago neighborhoods, including low-income minority and immigrant neighborhoods like Roseland, Little Village and Albany Park. They offer lovely and energetic scenes showing the rich culture, complex identities and physical attractions of these areas, including murals, marching bands, youth plays and street food. And they do feature some inspiring local leaders—but rarely those who resist Emanuel or his policies. Criticism of Emanuel is largely offered in quick sound bites, while those who are profiled as full characters are politically neutral and therefore “safe” for Emanuel and his backers.
In its first episode, Chicagoland spotlights Asean Johnson, the precocious pint-size Chicago public schools student who has become a mascot of sorts for the Chicago Teachers Union—his mom is a member—in its battle with Emanuel. Aside from Asean and his mother, however, Chicagoland doesn’t spend time on other parents and teachers who vehemently reject the way Emanuel and his handpicked school board are remaking the Chicago educational system with privately run non-union charters. It doesn’t fairly feature strong African Americans who are critical of the mayor, despite the historic and crucial role of Black leaders in Chicago and the fact that Emanuel’s popularity among Black residents has plummeted. Though Chicagoland gives screentime to teachers union president Karen Lewis, by highlighting her more incendiary remarks and using some poor quality video, it portrays her somewhat more as a caricature than a thoughtful and popular leader.By contrast, Chicagoland allows Emanuel ample screen time to joke around with Black school kids and highlights his mentorship of a young African-American man. And it allows him to repeat his favorite trope about kids who look longingly at downtown from afar but never go there. Emanuel talks of plucking kids from poverty and bringing them into the shiny new Chicago, full of digital startups, bike lanes and hip restaurants.
The mayor may well be sincere in this mission, symbolized in Chicagoland by poor high school students’ visit to the exclusive downtown eatery Alinea, where chef Grant Achatz earnestly invites them to drop by any time. But that doesn’t excuse the way the mayor has disrespected, ignored and actually attacked vaunted institutions and bases of power in marginalized Black and Latino neighborhoods, including laying off the parents of the kids he claims he is trying to save. After all, we never hear about Emanuel’s widely known nickname, Mayor One Percent, in Chicagoland, though we do hear him making a pointedly defensive reference to serving “the 100 percent.”
More at abve link.
About the writer:
Kari Lydersen
Kari Lydersen, an In These Times contributing editor, is a Chicago-based journalist and instructor who currently works at Northwestern University.