Racists Everywhere

My recent post about a Mexican-American columnist from LA who answers curious and ignorant questions from Anglos and others has generated some heated comments -- including a call to take down the post or else.

Who knows, maybe there'll eventually be a hunger strike or something.

There's also a comment about Esther Cepeda (pictured right), the Sun Times columnist who one reader thinks is trying to be a female version of The Mexican -- and failing.  Check out some of her columns here and see if you agree.

In the meantime, two Chicago columnists are going at it over racism, according to The Reader's Michael Miner:  Mitchell v. Steinberg:  "Who's the racist? Sun-Times columnists mix it up."

Comments

"..maybe there'll eventually be a hunger strike or something..."

Ok, Alexander, you know what? Here's a stereotype for you: leave mothers out of this.

As shameful as school and class sizes are on the Southwest Side now, I shudder to think where we would be if the hunger strikers (who are neighborhood moms, whom I consider heroes) had not taken a stand and exposed the idiotic empty pockets gesturing of Duncan and Daley.

Did it ever occur to you that you already had your answer about Mexican parents caring about how they do in school?

Those moms knew you had to get a child in the schoolhouse door and to a seat where the teacher could see you without needing binoculars before a fairminded discussion about progress could take place.

Yes Russo. There are racists everywhere. And the hip educated ones are always glib, trying to show how cool it is to be a racist. Plus, its guaranteed to boost readership when the predictable reaction comes. Well done Race-o,I mean Russo.

[Alexander]

ok, it's true -- the hunger strike thing was over the top. i am a smart-ass and an agitator, it's true, and probably just as much a racist as everyone else (if not more since i don't THINK i'm a racist). i just didn't like being told to take down the ask a mexican post or get boycotted.

You didn't get asked to take down the post. As I recall, you were asked to take down the offensive logo. I agree. Or else put up graphics of Jews with giant noses or black people with puffed up lips. If you're gong to put up offensive stereotyped graphics of minorities and people of color, why not go all the way? Tyical racist posturing.

Alexander,
I think you are doing fine. Keep those offensive posts coming. After all, it's your blog. I especially liked the one about hanging the Mexican woman who raised that "punk" "gangbanger" in Logan Square. Calls for lynching, racist charactures of Mexican. Great Alexander. Keep it up.

[Alexander]

speaking of hunger strikes, was cecilia ricardo munoz really the architect behind the LV hunger strike, as it says here?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/washington/451709,CST-EDT-LAURA02.article

i wrote a story about LVHS for catalyst a few years ago and don't recall hearing a ton about her him from the folks i talked to.

but then again, hunger strike mothers have showed up out of nowhere in the past -- like last summer, over the boundaries.

[Alexander]

1228 -- thanks for your support. however, i think that was a reader comment, and i think it was about stringing the punk up, not his mom.

[Educator]

Alexander, I think you mean 22nd ward alderman Ricardo Munoz, not cecilia

The hunger strike was spearheaded by the Little Village mothers with organized support from the Little Village Community Development Corporation, whose executive director is Jesus Garcia, former 22nd ward alderman and political mentor to Ric Munoz. They are still very tight. Ald munoz symbolically sat in with the hunger striking mothers on several days during the protest.

'the architect behind the LV hunger strike' is also a little over the top, no? As if you got this scoop from someone in the shadows of an underground garage?

Especially since the fight for school contstruction and the sit-in are stated upfront in Munoz' ward bio -

"Muñoz has been able to leverage his leadership on education to create dramatic improvements at the schools in his community. Since Muñoz took office, more new schools have been built in the 22nd Ward than in any other ward in the City of Chicago. His agenda includes construction of the first new high school built in the Little Village community in over 90 years. Community members stood side by side with Alderman Muñoz when a courageous group of mothers, fathers and concerned community residents, went on a much publicized hunger strike demanding the construction of this school and dubbed their camp-site, "Camp Cesar Chavez".

[Alexander]

munoz having it in his own bio doesn't mean much to me, frankly. but now that i look back at the catalyst story from 2003 i did on the LV CDC i see that garcia calls munoz out for special credit:

"The Board of Education first promised Little Village a new school in January 1998, according to Garcia, who credits Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22nd). “He worked it very hard,” says Garcia."

http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/arch/06-03/0603littlevillage.htm

sorry -- i should re-read more and try and remember less.

[George Schmidt]

Ricardo Munoz was central to the organizing that led to the creation of Little Village High School. Fact of history...

The hunger strike (part of an organized community) was also central to the fact that Little Village High School was finally begun back then. History has to note that this was during the time when CPS was (a) ignoring the overcrowding of the community schools and (b) spending more than $200 million on the "college prep" high schools.

(c) My estimate is that the price tag has since gone over a half billion, but CPS covers up most of the costs, as many people here know.

Racism?

That's Chicago's first, last and middle name. The Olympics will just praise Chicago for doing it so thoroughly for so many decades. For five decades, segregation has been the policy of various Daley administrations. That's normal behavior for those with power in Chicago.

But back to hunger strikers.

Keep up the provocations Alexander.

There hasn't been so much fun on this topic in Chicago since Paul Vallas tried to start a fight with Alderman Munoz six years ago at a Chicago Board of Education meeting which was attended by the hunger strikers.

The lid almost blew off when Vallas pulled out one of his pseudo-macho one-liners and stated that Munoz was "Hiding behind the skirts of women..."

In that regard, Vallas was always more mouth than man, as many knew. Several people in the crowd were aware of Alderman Munoz's various skills and were looking forward to it. But Gery Chico and others kept Paul from going too too too far (he had already gone too too far...).

After Vallas's attack on Munoz, a large crowd at the meeting went ballistic. One of the hunger strikers fainted at the back door (the one now marked "press door") in the Board chambers.

Luckily, CPS security people, Alderman Munoz, and the other leaders of the crowd had more sense than Vallas and no more was exchanged than nasty words.

I know this first hand because we were covering that meeting. Sharon was seven months pregnant with Sam (who was born July 15, 2001).

While I was getting photographs of the crowd milling and chanting against Vallas (and keeping an eye on security, which included a dozen Chicago police in uniform), Sharon got up on a chair to get photographs of the people trying to give first aid to the woman who had fainted.

That particular meeting six years ago is also one of the reasons why CPS now fills most of the seats at Board of Education meetings with administrators, quasi-administrators, assorted lackies, and people who have been told to dress prettily and not pick their noses when the TV cameras are on.

They are ensuring that never again will 100 people from any group get into the 5th floor Board chambers. Arne Duncan and Rufus Williams simply fill most of the seats with their hirelings, leaving the actual public up on the 19th floor to watch the meeting on closed circuit TV until they are carefully shuttled down on one-way elevators.

That's democracy in Daleyland, 2007 style.

umm. i think alexander posted the racist picture because that's the logo for this guy's column called "Ask a Mexican." i don't think alexander was trying to be rascist by posting the image, just trying to stir an interesting conversation about race in chicago.

it always amazes me how people look over the details, make a host of assumptions, then start the attack.

Thanks a bunch, Maximus. So Alexander is not merely a thoughtless person, but a thoughtless moron as well.

If I accidentally stepped on you in an innocent attempt to proceed on the public way, I think you could forgive me - but it would be a lot harder to do so if my stiletto remained embedded in your foot and I kept insisting that it musn't hurt you ::because it didn't hurt me::

Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?

These are the people you mean to champion you, Alexander?

I'm more nauseated by this thread than I thought...

Ask a Mexican is hillarious!
Everyone needs to calm down and get a sense of humor. Lighten up and laugh at yourselves for a change.

Not so funny is the fact that the so called "Little Village High School" bans 2/3 of Little Village students from attending. Has anyone noticed that the school is now the Little Village/North Lawndale HS? A little slight of hand on behalf of Munoz who turned his back on the overcrowded Mexican community to garner votes from African Americans in North Lawndale. Mexican kids that live a few blocks away from the $80 million extravaganza can't even attend. Yhey still have to go to the gang-infested Farragut HS Talk about using race as your weapon!

Any politician who has to set up moms to stage a hunger strike just to get anything done in his/her district is not worth re-electing. Now, he's been exposed by the Fed's for covering up his dad's illegal activity of producing false documents. Not such a good guy after all, huh?

If you ask a Mexican, like me, the problem is that we allow ourselves to be treated like "burros", aka asses.

[Merv]

I like the picture. She is very attractive

So's Ann Coulter, and she's a soulless bag of shit with a portrait of Nosferatu (the creepy 1922 version, not the remake) in her closet.

Now there's your three way from hell. Knock yourself out.

[Ron]

I have to disagree with you about the Board Meetings. I worked as an intern for 2 years in the CEO's office. One of my many responsibities was organizing the Board Meetings. I have to honestly tell you that a majority of the people who attend the meetings put in a call to our office to reserve a seat. I never in my 2 years made 1 call to fill up the seats. Trust me there are tons of people who were calling and as I understand still call to this day. I will give you that there is a definite control of the meetings, but by no means are they filling seats with "their people"

[Wannabe there]

What percentage of the people in those seats are CPS downtown employees, Ron? Can parents reserve some seats for the July meeting? What's the timeline for making seat reservations? How far in advance do the seats fill? Thanks for sharing this info.

[Ministry of Truth]

How nice to insult the person where your are blogging.

amerikkka the beautiful.

[George Schmidt]

If the problem with "Little Village... High School" is that there is not enough room for everyone who wants to attend, then the same problem is in place for every one of the "college prep" high schools Chicago created (sometimes built; sometimes renovated; one-time purchased) since 1996.

Each of them (except maybe Lindblom) is too "small." Even Brooks, which has just been slated to get an additional building (despite the fact that it presently has more buildings on its campus than any other Chicago public school -- by far). Northside and Payton were bad planning from the beginning (capping them at 1,000). And the Board has now spent nine years and more than $150 million juggling things around at Jones because Mayor Daley wanted a "college prep" high school in his back yard.

How so? Jones was built to be the commercial high school it was, designed to exapnd vertically (up, without ever having a gym), but not horizontally. The expenses of expanding Jones horizonally on some of the most expensive real estate between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts would be a scandal in any other town and they've literally just begun!

But back to the high schools, beyond the "college prep" ones.

Little Village and Grant North are both "small." By Board edict. That huge central corridor in Grand North, like the atrium at Payton, are there because someone wanted fewer classrooms and less total available space. That was the vision of capital programs during the 1990s and has been since (both Little Village and Grant North).

So instead of taking aim at Rick Munoz, why not at least look more broadly at the facts and note that the Chicago Board of Education has been doing this in a way that leaves huge gaps at many points in town.

Last year, Gage Park was overcrowded while Lindblom had lots of space (as did Englewood, which is shrinking as it is strangled by Arne Duncan).

Last year, the Austin kids were scattered across the north side while Austin's official "capacity" was shrunk (on paper) to justify having those small schools that aren't serving hardly any kids.

While Near North Career Magnet High School sits there on Larabbee unused for the third or fourth year in a row (the last time it was used as a school was to house Jones during the renovations of the Jones building).

Under both Arne Duncan and Paul Vallas (i.e., under Richard M. Daley), CPS high school planning has been designed to further real estate development interests, privatization, charterization -- and a couple of other things -- and has had nothing to do with what communities need for the education of the high school are children in those communities.

A little trek across a map of Chicago, annotated with some recent history, shows that.

By any reasonable measure, most of the "high schools" Chicago has built or opened in the past 12 years have been made too "small" deliberately, at a cost of (probably) nearly a half billion dollars.

Below are only the "new" ones (built from scratch). Check each of them out.

Northside College Prep.

Payton College Prep.

Grand North.

Little Village.

Simeon.

Ricardo Munoz didn't conspire with anybody to create those five new buildings and the educational space around them (or not around them, in a couple of cases).

Richard M. Daley's Board of Education and CEOs did.

And so the expensive mess is going to be one of the many legacies left behind when someone tries to begin cleaning it up.

The college preps cannot be too big--then there would be no cache for them/
They would turn into general high schools and CPS and elite parents do not want that! WY is big, but they can afford it, then, Joones and Lindblom and King has to take lower scored students and them the general hs gets the ones no wants.

Austin High School keeps coming up in conversations and in blogs throughout the internet. I actually did my student teaching at Austin High School in 2003. My father often how great Austin was in the olden days. Well I can tell you my experience was anything but great. I could go on and on about my war stories but that would be just to cliche. Let me just say this, one of the best things CPS has done was close this place down. Just look to the daily attendance when the kids were in session or look at the graduation rates over the last 6 years! There were parts of that school that I was absolutely terrified to walk into. The sad thing is everybody new about it, but they let it go on anyway. The way I see it, the charters, the magnets are raising the bar for students, parents, and communities. Children have to step up their game if they want in. Now, granted sometimes you may be trying to fill 100 spots with 10,000 applications but you still have a chance. If you would like to compare it to any good suburb around you you have to pay to live there. If you don't have the money you don't get to go there. At least in Chicago you don't have to pay over 12,000 in taxes a year to live in a nice suburb. Paul Vallas, Arne Duncan, and the next man or women to take the helm it is not going to matter. They are doing a decent job with what they are given. If you happen to be on the outside looking in I am sorry for whatever caused you distaste for the Board.

[Joe Chestnut]

Kudos to you 10:16 I agree with everything you are saying. I am glad to hear from someone who was actually at Austin. That is just the real insight I am looking for in this blog. No offense Mr. Scmidt but lately people have been refuting your stories. I wonder if that is the reason you haven't gotten that newspaper job you have wanted.

[GEORGE SCHMIDT CPS NEW CEO]

George,

I have been following this blog for awhile. I enjoy reading your blogs, but have grown a little tired lately of your rants and allegations against CPS and its administrators. What I would like for you to do is to give me your Action Plan as if you were going to be the CEO starting Monday. Since you cover the Board so closely and have wrote in detail about their shortcomings I would hope that you have written some things that you would do differently. I hope this post does not offend you, but I really to thing you do owe it to the people who follow you.

10:16 --- You know, Chicago parents wind up paying through the nose for services their children need that are provided free or affordably by the suburbs through those taxes --- Chicago parents, on the other hand, pay for before- and after-school care (short days, rare on-campus care programs) to the tune of $5k or more a year; for lessons, camps and such that in the burbs are provided at reasonable rates through their park districts; etc. And don't get me started on the costs of supporting a special needs child in the city when the CPS declines to follow the law for evaluating and educating students with disabilities. Now, I regret having bought a home in the city thinking that we'd skip the suburban taxes and have access to Chicago's public services like schools, parks, etc. (It was hard for a Chicago-born and bred person like me to even think about moving to the burbs.) --- I heard a saying this year that "public is private", meaning you pay for public school with your mortgage and taxes. If you can afford it, then you get access good public education. Seems like homeowners can get more bang for their bucks in the 'burbs.