“We have to have a real debate within our community with how we move forward. I think the model is going to have to change for a certain extent,” he said recently.”
That means blacks must expand their political tent. While Chicago remains segregated, more people of various ethnicities are willing to reach over the racial divide and forge strategic coalitions that will create mutually-beneficial solutions.
“We have to think about broader coalitions. The African American population is dropping in the city of Chicago, according to the latest census. African Americans are becoming increasingly suburbanized,” Burns says, thus eliminating blacks ability to rely on their own concentrated power base to protect and advance their interests.
The diluted black electorate in Chicago is problematic but also presents new opportunities, Burns insists.
“Blacks have moved to different regions and its hard to connect those regions together. So it’s harder to draw districts for African Americans, particularly in the state legislature because we’ve lost so much of our population,” he says. Moving forward, as in the state of Wisconsin, working-class citizens fused their efforts along demographics to address issues impacting all races. “So it’s not going to be about race. It’s going to be about social justice and equality.”
Having a new mayor (Rahm Emanuel) and a president (Barack Obama) rigidly entrenched in Chicago politics has its perks and benefits, Burns assured black residents. “When you have a mayor who was a former chief of staff who is on first name basis with the cabinet, he can turn over couches to find nickels and dimes that others missed out on,“ he says. However, before the city regains its strength as a national and world powerhouse, it will have to go on a painful fiscal diet, Burns forewarns.
“The city is facing a time of tremendous budget issues. So they are going to have to make some painful decisions [on] how the money is spent and how it’s used. And the key thing will be the South Side aldermans to make sure it does not lose as a consequence,” he says. –terry shropshire
