When Mayor Rahm Emanuel convenes meetings of his cabinet, the racial breakdown of those top aides hardly reflects the diversity of the city they serve.
In a city in which no single racial group makes up more than a third of the population, almost two of every three City Hall department heads is white. Of 30 Emanuel appointees to the highest-ranking city government positions, only five are black, and three Hispanic, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows.
“It’s abysmal,” Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) says of blacks’ under-representation in the upper ranks at City Hall. “We have talked about it with the mayor, but apparently it has fallen on deaf ears.”
“We’re extremely disappointed,” says Sylvia Puente, executive director of the Chicago-based Latino Policy Forum. “It’s really unfortunate that none of our government leaders have proper representation in their cabinets.”
Puente notes that the Hispanic commmunity grew in Illinois in the past decade, while the white and black populations declined.
“As our population grows, we see the gaps in opportunities become more and more exacerbated,” she says.
Although an exact comparison is impossible because Emanuel has merged some departments, predecessor Richard M. Daley’s cabinet was similarly skewed toward whites. At the time Daley retired, his 36 department heads included 24 whites, 7 blacks, 4 Hispanics and 1 Arab. Twelve from Daley’s last cabinet continue to work for the new mayor in the same roles.
http://www.suntimes.com/13629942-761/rahm-emanuels-cabinet-comes-up-short-in-diversity.html
LOL
You know what’s even whiter than a Rahm Emanuel cabinet? A Barack Obama campaign office. Really, could you shoehorn any more white hipster douchebags into one photo?
http://www.suntimes.com/13629942-761/rahm-emanuels-cabinet-comes-up-short-in-diversity.html
In a city in which no single racial group makes up more than a third of the population, almost two of every three City Hall department heads is white. Of 30 Emanuel appointees to the highest-ranking city government positions, only five are black, and three Hispanic, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows.
“It’s abysmal,” Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) says of blacks’ under-representation in the upper ranks at City Hall. “We have talked about it with the mayor, but apparently it has fallen on deaf ears.”
“We’re extremely disappointed,” says Sylvia Puente, executive director of the Chicago-based Latino Policy Forum. “It’s really unfortunate that none of our government leaders have proper representation in their cabinets.”
Puente notes that the Hispanic commmunity grew in Illinois in the past decade, while the white and black populations declined.
“As our population grows, we see the gaps in opportunities become more and more exacerbated,” she says.
Although an exact comparison is impossible because Emanuel has merged some departments, predecessor Richard M. Daley’s cabinet was similarly skewed toward whites. At the time Daley retired, his 36 department heads included 24 whites, 7 blacks, 4 Hispanics and 1 Arab. Twelve from Daley’s last cabinet continue to work for the new mayor in the same roles.
http://www.suntimes.com/13629942-761/rahm-emanuels-cabinet-comes-up-short-in-diversity.html
LOL
You know what’s even whiter than a Rahm Emanuel cabinet? A Barack Obama campaign office. Really, could you shoehorn any more white hipster douchebags into one photo?
http://www.suntimes.com/13629942-761/rahm-emanuels-cabinet-comes-up-short-in-diversity.html