Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday night lambasted critics, arguing that he’s being held to a “different standard” as a black man, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.
From the Tribune: “There is a different standard that I’m held to. There is,” Johnson said. “And that’s not something that I’m mad at, but that’s just the reality. I’m not the first person of color, particularly a Black man, that will be held to a different standard than other administrations.”
Johnson apparently doesn’t like being called “slow,” which he says is a “microagression.” He has been criticized for a slow start as mayor.
“You all read the press. I don’t. But you all look at these dynamics. You all know how there’s been a certain, particular coverage of me, right? Think about it. You know, there’s coverage of me being slow, right?” Johnson said. “These are microaggressions, that if you don’t have the lens of those who have lived through these experiences, you would just miss it. You would, because the same — some of the folks who would call me slow, do you understand what that term means? Particularly (toward) the Black community. So you have these forces that perpetuate a particular view of Blackness.”
He also blamed racism for concerns about subservience to the Chicago Teachers Union, which helped elect him and where he previously was a political organizer. When asked about that, he said, “You think I’m going to suddenly be surprised or get upset because now all of a sudden, oh my goodness, the world is oppositional to a Black man on the left who leads with love?” Johnson responded. “And that the only rationale that can be possible for any of my decisions is that somehow a Black man is being controlled?”
Same for criticism over his firing of Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s former public health commissioner. She crossed swords with the teachers’ unions by trying to get schools open during the pandemic.
When asked about that, Johnson said, “Perhaps things should go without saying, but as far as this dynamic that a Black man executive can’t make decisions on his own,” Johnson said, and he ripped “the same forces” that he said didn’t believe he could balance a budget, unite the City Council or win the election. “Well, let me just offer news for the city of Chicago: The people of Chicago elected me as mayor, and if anybody has a problem with it, come see me in four years.”
-Mark Glennon
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
His inexperience is the problem. It has nothing to do with race. He’s all about raising taxes. If the property taxes for residents and businesses continue to rise, people will not want to live here and companies will not want to do business here. I wish Johnson would surround himself with competent, experienced people. Instead he’s in bed with the CTU. I love this city and I want the mayor to succeed, regardless of his race or gender. The prospects aren’t looking good right now.
WOW I did not think we could do worse than Lightfoot but here we go. People should have known from the start that a person who has to be shamed into to paying his taxes was not a prudent choice for a municipal executive. But the Chicago Teachers Union saw an opportunity for a power grab and they grabbed. While I sympathize with the daily struggle our teachers go through (having volunteered as a tutor for Chicago public schools), the union like any institution can overreach and boy did they do that with mayor Johnson. Chicago is one of a… Read more »
Agreed. His inexperience is showing through. It has nothing to do with the color of his skin. He should know from living here that Chicagoans are brutal critics of their politicians. He needs to learn how to defend himself without playing the victim.
“microaggression”? Wow I usually only expect that word to come out of a purple haired, 22 year old, Boston College, female, gender studies student, snowflake. Not a grown man. Man up mayor, that was a crybaby response.
Brandon Johnson is mentally “slow”. One has to be a dolt to be a Marxist.
I sure would like to see someone be elected, somewhere that actually does the job, actually has an impact and makes the world a better place. History doesn’t bode well for him as so many of the preceding mayors were not good. Everyone has their own priorities and thoughts about how to accomplish those priorities. Personally, community safety and enforcement of the law is priority one, but here is another Chicago mayor with not much hope of impacting public safety for the positive. Mayors in Chicago don’t seem to be able to make hard decisions for the larger public good,… Read more »
No it’s not about race it’s about controlling the city like a responsible mayor it’s like we turned into a third world city you really think people of any color like living like this we’re they rip people from their cars, rob and beat people’s at gun point as long as I lived here Chicago was never like this yes there was crime and at times bad but not at this magnitude so really stop with the race card because people are being killed and hurt bad and all this is very unnecessary for real as a grown man educated… Read more »
Sorry #ChicagoMayor but you have earned the criticism because you lack action on crime. That is not a black, brown or white observation but a fact! Step up and do your job and stop the double talk.
When will you dummies realize a Mayor cannot stop crime? I
They are too dumb Jamela. These cracka az crackers just can’t handle a Black man in power. Bunch of suburban low life losers.
Your choice of words and your racial epithets tell us all who the dummy is. People don’t a have a problem with a COMPETENT leader regardless of color. I’m guessing you’re of the type that refers to people such as Colin Powell, Larry Elders and Condaleza Rice as “Toms “.
Don’t a have??? Dumb old Indiana cracka az cracker. Home of the KKK.
Come on man, he Gucci! Part of the problem is not using the brain power to advance themselves and their broken culture! The low brain power are easily led with handouts and widely available weed. Culturally seem to be heading in the wrong direction. Then again, what’s new? No helping a culture intentionally destroying itself.
That is funny when the vast majority of crime is Black on Black crime. Enjoy it Slick
I have this feeling you are not black but rather a white troll. Troll, junior grade, better suited to Yahoo message boards.
I will wade into this discussion… I live in the city. I think Johnson is struggling because of his inexperience with governing the third largest city in the US. It has nothing to do with his race at all. I am a lily-white cracker az bitch from the north side who voted for him. I want him to succeed, but he is a neophyte. And the CTU has him by the balls. And the right-wing, racist FOP hates his ass. Johnson is going to face a lot more criticism. Chicagoans love to pile it on and it’s just going to… Read more »
A mayor that supports the police force and has a plan of action ( Guliani NYC) instead of finger pointing, throwing more money at the problem without fixing it and blaming everything on racism can.
More doublespeak and race baiting as well as a healthy dose of victimization. He truly is the man of the people that voted for him.
Says the saltine with the ancestors that were rapists.
Your ancestors were rapists too. The Bantu people weren’t exactly the nicest to other African tribes as they spread their genes to become the largest ethnic group/language family in sub-Sahara Africa.
No one like that in my family tree. Unfortunately rape and slavery are still being practiced in Africa, the Middle East and China today, hundreds of years after the saltines outlawed and ceased such practices . Educate yourself.
Is today your lucky day to get affected by the Black crime perpetrated by your Brothers? You are a racist simpleton.
Do you live in the city? Have you been a victim of a crime? The hate and bigotry running through these comments is sickening.
Can’t we be civil in this conversation? “He is truly the man of the people who elected him.” That’s a terrible thing to say. Do you want to wear your racism on your sleeve like that? I am a WASP from the north side. I voted for Johnson because Vallas ruined the school systems in New Orleans, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
Mr Mayor, you played the race card to become mayor: you spoke from churc pulpits urging blacks to vote; you spread the message that blacks had to vote if they wanted to keep a black in office; you orchestrated placement of MAGA signs next to Vallas signs in black neighborhoods; Now you play the race card when you are criticized
I’m black. Didn’t vote for Johnson and did not have Maga signs in my black neighborhood. STOP LYING.
Ancestors who are racists? People are intelligent here and quote facts and data. If you still want to complain about being enslaved you must not be thinking that many whites were second class citizens as well. Many cultures were enslaved and this has been since the dawn of humanity, if all you have is excuses and finger pointing you need to look in the mirror. No one cares about your color. He with the gold makes the rules no matter what you think of them. You can go tribal but the chief of the tribe usually has the most gold… Read more »
Jamela needs to google the details of the brutal Bantu expansion in sub-sahara africa over the past three millennia.
I am not sure if the thrilla from Jamilla knows where 69th & Bantu is. Don’t think they cracked too many encyclopedias with comments like theirs. Dey be not reading but banging on O-Block. 🤣🤣
I noticed the tide starting to turn against him on the Chicago Reddit, a place that had a devout and militant blind loyalty to him. It’s frightening that he’s turning out to be even worse than we expected.
Don’t be surprised when in 10 years it’s discovered he and his administration have been looting the city. Anything not bolted down will be stolen. He’ll be stealing staplers and staples when there’s nothing else left to steal. He’s not governing, he’s hustling. A guy who couldn’t make the minimum payments on his credit cards is in charge of a multi billion dollar budget. He’s not playing Sim City 2000 on the computer. He’s playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and he’s the main character.
THIS is what race hustlers do when community organizing fails because the bullets are still flying en masse. He is playing the race card all the way to the freaking bank(s)…
The good news is he’s done less damage than a speedy amateur could.
Mayor BJ: “I’m just a black man.” End of message.
POTUS Trump: “Im just a former president and white” ARREST WARRANTS! WTF!?
From the Tribune: “There is a different standard that I’m held to. There is,” Johnson said. “And that’s not something that I’m mad at, but that’s just the reality. I’m not the first person of color, particularly a Black man, that will be held to a different standard than other administrations.”
A much lower standard for sure…
Can you even imagine the howling that would be going on if Paul Vallas was currently the mayor…?
What standard would he be held to…?
Well he’s consistent. Is there any criticism for POC leaders even if indicated that today won’t be called a micro aggression?
It’s not possible to get all of his tax increases in overnight. The same can be said for the instant need of bail-outs for so called investments. It takes time. How anybody can expect more from this mayor, I’ll never know.
The voters and non-voters of Chicago need an alternative to one-party rule and should insist on it. That would be a step in the right direction.
“Scuse Me While I Whip This Out”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgRE6BPhN2I
Oh, jeez, I didn’t mean it that way.
My bad! Can’t resist any chance to make a Mel Brooks reference.
Giddy, that movie was a classic. We were tickled when I lived in Detroit that former Lions player Alex Karas was in Blazing Saddles.
Oddly I don’t remember Obama being called slow. For all the last mayor’s failures, she wasn’t slow either. This guy Brandon? Slow.
The worst for Chicago to have a mayor full of excuses and racism as it’s primary cause. Hell of a way to run a city. No checks and balances on one party rule allows for this. Nobody has turned out to vote for years, because they think their vote counts for nothing. Apathy is a very good thing for the political class. Yes, it’s going to have disastrous consequences but hey, THIS IS THE BED THEY MADE, now LIE IN IT. Waiting for people to take the law into their own hands. The fit is close to hitting the shan.
Per Block-club article just out (https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/09/07/black-latino-voters-had-shocking-low-turnout-in-election-that-made-brandon-johnson-mayor-report-shows/), Brandon in reality didn’t get elected on the Black or Latino vote, they stayed home as usual, he got elected on the white lib/guilt vote (no surprise for us city residents). So, maybe CTU/Brandon can get away with the “systemic racist” victim c&j shtick temporarily because that’s the routine he got elected on. But once the fed ‘free stuff’ COVID bucks equity giveaways run-out, the migrant situation descends into what’s happening in NYC, or a recession in mid ’24’ the dude and and his whole phony sudo-socialist crew are toast. Who’s going to put… Read more »
There won’t be anyone to put on their big boy pants, that’s when they actually have to hire someone with qualifications.
It’s going to be someone else’s fault democrats never take responsibility for anything that goes wrong and as far as them saying about a slow start, he’s going backwards in my book because usually when someone new gets into office they try and do everything under the sun from crime to helping the the economy stricken neighborhoods and everything in between. This guy has done nothing good I haven’t heard of anything he has done was a positive move for the city in anyway look at what is going on they are racing down the middle of a busy street… Read more »
Good question, not sure there are many adults left in the room. What kind of mayor uses the word micro aggression? What an absolute phony.
He doesn’t know about ‘big boy pants’. He only knows LITTLE BOY pants, obviously!
They stayed home as usual huh? You crakkkas are so opinionated behind a screen.
Unlike you, for example. Reading your comments clearly indicate you “graduated “ from the CPS system.
“And when you look at voting age in a Latino community, you take out anyone who’s a green card holder or is undocumented, and then suddenly the percentage of that voting bloc drops dramatically.””
So when you exclude people who can’t vote….
With this kind of logic, I worry about the University of Chicago…
So any criticism of him is a microaggression of a Black man?He’s the guy who had all these plans and answers. What did he do with his time between his election and inauguration? Didn’t he have any staff or confidants to vet candidates for all these still empty positions? Or is he a micromanager who has to check out the politics of his appointees and verify with the CTU?
No one questioned Brandon firing Arwady, just the way he did it, which was having his staffer do it.
A black man, not a Black man.
That just ruffled your little white feathers huh?
As rules of the English ( and other) languages dictate, a nationality is capitalized. American, African, Asian, etc. Black isn’t a nationality any more so than white, and as such isn’t correctly capitalized , unless it’s being done to soothe hurt feelings and a victimization mentality. I know, I’m a racist for pointing that out.
Hello Ind., as I indicated previously Jamilla is a product of the CPS. He is proof positive the abysmal CPS test scores analyzed by WirePoints, which unambiguously demonstrate 90% of the students can read or do math at grade level, are accurate. He or she is a prisoner of their ignorance. Probably unemployable.
I meant “…cannot read or do math…”.
Johnson does not get it. He is whipping out the CPS / CTU taught racial victim card. Yet, he ran for the job of leading a city that is competing with other cities for new businesses, tourists and residents that support stable families and vibrant culture. Most of that target group do not give a shit about his perceived micro aggressions. They are attracted to cities that are well run, efficient (reasonable taxes) and safe to walk in. His leadership has not shown one nudge of Chicago in that direction as of today. It is starting to look like his… Read more »
Well said I say the same he’s letting criminals dictate the future of the city like I said before it’s like we are turning into a third world city it seems we have no law an order anymore why do we have the police he has them out there like sitting ducks because they have to wait to get shot before they can do there job or it’s considered brutality towards criminals it’s a shame
Gee, what can I blame all my setbacks and failures on? If only I was a POC I’d have it made. Where can I get some Shinola? Al Jolson help me….
It sure worked for Justin Castro Trudeau
Crakkka behavior at its finest…YOU COULD NEVER BE! STAY PALE YOU POS
Blacks consistently and routinely play the race card and white liberals consistently and routinely swallow the pablum. Now, despite the prior back Chicago Mayors a new one arrives with the same drumbeat. The best thing to do is not criticize, laugh at it all and have a great time while Chicago implodes. It is the fun thing to do and the right thing to do. Don’t give him the opportunity to play race and just let it crumble and the end results will be his and the Chicago voters legacy.
I thought all his voters were white? You pale people need to get together and get your story straight.
You should probably just give it up already, because you have no idea what the hell you are even rambling about
Less than a year out from the DNC’s national convention, and BJ’s already a hot mess in Chicago after only 100 days in office.
Let the good times roll…..
So he wants to be treated differently because he happens to be a black man? He shouldn’t be criticized? Should he be held to a different standard, where he is not criticized? Isn’t that racism? This is the mentality holding down black Americans, my fellow Americans, that they should be held to a different standard. Until these “anti-racists” are unanimously called out for their racism we will not see a strong and vibrant black community. A true travesty.
I am surprised he put into the discussion the perception that he is slow. He simply ought to walk the walk of competence. It appears as if he raised the issue to diminish expectations of success.
Maybe because he is slow. He seems to be still living in 2020 when all the racialism was at its hottest and nobody dared question it. The pendulum has swung but he and many others have yet to understand.
Yet he, like the Sharptons et al of the world, realize that there is still some gold left in them thar hills, and will ferret out every last sliver as needed.
I concede the possibility – likely a strong one – he is in way over his head and is limited. Certainly education degrees from Aurora don’t confer intellectual capability. The reality is, however, is that Johnson can only control what he can control and he himself raising the issue of his “slowness” just serves the purpose of lowering expectations under the guise that expecting something of him is racist. A fair question is whether someone at his level of cognitive reasoning can govern a city with huge financial and social problems. Merely reciting a tired and worn narrative won’t come… Read more »