By: Matt Rosenberg
Looting and burning is a pathway to social justice. That’s the message from a video recently added by Chicago Public Schools to its website as a response to perceived economic injustice for blacks. The district calls the video an “equity tool,” but the reality is it promotes hopelessness. Titled “How Can We Win?,” the video’s message is clear: there is no way. Better to riot, loot, and burn. It sounds unbelievable, but in Chicago’s schools, it’s not.
Some CPS students have difficult lives. Too many face the possibility of violent crime and gang harassment, and loss of friends and family.
Schools, and CPS in particular, are meant to be places of hope and growth, where learning can be a ticket to a better life. CPS leadership and teachers are meant to push kids beyond where they are, to help them read and do math and to think and to succeed. There’s no question that’s a challenging objective. But there must be optimism, high expectations, and possibility running through it all.
Instead, with this video CPS is promoting a fatalistic, nihilistic message to kids. There is no hope in its message.
And that message also lets CPS hide behind its failures. It’s easier to blame society than have the public scrutinize the district’s failed student outcomes. That’s what makes this video so destructive.
A closer look at the language of the video shows just how far CPS has fallen. Here is a school system where three quarters of students can’t demonstrate basic competency on reading and math on state tests and the SAT. Yet the district would have us believe – as enunciated in this “equity tool” – that either there is no winning at all or that “winning” comes from looting, arson, and property destruction.
The video, added to the CPS website in late June, features black author and filmmaker Kimberly Jones. In the video, she is speaking days after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis by police. She begins with a robust defense of rioting and looting as an entitlement for those presently at the lower end of the economic spectrum.
“Wealthy black people (are) making the commentary…we should not be rioting, we should not be looting, we should not be tearing up our own communities. And then there’s been the argument…we should be hitting them in the pocket…where we don’t spend any money – but I feel like we should do both, and I support both.”
Of looters who struck in Chicago and other cities:
“their only hope and their only opportunity to get some of the things that we flaunt and flash in front of them all the time is to walk through a broken glass window and get it.”
That’s bad enough. But then comes the endorsement of guerilla action and arson as a form of entitled social protest. Jones later in the video adds:
“If the social contract is broken why the f*** do I give a s*** about burning the f****** Football Hall of Fame, and burning the f******Target…f*** your Target, f***your Hall of Fame. As far as I’m concerned they can burn this b**** to the ground. And it still wouldn’t be enough.”
Anger is destructive and encourages hopelessness and poor decisions. Chicago lives with the wreckage of poor personal decisions – often resulting in violent crime – every day. Yet CPS endorses the anger and discouragement and hopelessness evident in this video. “Yes. You should loot stores. You should steal. Light things on fire. You’ve got no other options, really.” That’s the message.
Endorsing theft, arson, and criminal damage to property cannot in any way advance either “equity” or academics. And there is little question that most CPS students are not getting educated. That is what opportunistic anger masks. A look at the official measures shows the depth of the miseducation of CPS students.
2019 Illinois Report Card data show that among all CPS K-12 students only 27 percent can read at grade level and only 24 percent can do math at grade level. For black CPS students just 17 percent and 13 percent are at grade level in reading and math, respectively.
The video is a convenient distraction for CPS and its current overseer, Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She and CPS accent an appearance of progress while fostering a culture of grievance to dampen higher expectations. For example, Lightfoot and CPS trumpeted a 2020 high school graduation rate of 82.5 percent.
But there’s little to celebrate. On the SAT, typically taken by 11th graders, only 26 percent of all students tested could reach or exceed the achievement standard for reading. That was versus 14 percent for black students. Social promotion from one grade to the next is rampant in CPS if only one-quarter of all high schoolers – and even fewer among black students – can read at grade level.
The standard progressive definition of equity envisions equalized or “proportional” outcomes. This “equity tool” would achieve that through a race to the bottom where – with widespread destruction, looting and burning – everyone loses.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- ‘F*** Wirepoints’ Says Chicago Teachers Union When Confronted With Facts From The School District Itself
- More failure at Chicago Public Schools: About one-third of traditional schools are half empty or worse
- The opportunity that Chicago – and Illinois – kids need is real school choice
- Chicago schools poised to end rankings in latest blow to accountability
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Burning, looting and stealing as a pathway to justice!!!! Just an excuse for that behavior. Everyone knows right from wrong. This just promotes more horrendous behavior. You are right about CPS. There a giant failure, and not getting any better.
Lightfoot and her Minions at CPS have been pouring SYRUP on a pile of CRAP for years and trying to convince the great gullible it’s PANCAKES. The same with her magical crime statistics.A City so overrun with violent crime no neighborhood is safe.
This person has serious issues. How anyone can encourage breaking the law is a “good thing” or acceptable behavior is wrong. This sends the wrong message to young black children. Many are vulnerable and we all know that kids are very impressionable. This woman should be ashamed of herself.
This is Satan speaking, nobody uses children like Satan. You’d think pastors would be speaking out against stupidity and filth like this.
Unbelievable. Communist teachers union at its best.
While I do not promote looting or violence, this woman’s response and language is proportionate to the discrimination that blacks have endured. While we need to come together as a people to survive in this county, it will absolutely never happen when we keep white washing the the atrocities of the past. The innocent slaves were never given a dime to make a new life for themselves and their future. We keep telling them that if they only work hard enough they can make it. We point to the one in a million who do and call it easy. This… Read more »
Oh and rich people that are accused of committing crimes have always posted bail. Why have we always been ok with that?
At this point, it seems almost tritely clear: Chicago is hopelessly corrupt. EVERYTHING about Chicago’s government is corrupt. The mayor, the various politicians at other levels, the city bureaucracy, the public school system—all of these people and entities are corrupt. They are aided and shielded in their corruption by an extremely corrupt Illinois governor. Chicago’s extreme systemic corruption does not bode well for its public school system. The issue of generalized corruption in the city must be addressed and dealt with decisively and ruthlessly BEFORE the schools can be reformed. To attempt school reform before general political/fiscal reform would be… Read more »
The bigotry of low expectations .Personal responsibility is the key to success in life. LBJ removed all vestiges of self respect and 6 decades later here we are.
Swearing in CPS curriculum, nice. She has no perspective. Blacks live better in the US than anywhere else in the world. If people wouldn’t have multiple illegitimate children with multiple men who don’t take care of their kids, or glorify violence, or studied and tried to get an education, then maybe positive change would start.
I have said for years that our education system has become an indoctrination system, and I was roundly criticized by others on social media. However, it is unfortunately true. I went to a Catholic High School, but so many students from my neighborhood went to South Shore High School, Bowen High School and Chicago Vocational High School. This was in the mid-60s when those public schools were outstanding and produced students who went on to college and very successful lives. If only that were true today.
South Shore International HS is currently only at 50% enrollment and led by an idiot for a principal who continues to drive down enrollment.
She’s sickening. It’s up to black people to promote the opportunities / the possibilities from working hard but ppl like her wouldn’t even listen, preferring to bleat, “You ain’t got no chance and you’re owed so do what you want.” There’s always a ready audience for that! Very sad and harmful.
I don’t mean to minimize the riots; but let’s put them in context. The Obama administration has and continues to rewrite history and ignores the strides that made Tulsa possible.
This is all part of the plan… to bring down our society… sick!!!! Follow Sowell and Dr Carson… nose to the grind stone to get out!!!
Matt scores another direct hit. High real estate taxes + marxist teachers unions + “equity” = ignorant adults unable to do anything except beg for manna from the State. Meanwhile, in China, 5th graders are learning calculus. Oh, forgot to add where to Chicago schools stack up on standard testing? 🤢🤮
Kimberly is right in what she points out but woefully wrong in her “solution.” Policies have caused a racial wealth gap and thrust entire communities into extreme poverty, breeding crime. If we take the CPS statistics to be accurate, and I assume we do, that’s an implemented policy. CPS has a bad policy which caused a failure rate of 83% for Black children in their schools, 83%! So, these children, who grow into adulthood, will have difficulty finding jobs, will almost certainly gain no skill in CPS, and won’t be educated enough to attend college, to enter the military (there’s… Read more »
Thank you for this cogent perspective, Devin. I could not agree more on how key it is for people and government to help create opportunity on the ground. It starts with math and reading and writing but has to extend effectively to policies and programs which actually foster growth and employment in at-risk communities.
Ms. Jones is merely preaching to the choir. Marxism is seductive because it is easier to take than to make. Making isn’t easy either though especially with the disadvantages you listed above. Something needs to be done, not sure what it is, I’m generally against reparations, but I’m willing to listen to anything that might ‘work’. Simply demanding more of other people’s money without a return on the investment is foolhardly and creates dependency.
You make many good points, and we do need to find a conservative solution to the problem. But I notice that you didn’t mention anything about violence and crime. No program or solution can take root until the communities are safe. They really must learn to stop shooting and carjacking before any other measures can be effectively implemented. Poverty is not the cause of a violent culture, it is the result.
I respect your position and comments. It still goes back to the strength of the black family unit. This was destroyed as a result of government and the Great Society. I am sure these were unintended consequences that later became evident during the 1990s. Family, faith, morals, values, right and wrong, none of these come from government nor should they. Black culture is especially sensitive to the breakdown of the family unit. Until this is addressed directly, finger pointing will just create more government dependency. This is how politicians manipulate and control. Government and politicians are never to be trusted,… Read more »
It is a stunning fact, and CPS leadership, and Democrat handmaidens don’t care a fig about poor black kids. The proof is in the failure to teach them to read or write, add or subtract. Education is the only (legal) path out of poverty. Yet the education system in Chicago has failed miserably. The proof is in the failure of Chicago’s leaders to provide a safe, or even relatively safe city…There is no “war on gangs” to de-fag the urban terrorists who randomly and wilfully shoot illegal guns into crowds of children, or just walk up and shoot someone in… Read more »
Absolutely don’t care one lick. The goal is to continue to keep them on the plantation both physically and mentally. Modern elitist Democrats also known as Progressives are insidious and very destructive with these beliefs. They have everyone fooled. Thankfully minorities are waking up and thinking for themselves. This is going to take one person at a time to break from this thinking. As long as schools, jails, and the streets are all about a quick hustle, I just don’t see this getting better as this now has to really happen from within the culture itself. The government and politicians… Read more »
The best thing that has happened in Chicago in the last decade is that cancer took Karen Lewis off this planet. Lets hope there is something in the water at CTU and more of these scum have similar outcomes.
Not before they stand trial for their crimes.
I wish long, healthy lives to political enemies, even those I despise.
I would not wish that on any one.
Chicago is being destroyed by stuff like this. They can have it and it will turn into Detroit. Pile of sh.t
Wow. Weak sauce responses like this is why they will win every time. They want you dead, gone or in chains.
What is truly sad is the number of people that agree with her
This is true Communism. The claim that “We’ve done all we can, our only recourse is violence” is a sham. They play the victim’s game, when most of their wounds are self-inflicted. The black church, which could revive godly values, has been abandoned in Chicago, or is a radical parody of a real church such as Wright’s that Obama attended. Under the radical paradigm of the Fed. Dept. of Ed. and teachers’ unions, kids are taught to hate their country and are ignorant of its history or their own. Teachers can’t teach where education is denigrated by parents and peers.… Read more »
She explicates no goal or objective – just anger. Yes, she advocates burning and looting but cannot explain how this will help anyone. And when does it stop? One thing about successful people of any race. It is common for them to move through all quintiles of income. I certainly fit that bill. And while negative events do occur, the biggest determinant of success is making sound decisions. I always felt as a poor kid I had a much skinnier margin of error and certainly no rich parents or family to save me. This didn’t make better than anyone but… Read more »
What happened is biggest tragedy of all. They were played by LBJ and the Great Society and their own leaders believed that the government is the answer to the problem. They are still on the plantation in many ways, a plantation that exists in the mind. There are success stories for sure, if they worked and strived towards a goal of being successful in sports, business, music, most have truly overcome. The cultural problem within black culture is always to blame someone. This is due to poor education or no education which really shows for this well fed lowest common… Read more »
It’s pathetic. Vast majority of people who immigrated here were dirt poor and had zero help or handout. Somehow they made it. Hard work. Don’t commit crime. Keep a job. Don’t have multiple children who don’t know their fathers
CPS would rather blame everyone, everything else for ALL their shortfalls including those who teach the students and all they got…..SERIOUSLY….is the race card. As someone said earlier….look in the mirror for answers, no one else.
She is quite obviously suffering from extreme mental illness… I’d guess bi – polar disease for a start…
Like with all people, your worst enemy is in the mirror. This woman has nothing to offer. The students are being cheated by lazy inept users of the educational system. Remember those stats on student achievement include the successful students in the charter schools, take them out of the equation the results are staggering. Lack of honesty and leadership is the problem in CPS and this woman is one of the worst.
This is what you get when activism is viewed as a profession and a career path. Mass production of outrage emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere adding nothing to GDP (outside of increased megaphone sales) while begging the wealthy white-guilt class to fund your perpetually angry non-profit.
Yeah, kinda reminds me of another Chicago community organizer.
He has been to all 57 states. Every corner.
By stating that Floyd was “killed” by the cops, Rosenberg shows that he is part of the problem. Floyd got himself deceased.
I find use of the word ‘killed’ off-putting as well, Muddy River, but ‘part of the problem’ might be a reach.
Chicago is lost, and the suburbs are next. That’s the plan people. The numbers are frightening if you stop to think about it. Marauding gangs from Chiraq will overwhelm any suburban police force. The Governor will watch gleefully from a distance. CPS is training the army, and it won’t be long until they are unleashed. The video is upsetting of course, but it is also enlightening. Get out as quickly as you can.
Many suburban homes contain minor armories. I know for a fact many of my surrounding neighbors are armed to the teeth. Suburban police in all but the most blue of districts won’t charge homeowners for defending themselves. But in Evanston or Oak Park, you’re a sitting duck.
Lets stop the talking, game on. Marauding gangs from Chiraq might overwhelm suburban police departments, but will die horrible bloody deaths in certain cul de sacs out west and southwest, that is a promise. Once the flaming hot cheetos, hennesy and newports run out, they’re gonna realize certain folks have been stockpiling black hills match grade ammo, spike strips, practicing flying drones, spending their weekends at the range and hardening their houses and neighborhoods.
The disintegration of a peaceful and coherent civilization in Chicago and the rest of the US, begins with converting schools from centers of education to chambers of indoctrination. Parents have relinquished the education of their children to radicals, socialists, anarchists, racists etc. for too long. I believe it’s time for parents to remove their children from public schools to private schools or home school.
It appears that many Chicago parents just use the schools as a babysitting location to have their kids spend the day somewhere. It’s not really education if there’s no follow up from the parents on schoolwork and progress and goal setting. Another reason that Chicago’s future is dismal.
If parent/teacher conferences still exist, I wonder what the parental participation rate is?
This is because many parents don’t see education as useful. Because quite frankly, the education provided at most CPS schools – especially in the higher grades – isn’t useful. The magnets are apparently the best schools and the parents/kids there take school seriously. But throughout the rest of the system, no one cares.
Stop grifting lying and whining you two bit thief. No one is buying your bs and con. Stop burning looting and marauding. Get some pride. Bring honor to your family. Get a job. By the way she don’t look like she’s starving or that she ever missed a meal or snack.
people like Kimberly give blacks a bad name
Don’t be fooled … she’s the spokesperson for the minority of the black population.
Most citizens, no matter race, just want to live their lives in peace, put food on the table, a roof over their heads, a decent education for their children, and the opportunity for a comfortable retirement.
This woman is an embarrassment and CPS featuring her is an insult to the citizens of Chicago. CPS and CTU hit even lower lows time and time again.
That’s what boomers had and the rest of us want. Boomers were taught to get there through hard work and perseverance. Now the youth is taught to get there via activism, and social equity.
I’m not sure it’s a minority.
Citation needed.
I couldn’t finish that video without wanting to walk over broken glass spread across that disingenuous liar’s face. She makes excuses and justification for evil by spelling out a fantasy scenario where there hasn’t been a black schools superintendent in Chicago since the 80’s. And one where walking into a broken retail window to gather up two arms full of goods is ever moral. And to have the CPS put this out in their name or with their association is social perversion. Who are the blocks of balsa wood making decisions and spending cash for this? They definitely deserve the… Read more »
I’m sorry. CPS has gone too far with this one.
What’s worse is that union leaders agree with this.
That explains how school funds ended up paying for this. But it doesn’t explain how no heads will roll for it.
And we all know dang well they won’t.
Go to the flea market on Saturday and you’ll see why they loot. They’re businessmen! Gotta re-stock.
–retired Fulton County teacher
We are a nation of uneducated, illiterate people. We are a nation that allows our children to mess around in school until the age of 18. And these idlers, becoming adults, have no idea about elementary things, and most importantly, they have no idea either about the benefits of systematic work, or about how to work systematically and hard! We are ruled by ignoramuses and loafers! And all of us, now in the third generation, are also ignoramuses and nonentities. Why ignoramuses is clear, and why nonentities is also clear if we allow individuals like Barack Hussein Obama or Biden… Read more »
Behold, the real racism in Chicago. The racism of low expectations. How can we expect black kids not to loot? After all, they’re poor. And black. How can we expect black kids not to rampage stores? After all, they want what everyone else has. And they’re black, How can we expect black kids not to prowl the streets at 3am? After all, they’re bored. And black. How can we expect black fathers to step up? After all, they’re jobless. And black. How can we expect a young activist to make a point without umpteen expletives? After all, she’s angry. And… Read more »
👏👏👏
Chris, great post.
The Chicago version of the racism of low expectations is, of course, furthered by Chicago’s black leaders. They obviously know that this reasoning is false, but will gladly disparage their own people in order to keep their power and to keep the money rolling in to their bank accounts. That’s disgusting and evil.
When you encourage people to see themselves as nothing but victims of outside forces beyond their control, you ruin them for life. This is really psychopathic behavior being practiced by Chicago’s politicians, to ruin other people merely for personal power.
Its an absolute art form in Chicago.
It’s unreal. The CTU can’t educate Chicagos kids but this evil message is what they want to instill in our kids.
This is hard for me to believe, but someone showed me these statistics. IN 1960, the African American divorce rate was LOWER than in the White community. Then, welfare began. President Johnson thought that the government could take care of everyone, better than they could do it themselves. From that point on, everything began to become what it is today.
And the so-called Great Society has done exactly what Johnson and the Democratic Part hoped it would—keep African Americans in the pocket of the Democratic Party ever since. It’s as destructive to their very souls as being back on the plantation.
Writers in the Black Agenda Report, which is clearly not a libertarian or conservative entity, understand this disgraceful scam all to well.
Food insecurity isn’t Kimberly’s problem. Actually, it probably is. Unfortunately, the rest of us will wind up paying her medical bills since she’s unable or unwilling to take charge of her own health condition. Perhaps Kimberly could tell viewers who in Africa sold her relatives to slave traders? Generally other tribes or Muslim traders in slaves. Commerce uber alles, gang. Might Kimberly also tell us about blacks in the South who owned plantations serviced by black slaves? CPS and its new spokewoman Kimberly Jones have vastly simplified the history they’re so eager to spread by the megaphone. Time to put… Read more »
As someone who taught in the inner-city in Englewood in Chicago, I became aware of many things. In a class of 30 students, I had one student who had both biological parents at home, I was in a public school with about 43 students every year. But there were 86 parents at home making sure we did what we were supposed to do, I don’t think any law, any policy or any amount of money will change what’s going on right now. Somehow (and I certainly don’t have the answer) single parent homes have to be eliminated. We all know… Read more »
Eliminating generational welfare would be a good start.
President Clinton did attempt some limits with the welfare reform act, with pressure from Republicans.
Barack Obama reversed it.
I thought I had seen it all from CPS but they have reached a new low here. A stunning bit of propaganda. Thanks for shedding light on this.
Kimberly Jones’s Monopoly analogy is a stretch. However it will become relevant after the ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ card goes into effect January 1, 2023 in Illinois with the new SAFE-T act.
I thought I had seen it all but this . . .
Schools should teach basics, self discipline and how to succeed, instead of relying on blaming the world. My Grandfather came here as a teen, not speaking English. He worked long hours, but this girl must think that success comes freely. Take stock of public schools, who teaches and promotes this social justice, it’s not the place for it. Shame on them for posting this. Kids, pass the basics first, then when you grow up, you can think, speak and function, excel and not commit crimes because you have no other skill set.
How dare you question their “why?” Lol . Shaking my head. The people who buy this baloney will never be happy. No matter what they “accomplish” in life. Garbage in garbage out is CPS.
https://www.acton.org/religion-liberty/volume-35-number-3/vision-black-success
As sad as that video is to watch it’s even sadder to know that it’s being promoted by CPS. Who do they think is being hurt the most by the rioting and the looting?
Sadly, CPS does not care who is being hurt by rioting and looting. As long as it doesn’t reduce their power.
It takes decades – even centuries – to build a civilization. CPS seems intent to decimate civilization through this agenda of violence and hopelessness. If the system is broken, then the system should be demolished and we should start over. It is CPS that is broken and unresponsive, and we should start over. If those who ingest this poison suddenly began to destroy their schools and the union offices, the tune would quickly change.
I think she could maker her case much clearer with interpretive dance. Lori could accompany her by playing the spoons
Why give such a message of hopelessness, but to stir up trouble, further disrupt law and order to grab power. And, never blame the Progressive policies that destroyed so much of the Black community and continue to harm it today. Instead, information like in Black Liberation Through the Marketplace would offer help.
That video is a classic psychological propaganda tool. It oozes class warfare, and discourages the behaviors that lead to better outcomes. Imagine a child imbibing this message day in and day out, for years and years. This message leads to more and more crime, and uglier and more heinous assaults, and murder. I wish I hadn’t seen it.
I’m stunned and the words coming out of this deranged person. You no longer have to wonder why Chicago’s children are killing each other on the streets. If you care about your children get out.
The fundamental problem of CPS is The Chicago Teachers Union. Bust this union now. Step number one in recreating CPS is the destruction and elimination of the Chicago Teachers Union. Period.