Chi Town is this country's third largest city. We are truly a melting pot of cultures and lifestyles. Coming here could mean touring hot spots like Greektown, Chinatown and Little Mexico all in one city. Problem? We are one of the most segregated cities in this damn country.
It's not just the Chi Town winters that are cold. Hell it's our cab drivers, our post office workers and word has it, Chi Town women will shut a brother's wack pickup lines down quick as hell.
So damn, with a city that's so popular that folks come from all over to see, where's the love? Why is our city, in most neighborhoods, racially segregated.
Let's take a test, just to help you see what I've been seeing for the last past 20 years. Out west, let's be honest: how many middle class white men can you find, riding in a Benz down Madison and Pulaski? Or how many black faces do you honestly see in burbs like Lisle, St. Charles, Oak Park? And how is it that we can have a Chinatown, Greektown and no specific enclaves for other races? I mean, I'm praying to see the day when we convert the hood to an enclave as a way to generate revenue in the hood. Negrotown...okay maybe not call it that, but you see where I'm going with this.
Truth be told, we are a city that's racist as hell to one another, that all the world loves. Specific businesses are only ran by specific ethnicities. And if you don't believe that, go anywhere in the Chi and find me a black or white man running a BP gas station or a Seven Eleven. Or a chinese man running a Harolds Chicken Shack or the local barbershop. All I have to say to you is good luck with that.
So why is such a dynamic city so segregated? Where is the love in Chicago? Well, this city was originally built on the core principals of hard work and money making. Back in the 1700s when Chicago had its very first European settlers, the idea of roads, railroads, and the transferring of goods were the start of the real Chi Town hustlers. No, it wasn't the Black Peace Stone Nation or even the Vice Lords that originated the money making principal here in the Chi. They're literally copy cats who saw what prior generations and hoods had done, and found their own way to make it happen. And they did.
And with the flow of money, comes the division of territory and even a greater division of people. And if you don't believe that, show me a couple making over 5 figures and someone then loses their job. What was once 6 figures are now 3. The entire momentum of the relationship will shift; and it's very likely that somebody's leaving.
Chi town is truly the land of opportunity. We are one of the top cities in terms of transporting and trading goods (some legal, some not). We love money, we have the ambition to make money. And not just the movers and shakers making it happen in the streets so that they're families can eat. I'm talking CE0s of prominent companies, women making partner and entrepreneurs starting from the ground up, brick by brick. And somewhere along the way, the mind frame of Chi town was Imma get mine, you better get yours.
And there then came the divide. The development of enclaves and hoods that would blow your brains out if you dared to enter without looking and dressing like them. The lack of love in Chi Town led to brutal violence; our boulevards and avenues are plagued with somebody's chalk line; the blood of somebody's baby. And at night, depending on what hood you're in, there's echoes of blaring sirens and screams of dead souls, cold bodies.
So I ask you again Chi Town, where is the love? Why do a south side brother feel threatened in the burbs? Why is a white face an unfamiliarity in the so called "hood"?
Our mentality of being our brother's keeper is dead. Usually now, if it's not about somebody feeding their own family, making a way for their own kind, it's not about nothing. And straight up Chi Town, that's bogus.
Yet, we are one of the leading tourist cities in the world. People come miles and miles away to capture photograph memories of that overly expensive beam in the middle of Millennium Park. Or travel to the 95th floor of the Sears Tower (and, yes, I'm aware of the renaming, but who the hell is Willis and why did it become his tower?). Point blank, people love this city. But, the people in this city don't even love each other.
I challenge you, and I always will, to take a trip to a hood in the Chi you never go to. Step out of your comfort zone. And if you have a fear of maybe getting shot or looked at funny, try to get over that fear. Try to actually see from the eyes of a tourist; not thru the eyes of a Chi Town person who knows and lives among the segregation.
This is a beautiful city, all day long all year around. Our skyline is sometimes like a painting and our food would up the pounds on anybody's hips. Chi Town is that city. We birthed some of the most talented people, have some of the hottest sports teams (we'll discuss those Bears later) and despite the sense of coldness among us, we have some of the most coolest and down-to-earth people right here in a hood near you.
Yes, I love my city and I plan to put us all on. From the homeless guy on Michigan Avenue selling Street Wise to the single baby mama with 3 kids on the CTA. I'm putting on for my city. I don't care when and how I make it, where I go, I'm coming back. I'm coming back with a goal to desegregate or hoods, help create more diverse businesses and create a better sense of unity. We for damn sure need it. Or else the city of Chicago is destined for failure; that's usually the result of standing divided and not as one.
I live and breathe Chicago, even the over polluted areas with bad sewage and senseless debris in the streets. Even the predominately white or hispanic or polish hoods where I feel like a fish in a fish bowl. Let's learn to celebrate our cultures here in the Chi, collaborate, not separate.
And when love is finally shown in this city, the labor of everyone, united despite their skin, it just may better us all. Because as long as we're not showing love to others who don't look like us or talk like us, we'll be just as cold as our winters. Even colder.
Love you...and love you Chi City,
Vee
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