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“America’s Worst Human”?
Tuesday, Apr 14, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller * Sam Stein pulls a Sen. Mark Kirk quote from a Peoria newspaper interview…
The quote “won” the daily somewhat tongue in cheek “America’s Worst Humans” award on the national Eschaton blog. * We have to decide what we’re going to talk about here. Was it yet another impolitic remark by a politician known for making such statements? Was his argument at all sound, or did he say something false? Let’s go with the latter argument first, starting with the racial element. * When I was a kid, my mom would always make us roll up the windows and lock the doors when we drove through the black part of Kankakee. And she was about as liberal as they came back then. I can certainly see Kirk’s angle, as much as I absolutely hate to admit it. And I was once even kicked out of a black neighborhood by the Chicago police. Three or four summers ago, I took my brother to Lee’s Unleaded, my favorite South Side blues bar at 74th and South Chicago Ave. One of the waitresses invited us to an after-party. It was a beautiful night, so we put the top down on my convertible and headed over. We got to the address (which was near several recent shooting incidents during that long, hot summer) and saw dozens and dozens of people gleefully partying in an abandoned lot and in a building which also looked abandoned. We were immediately pulled over by two Chicago cops. They took both of our driver’s licenses and asked what in the holy heck we were doing there. We said we were going to the party. “Oh, no you’re not,” one of the officers said. They ran our licenses, gave them back to us and ordered us out of the neighborhood. My brother, who lives in California, was a bit taken aback by the command, but I explained that if something bad did happen to us then those cops would be held responsible. Or they thought we were drug dealers. Either way, I told my brother, when a Chicago cop says “Leave,” it’s usually a good idea to vamoose, so we split. When I told the story to an African-American friend of mine (who first introduced me to that bar), he said I was insane to go to that party in that neighborhood. * And before anyone freaks out here and I get lumped in with Kirk as American’s Worst Human or something, I’m most definitely not saying that all or even most black neighborhoods are bad, or that all white neighborhoods are good, or that all white people hit the gas when they drive through a black middle class area, or even a poor area, whether that be black, white, Latino, whatever. I’m just saying that it does happen and all the liberal uproar in the world ain’t gonna change that. It’s nothing at all to be proud of, or to trumpet or to argue favorably on its behalf. But, it does sometimes happen, maybe even more than sometimes. * Whether Kirk should’ve held his tongue is really what this is about. And the “we drive faster through” stuff is troubling to me. “We” most definitely denotes an “other.” “We” ought to be a whole lot more positive and inclusive, especially if “we” are a United States Senator. Talking about race in this country is never easy, and it’s made a whole lot more difficult by statements like Kirk’s. * Also, too, George Mitchell is absolutely right that creating a couple of black billionaires isn’t going to solve the very real problems in Chicago’s poor neighborhoods. It’s just another goofy pie in the sky 0.1 percenter trickle-down argument and is amazingly out of touch with reality. I ain’t against billionaires, I’m just against setting all governmental policy - jobs, crime, drugs, education - around catering to the super-wealthy. What Kirk proposed isn’t a policy agenda, it’s a Randian fantasy.
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- JoanP - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:22 am:
“Either that, or they thought we were drug dealers.”
Actually, they probably thought you were users looking to score.
- chi - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:25 am:
Great analysis Rich.
- a drop in - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:26 am:
It’s sad that when someone thinks of an African-American entrepreneur they always come up with one guy born in 1860. Nobody in this century come to mind?
- Linus - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:28 am:
– “We” most definitely denotes an “other” … Talking about race in this country is never easy, and it’s made a whole lot more difficult by statements like Kirk’s. —
This is an important and insightful observation. Thanks for sharing it, Rich.
- AJ_yooper - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:32 am:
How about the following very rich people associated with Chicago? Maybe not all billionaires. Melody Hodson, John Rogers, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Johnson family
- The Captain - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:33 am:
Someone who’s been in electoral politics as long as he has and has reached as high a status as he has really should be able to talk about his own constituents without saying something so obviously stupid.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:34 am:
Anyone growing up on the south side or the near south suburbs knows there are neighborhoods to avoid at night, no matter what your skin color. One of my black former co-workers, a notorious partier who was otherwise fearless in his exploits, refused to go to the Cicero late night clubs because of what might happen if the wrong person got ahold of him alone. Not sure if it is that way anymore. I doubt if Derrick Rose’s mom would want him out at night in his own neighborhood when he was a kid.
As far as Kirk’s comment, I think a lot of people knew what he was trying to say, and some will internally nod and know what he meant, but kinda cringe at the way he said it.
- Soccermom - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:36 am:
It was a stupid thing to say. And it’s completely callous to talk about the people who drive through those neighborhoods — who, incidentally, are rarely crime victims — without addressing the real, much larger issue of the people who actually live in those neighborhoods and face the threat of crime and violence every day.
- Wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:37 am:
I’m not sure what the beef is. Are we supposed to pretend that there’s not higher crime in some neighborhoods? That would be news to the people trapped in those neighborhoods.
Kirk says a lot of goofy and sometimes stupid things (his “Munich” quote the other day, for example), but it’s not news that there are, and always have been, everywhere, high crime areas people avoid if they can.
I’m more interested in explaining how “this state with all its resources” can help bring about change in those neighborhoods.
- tominchicago - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:40 am:
I don’t disagree with Rich Miller’s analysis and having grown up in a neighborhood on the southside that experienced white flight, I also recall my parents warning us to “lock the doors” when crossing Ashland heading east. However, Kirk comes off like a pretentious North Shore ass who probably was never even driven through high crime areas as a kid.
- South of Sherman - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:41 am:
I think Kirk is getting a bad rap on this one. There are some neighborhoods that people drive faster through, in large part because development and hope have been supplanted by crime and fear. Ignoring that or tiptoeing around it doesn’t change it.
And Rich says the use of “we” implies an “other.” Yet if Kirk were trying to be inclusive, what pronoun would he use? Yep — “we.” People are inferring their own conclusions which aren’t necessarily supported by the evidence at hand.
That said, the last point about the nonsensical Randian undertones of Kirk’s remarks is spot-on. And THAT is the real issue that ought to have people grumbling, not “drive faster”.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:43 am:
I’m with drop in, the offensive part is acting like GWC was the last black innovator.
- haverford - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:44 am:
Seconded on the greatness of the ‘we’ observation. This is similar to the time in 2013 that Kirk went on the tour of Englewood after some strange comments about the Gangster Disciples - from Natalie Moore’s WBEZ story:
“Kirk responded: “Oftentimes when people say you cannot police your way out of this, I would say thank God that Illinois and Chicago didn’t believe that. We could’ve just let Al Capone run the whole place.”
The audience scoffed at the decades-old crime reference and tried to explain street crime to Kirk.”
Because what sticks out for me in this most recent example is Kirk couldn’t come up with a black innovator born after the Civil War…. Which is not only insulting, but marks Kirk as really strange. It’s as if the Senator has no connection to the present day.
- the Other Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:44 am:
Rich’s experience certainly parallels my own, from having my folks lock the doors in the car when going through certain neighborhoods to having police tell me to leave a neighborhood.
But it also misses what, IMO, is wrong with Kirk’s statement. The context of Kirk’s statement is that the black neighborhoods (and, by implication, black people) have to change. It ignores the explicit racism involved in the act of locking one’s car doors or driving faster through African American neighborhoods.
Before anyone gets all upset and claims that it’s only prudent to drive faster through crime ridden neighborhoods, keep in mind all the reasons why those neighborhoods are crime ridden, both historic and current. Many of those reasons are directly tied to policies that treat African Americans differently than whites.
Admitting that one does in fact drive through certain neighborhoods faster is one thing. But suggesting that the reason is because of who lives there rather than how we (whites) perceive those neighborhoods and people is what makes the comment offensive to me.
- Commander Norton - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:45 am:
It’s not that he says Illinois has a problem with bad neighborhoods. It’s that he skips straight from the fact that a disproportionate number of African-Americans live in poverty and in fear for their safety to “we” drive fast through “black neighborhoods” generally. And then, as “a drop in” points out, cites George Washington Carver as the only example he can muster of a black guy making good. Kirk made his point in a patronizing, demeaning way, and we have so many public officials and private citizens of all races working on the problems of crime and poverty that I don’t think we need to pat Sen. Kirk on the back and say, “At least he means well and cares about poor black folks.”
- Bernescolinni - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:46 am:
“I’m just against setting all governmental policy - jobs, crime, drugs, education - around catering to the super-wealthy. What Kirk proposed isn’t a policy agenda, it’s a Randian fantasy.”
I agree with this sentiment. it’s time for politicians to focus on opportunities for the lower and middle classes. Tax cuts to create a billionaire or two - who will likely move out of state if things get tough for them tax-wise in illinois - won’t help solve these problems. I’d rather have 2,000 millionaires than 2 billionaires.
- A guy - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:46 am:
==TaLking about race in this country is never easy, and it’s made a whole lot more difficult by statements like Kirk’s.===
(fixed the typo in “taking vs. talking)
Talking about race is nearly impossible because of the willingness of kooks on all sides to pounce. It’s sad, really, because all of these perceptions, real or imagined, have to be exposed and discussed to get anywhere in this discussion.
My pop was a southsider. He grew up in a time of white flight and real resentment that their neighborhoods were being broken up and people were forced to sell at a loss and move. Did they have to? Of course not. But in the reality of that time, people just didn’t open their minds to discover that this fear wasn’t the right approach to gracefully integrating society. Thus, this unfounded and terrible resentment.
Despite that, he was never proud of what had become almost a genetic trait among white people of his community and his generation. He was a salesman and had many black accounts. He bent over backwards to make sure we, his children, met and appreciated successful and truly wonderful people who were black business people. He had some stereotype woven into his upbringing, but he seemed determined to not pass it on.
All of his children achieved successful educations and vocations into adulthood, with a lot of interaction with African American people. If it weren’t for his sense of decency, this could not have been possible. He eased prejudice in hopes our generation could erase it. He wasn’t alone. Many folks understood that bias based solely on color was a horrible thing.
I’m blessed to have an African American daughter in law whom I love with every shred of my being. She’s a marvelous wife, mother, sister, daughter and medical professional. When we discuss race issues, she does so honestly and sees it as an opportunity to minimize the fear and angst people have. She understands it exists, even if it’s underpinnings have no basis in fact and no place in an educated and civil society. The more we talk, the better things will be. If that means getting the crazy misconceptions out there for thoughtful debate and to be discounted, my God, let’s do it.
If we don’t, people will still find misplaced comfort in these feelings that aren’t honestly debated and dealt with. We’re all getting better, but we could sure ramp up the RPMs on this if a comment like Senator Kirk’s was fleshed out instead of just condemned (or agreed with) and tucked back under the bed with everything else we as a society refuse to talk about.
Maybe SSM is a good example. After enduring all the misconceptions and nastiness, a community forced a conversation we were forced to have. Reasonable people who make up the vast majority of our society, whether they agreed or disagreed, at the very least decided harassment should stop. Opportunity should not be denied. The Gay community made our nation know who they were as members of our community. They didn’t shy away from the conversation. Conversely, they forced it, venom and all, until everyone realized they know, are related, work with or interact in some way with people they wish no harm to. They may even love them.
We need that kind of conversation on race, no matter how uncomfortable it gets. We can’t get past this scourge until we clean the wound.
- Wumpus - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:48 am:
Kirk is trying. But people who are afraid to drive down any MLK Blvd after 7pm are criiticizing. No, I am not criticizing Rich.
The entire neighborhoods are not bad. It only takes a relatively small percentage of knuckleheads to give the entire bunch a bad reputation.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:48 am:
Senator Kirk’s choice of words was not the best, but even in white bread downstate we have this crop up. I grew up between Springfield and St. Louis, and I remember the stigmas attached to the east side of Springfield and especially East St. Louis. I never thought much of it then, but now that I am older it is certainly not pleasant to remember how often and how vividly friends and family talked negatively about just those two areas. I still get the occasional odd look or serious question when I tell people that I park in East St. Louis and take the Metro Link into St. Louis for games and concerts, and people from out of town will ask me if they can safely drive through the east side of Springfield if they want to get from downtown to I-55. Sometimes there are no words.
- Motambe - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:51 am:
Kirk’s statements tend to invoke a response of ‘oh boy, here we go again.” But at least he has the guts to address, however poorly, critical issues. Race relations have to be discussed. How can we better use state and federal resources to move more of the African-American community into the middle class? Crime in any community should be a concern to all of us. Kirk and his opponent should make these issues a theme for discussion in their campaigns.
- a drop in - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:51 am:
“How about the following very rich people associated with Chicago? Maybe not all billionaires. Melody Hodson, John Rogers, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Johnson family”
Probably not mentioned because the one thing all would agree on in the need to invest in education, which is not the Republican message.
- Cook County Commoner - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:53 am:
Senator Kirk seems a bit more blunt after his stroke. Maybe the political correctness police should use a bit more discretion. Or are they already working for his opposition in the upcoming senate race.
- Ray del Camino - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:54 am:
Stupid. Get a script and stick to it. No excuse for stuff like this at the US Senate level. I think he’s proven he can’t go off-the-cuff. Can’t do stuff like this going into a D-friendly election year.
- HL - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:59 am:
For Mark Kirk these unfortunate flubs are no longer rare. They are coming with greater frequency. Last week it was a Hitler analogy. Wonder what the next one will be.
- A guy - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:59 am:
Ugh.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 9:59 am:
“And the “we drive faster through” stuff is troubling to me. “We” most definitely denotes an “other.””
More to the point, that line indicates that the real problem of those neighborhoods is how it affects him/his cohorts/whoever makes up that “we”. Which is of course callous and shorts-sighted.
But I do think that all reflect inelegance of speech more than intolerance of thought. Then again, his voting record does not actually belie these kinds of statements.
- Jocko - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 10:00 am:
Even before his stroke, Kirk was obtuse and glib. It’s reached the point where I cringe when I see the phase “Senator Kirk states…”
Kirk could’ve mentioned Jennifer Hudson or Derrick Rose coming from Englewood. For him to go back to GWC shows how out of touch he is.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 10:02 am:
“Senator Kirk seems a bit more blunt after his stroke. Maybe the political correctness police should use a bit more discretion.”
I’m not sure how far anyone wants to take this line of thought; if intemperate and ill-considered public statements are an inescapable result of his current condition, then it stands to reason that he should no longer be in a position to make public statements.
I am not fully positing this, I’m just saying, “If”.
- dupage dan - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 10:05 am:
Many of the AA folks with whom I work wouldn’t have gone to that party at that time in that neighborhood. And not just because they are good church ladies. They lock their doors and roll up their windows if they can’t avoid driving thru these tough neighborhoods.
This is a non-issue.
- Jabes - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 10:08 am:
The othering is definitely the most problematic to me. Apparently he doesn’t represent anyone who lives in those neighborhoods, only those who drive through them? Nice.
- Wumpus - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 10:16 am:
Jocko, a singer and a sports star? talk about common stereotypes.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 10:34 am:
Amateur!
Elected officials should not make public statements that are insulting to the citizens they serve.
This is a common problem. As I am dead tired of reading slanderous quotes about our state from our own governor. They were elected to solve problems, and while in office, they need to ensure that we know they are doing what they can to resolve them. Saying things like this only makes them look ineffectual. Having our own elected officials point out our problems isn’t what they were elected to do.
There are much better, more professional, and intelligent ways of making a point than to deride our state and its citizens.
If Kirk had made it a rule to take responsibility of the entire state, he would have felt accountable for the environment he describes as unsafe, and probably wouldn’t have said it.
Politicians must be responsible for their own words, even when they get twisted and enhanced by hateful partisan hacks.
- Shore - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 10:41 am:
Brilliant stuff by Rich. Not stuff I would have said , but I think the broader issue is true and while I’m sure Obama’s election has been great for diversity and racial progress, the reality is you don’t see politicians outside the CBC-Democrat or especially Republican making enough of a case to fix problems in the black community. I thought Obama would do more frankly.
Sam Stein is a classic case of what you often refer to as DC blowhards or national talking points. these folks-like their conservative counterparts look for a selected gop/democrat line everyday they can blow up and see go viral generating clicks/and attention to their sites. It kills what chance there is at civil discourse.
- Left of Central IL - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 10:44 am:
The “bad part of town” is mostly bad for the people who live there, not for the people passing through.
- Boone's is Back - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 10:53 am:
Insert foot firmly in mouth
- walker - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 11:03 am:
I’m with slinger — let’s see Kirk’s plan to do something about our problems.
“Creating” (by government policies?) a few more wealthy black CEO’s and entrepreneurs ain’t getting us there. We have already seen more of those in recent decades.
- Levois - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 11:03 am:
“Nobody in this century come to mind?”
Of course there are Black entrepreneurs in this century. There are always Black entrepreneurs.
- Gooner - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 11:17 am:
I’m glad that Sen. Kirk’s recovery is going well and he no longer has to spend much time driving around the Rehab Institute or Northwestern Hospital.
Given the numbers of doctors, nurses, and techs who are black, he wouldn’t feel too comfortable.
Somehow, I get the idea that when Sen. Kirk thinks about “black” he’s not thinking of Northwestern neurologist. I’m not sure that it would occur too him that it would be a possibility.
The problem is not that Sen. Kirk said he drives fast through high crime areas. The problem is that for Sen. Kirk, “black” is the equivalent of “high crime.”
- HappyToaster - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 11:19 am:
Unforced error duly noted.
As a practical matter he needs to bat 1.000 to make his campaign worth any spend (relative to the rest of the Senate races).
- Upon Further Review - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 11:23 am:
Extremely poor choice of words (sometimes, I think that Kirk says whatever is on his mind following his stroke like Warren Beatty’s fictional movie character in “Bullworth”), but is it true to life?
Whenever I drive through Lawndale or Austin, I am cautious. The examples of police officers stopping white motorists in such neighborhoods and advising them to get out is factual. It has happened to one of my friends from the North Suburbs who works near Ford City. There is no crosstown expressway, so he usually drives local. He has been stopped and questioned and, occasionally told which streets to avoid when trouble is afoot.
- MrJM - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 11:40 am:
I think it’s unfair to call Sen. Kirk a racist or “America’s Worst Human”. This is simply one more example of Kirk’s complete inability to relate to anyone who isn’t a member of his donor class. I’m not saying Kirk’s views are directed by his donors, I’m saying Kirk’s donors are his people — and only his donors are his people.
Nearly all of the inexplicably knot-headed things that Kirk has said — and there have been loads of them — are perfectly explained by viewing them through the lens of Kirk’s campaign donors.
– MrJM
- Stones - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 11:45 am:
I hate it but Sen. Kirk seems to have lost something with that stroke. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt but I agree with others that these flubs seem to be coming with more frequency that before.
- walker - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 11:51 am:
Attended an after-blues-show party one early morning in a tough neighborhood, still wearing my work suit. Felt just fine — until one guy told me: “The only reason you’re still standing, is everybody thinks you gotta be a cop.”
That wouldn’t have worked for Rich. lol
- Wensicia - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 12:17 pm:
Kirk is reflecting the North Shore mentality where definitely there is a separation of his class and “others”, specifically people of color. It’s a well known fact among people of color living in communities like North Chicago, Waukegan and so on that it’s not wise to drive through communities like Lake Forest after working hours.
- The Way I See It - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 12:20 pm:
Every politician spends enough time talking that eventually, they put their foot in their mouth. Kirk doesn’t have a history of playing racial politics, and probably deserves the benefit of the doubt.
The idea that having a few rich people come from poor neighborhoods is going to make a poor neighborhood better is a right wing fantasy. When people from a poor neighborhood get rich, they move.
- Juvenal - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 12:23 pm:
As long as we continue to divide our cities and our states into “the black community”, “the white community”, “the Latino community,” the outcomes of public policy are quite predictable.
As for dangerous places in Illinois, don’t get caught in Bardolph, aka “The Penal Colony”, after dark, and you are also well-advised to avoid the roadhouses in and around Troy, Illinois without an official escort.
- gopower - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 1:24 pm:
Who exactly is the “other” in this complaint, Rich?
Do you think that African-Americans breathe a sigh of relief when they drive through these areas?
Let’s not forget that African-Americans are disproportionately victims of crime.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 1:53 pm:
The idea that having a few rich people come from poor neighborhoods is going to make a poor neighborhood better is a right wing fantasy. When people from a poor neighborhood get rich, they move.
At least in Chicago, the way a poor neighborhood “improves” is that the neighborhood is in the path of natural development, property values rise, property gets redeveloped (and the old tenants move out and new tenants move in). Solves the problem of the neighborhood, but not of the poor.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 2:50 pm:
Walter Williams, a black columnist, discussed racism this way:
(Or approximately) . If you are a white person and you see a black grandmother coming down the sidewalk and you cross the street because blacks are violent, you’re probably racist. If you do the same to a middle aged well dressed black man, you’re probably racist. If you see a group of black teens coming and you cross the street, you are reacting to the Law of Probabilities.
- 312 - Tuesday, Apr 14, 15 @ 11:29 pm:
Lee’s is seriously the best blues bar in Chicago, love that place. New owner (Shedrick) had a good thing going once Sarge passed away but it has been closed for almost 7 months now. I wish it would reopen, no other bar even comes close.
- Fed up - Wednesday, Apr 15, 15 @ 5:22 pm:
I must admit, I admire how exquisitely sensitive this group is. I’m sure the next time you all are wined and dined by a corporate lobbyist at Wriggley Field you’ll park on the south side and take the train up. The benefits are immense:
1: you will show you are more sensitive than Mark Kirk
2: you will save money — parking is free in many parts of the south side (and as poor but civic-minded government workers, you need the savings)
3: you could stop at a local restaurant or gas station and personally stimulate the economy — because, let’s face it, your talk about the need to invest in minority communities isn’t just talk — and, surprisingly, involves your own money, not someone else’s
4: (and this is a non sequitur) we all know that to say something nice about Lincoln demeans all living white people
But I will stop, because I know you are all good-hearted people and not political hacks and that you’ve been parking, dining, and shopping in the southside for years.