Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is defending her stance on only talking to journalists of color after calling out Chicago media institutions for their “overwhelming whiteness and maleness.”
On Wednesday, Lightfoot’s press office sent out a two-page letter to media addressing the major exclusion of journalists of color and their failure to address “institutionalized racism” in their capacity. In the letter, Lightfoot stated that moving forward, she will only provide individual interviews to journalists who are Black and Brown.
“In looking at the absence of diversity across the City Hall press corps and other newsrooms, sadly, it does not appear that many of the media institutions in Chicago have caught on and truly have not embraced this moment,” Lightfoot wrote. “I have been struck since my first day on the campaign trail back in 2018 by the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically.”
She added that she is aware of the lack of diversity within media institutions, saying she will no longer take part in nor accept having to continuously educate white media, let alone the white community as a whole, Fox 32 Chicago reports.
“It is too heavy a burden to bear, on top of all the other massive challenges our city faces in this moment, to also have to take on the labor of educating white, mostly male, media about…implicit bias…I don’t have time for it,” the statement said. Lightfoot added that it is “unacceptable” that the majority of reporters that cover City Hall are mostly white.
