Somehow over the course of a couple of years — possibly after assuming the tainted nickname Chi-raq — the 'City of Wind' has become America's favorite scapegoat. 

It's almost as if those in power, who have no interest in standing up for the marginalized, all decided Chicago will be their excuse as to why no one should care about the issues that affect the African-American experience. As if all you have to do is refer to the cities' abhorrent crime rate and any outcry remotely associated with discrimination will be drowned out. The response is so rehearsed at this point, one has to assume there was a secret manual handed out.  

If there's shooting of an unarmed Black civilian, the response tends to be, "what about the crime rate in Chicago?" If Blacks complain about mistreatment during a protest, it becomes, "what about the mistreatment towards citizens in Chicago?" I remember complaining to my landlord about a leaky faucet and he replied, "what about the crime rate in Chicago?"

While the stats ring true and there is an ungodly amount of gun violence that plagues the city, a concentration on the problem while neglecting from which it came is an ignorance that angers many. It's an ignorance that, unsurprisingly, our President has fallen victim to as well. Just last month Trump tweeted:

As if sending in the feds is a clear cut answer. 

The truth of the matter, however, is that there are deeper issues in Chicago that breed the carnage we are witnessing. One of them is the education of Chicago children. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have filed a lawsuit against the Illinois State Board of Education accusing the state of employing “two separate and demonstrably unequal systems” for funding Chicago schools, which are predominately African-American and Latino.

The suit was filed in the Cook County Chancery Division on behalf of five Black and Latino CPS families on Tuesday, Feb. 14,  and urged a judge to prohibit the state from disbursing state funds “in a manner that discriminates against plaintiffs,” according to the Chicago Tribune. 

If anyone would just take a second to process the generational effect of disproportionate funding and how it relates to the violence of the youth, there would be a huge pause before uttering "what about the crime rate in Chicago."

The suit is also seeking that justice is done for violation of the Illinois Civil Rights Act for continuing to support an unequal funding system for Illinois public schools, noting that the majority of CPS students are low-income minorities, while school districts throughout the rest of the state are largely white.

Photo: Chicago Tribune

“The state treats CPS’s schoolchildren, who are predominantly African-American and Hispanic, as second-class children, relegated to the back of the state’s education funding school bus,” the lawsuit states.

The mayor of Chicago has yet to issue a statement but education secretary of Illinois, Beth Purvis claims the state is currently in the process of reviewing the CPS lawsuit. 

“The governor remains focused on moving forward these recommendations and hopes that CPS will be a partner in that endeavor,” Purvis said in a statement.

After already receiving drastic budget cuts nearing $104 million, furlough days with spending freezes and suggested revisions of its $5.4 billion operating budget, which was still short $111 million, it's no wonder the CPS system made this move. 

In addition to Gov. Rauner, the school board’s lawsuit names the Illinois Board of Education, Rev. James T. Meeks, the Chairman of the Illinois Board of Education, Tony Smith, the state’s schools superintendent; and Susana Mendoza, the state comptroller, as defendants.

With this pending lawsuit as well as the Department of Justice's recent finding that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) engaged in a pattern or practice of using force, including deadly force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, the question should not be what about the crime rate in Chicago, it should be what about the people running the city, period. 

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