Redlining Political Communities in Chicago and the United States - Part 1: Racism in Boystown & the Challenge of Affecting Popular Change and Redress

This is part 1 of how don't how long series of essays that I've titled Redlining Political Communities in Chicago and the United States. The series takes up the topic of two separate racist "encounters" that erupted around one weekend at the end of May 2019 between two business owners in Chicago's boystown and the black LGBTQ+ community of Chicago as a way to analyze how geography and segmenting of populations can influence politics in Chicago and allegorically to the United States.

Part 2 and Part 3 have been completed and posted! Please feel free to move onto the next parts.

About 3 weeks ago, two racist conflicts arose that centered around the Boystown neighborhood in Chicago that the following three articles elaborate upon:

• ”Group Calls For Beatnix Boycott After Boystown Store Owner Called Cops On Customers Who Complained About Confederate Flag Vest” - Block Club Chicago
  
  
• ”Rap Ban May Be Lifted At Progress Bar, But Boystown Needs To Confront Its History Of Racism, Activists Say” - Block Club Chicago
  
  
• ”Store owner calls cops on black man for asking why he sells a Confederate flag vest” - Raw Story
  

During the week afterward, at least one community group largely made up of the group effected, Black LGBTQ+ people, had two events to start addressing the conflict:

• An education/information rally in a neighborhood parking lot
  
  
• A brainstorming/planning meeting at a church in an adjacent neighborhood

I participated in the meeting later in the week at the church. A striking phenomenon became apparent at this meeting: most of the people at the meeting didn't have obvious clout in the neighborhood (not being residents, not being business owners). However, these effected people had skin in the game, having contributed and continue to contribute to the LGBTQ+ community in Boystown. Many at the meeting expressed that they had gotten so much emotional support from Boystown that these two racist conflicts felt like a huge betrayal and made these people question what they gave to and have gotten from Boystown.

These feelings from the aggressed against the aggressors has validity and lie on the right side of the conflict. Nonetheless, these people have minimal local neighborhood clout since they don't live there. The aggressors, on the other hand, have clout as a business and a possible neighborhood resident. The only recourse for the aggressed upon seems to be:

• A legal appeal to a higher power (the city, the state, and/or even the country since this could be considered a civil rights violation, at least in a more sensical age)
  
  
• A public relations/moral suasion approach

The meeting didn't discuss legal appeals much. At least two people, however, sounded like they came from a City of Chicago department that addresses these types of issues and volunteered to discuss legal and advocacy options. A general consensus existed that legal options for these two conflicts would take awhile and, to some degree, would likely happen. Legal appeals, however, probably wouldn't need or allow the assistance of everyone who want to express their anger and sadness through action, and who want to make a difference.

These people who wouldn't have involvement in the legal fight would need to get involved in the political public relations/moral suasion campaign. This approach begs a question: Without political clout or any obvious leverage, how does this community (Black LGBTQ+) within a community (larger LGBTQ+ community, especially those who patronize Boystown establishments) push for their inclusion and to be taken seriously as a group and individuals that should be seen and heard?

I should have posted this Part 1 last week. The whole concept felt a lot simpler in my head than it has come out so far in my drafting. As things stand now, Part 2 could be lengthy with a portion of some wonky strategic political and public relations stuff. Writing it has taken a few days of random bits of empty time while on buses, at lunch, etc. etc. I don't know how long this series of essays will be. Please stay tuned to see where it will go!

Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 have been completed and posted! Please feel free to move onto the next parts.

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