Let’s Talk About Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Ultra-Thin Black Skin

by John Kass

Sept. 13, 2023

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is consumed by the color of his skin. It seems that his black skin is all he wants to talk about.

Someone close to him might want to tell the poor fellow to simmer down, grow up and act like a man—and inform him he is not the first black mayor of Chicago.

But why talk of the color of his skin? Instead, let’s talk about the thinness of it.

I’ve been covering Chicago politics for decades—since the 1980s—and never has there been a politician with skin as thin as his. It’s not merely rice paper thin, it is so thin that it makes rice paper resemble cardboard. Brandon Johnson’s skin is so thin it must have been made by the faeries, ephemeral and disappearing, as light as a cherub baby’s breath.

I knew the first black mayor, who came up the hard way, slugging  it out with his opponents like Fast Eddie Vrdolyak. Harold Washington played the race card when it meant something, as a means to intimidate white liberal journalists into obedience. There is no creature as malleable as a liberal white journo petrified that he’ll be accused of racism.

But they’re all trained now. They’re all obedient now. Politicians can even pet them, at least in Chicago without fear of being bitten.

Harold Washington knew how to play broken knuckle politics. His father—a soldier in the Chicago Machine—was repeatedly passed over for promotion up the ranks, and this fueled Washington’s revenge for a time.

But Harold didn’t have time to hold a grudge against the white Daley faction of the old machine. He had a city to run. He had people to protect. He had a downtown to nourish and safeguard, because it kept the rest of the city alive and the taxman off the backs of the neighborhoods.

Brandon Johnson knows nothing of this. He was not prepared to deal with the details of government. He thinks he’s something of a charisma man. He knows how to scream race and more race, which becomes tiring when violent street crime destroys downtown and the value of commercial real estate leases.

And I also knew the second black mayor of Chicago, a genuinely nice man to whom I owed 20 bucks to at the time of his death (It had been a sporting bet on a Roberto Duran prizefight, and Sugar Ray Leonard won, and I lost, and paid his son Ald. Roderick Sawyer).

And the third black mayor whom I thought was funny and bright and I backed her, until she endorsed Kim Foxx for Cook County  State’s Attorney. But she lost whatever sense of humor she had during the Black Lives Matter riots that destroyed downtown Chicago and she caved to the far hard left hoping to save her career. It didn’t work.

This new mayor, the current occupant, Brandon Johnson, is a fool who prattles on about skin color because he has nothing else. So he casts himself as victim in his overwrought racial drama, with the city dying just offstage for the lack of a competent manager. The first three mayors were somewhat prepared, honed by fire and experienced.

But Johnson? He’s just a talker.

“BTW, the last Mayor of Chicago was 1) Black 2) a woman, and 3) a lesbian and even she didn’t play the victim card this quickly,” said my friend Tom Bevan, president and co-founder of Real Clear Politics and longtime observer of the bloody knuckle racial politics played in Chicago.

Bingo.

Johnson has no answers to President Joe Biden’s singular Democrat policy: the onrushing tidal wave of illegal immigrants (and Chinese made fentanyl) pouring over the non-existent border with Mexico that is overwhelming and breaking the resources of big blue cities.

At least Adams pitched a fit and called out the Biden Administration. Adams also spread his anxiety out to blame Republican “madmen” for having to pay for unwanted migrants by cutting his New York budget.

The strain on Democrat mayors trying to placate black voters while eagerly seeking to administer and curry favor with vote-rich Latino immigrants is obvious. Adams and Johnson are cracking, but in different ways.

The Biden no-borders migrant surge will cost Chicago some $300 million this year. So, Johnson plays the race card like some tired kid magician fumbling through magic tricks.

At about the 100-day mark, he told reporters he was being held to a “different standard” because he is black. He has no management experience. He was a classroom teacher for only four years before his boss, the CTU president Stacy Davis Gates (more on her on Friday) plucked him out of his undistinguished classroom career and made him a paid organizer for Chicago Teachers Union Local 1.

Only four years as a teacher is not a resume of a chief executive to run a city in crisis.

“There is a different standard that I’m held to. There is,” Johnson was quoted as saying.  “And that’s not something that I’m mad at, but that’s just the reality. I’m not the first person of color, particularly a Black man, that will be held to a different standard than other administrations.”

Foolish me, I thought the only reason he was elected in the first place was that he was a black man. His opponent in the mayor’s race was the more qualified city manager Paul Vallas.

But Vallas was white. And the left-leaning  Chicago media protected Johson from himself,  including the leftist news unions.

Johnson’s early forays into racial politics, reminding voters at every turn that he was black and that Vallas was white (actually Greek) should have been fodder for a few news columnists at least.

But by then all the conservatives had been driven out of the Chicago newspapers. And the leftists are without humor. And racial cards were very much allowed when the target was a white man.

Now, Johnson insists on fanning all the race cards in his deck, snapping them with his fingers and forcing us to observe them in his hand, but clumsily, like some thick-fingered moron who ruins his only magic trick before the audience is properly primed, then stamps his feet while angrily stomping off stage.

What he wants is a no-fault government like those no-fault classrooms demanded by the school unions, without strict and commonly held standards, without testing, the CTU making sure all teachers were judged highly competent. Are grades the legacy of racism? Clearly, Johnson wants no fault government, and no fault classrooms.

There’s no pressure even if the kids can’t read or do remedial arithmetic, all they have to do is nod as the mayor pushes tired rhetoric about making Chicago better, safer, stronger, and on and on.

Sooner or later the bill comes due. The bill has no feelings and it can’t be shamed into disappearing. It is there. It will be paid come hell or high water.

 

Consider: Chicago has the second-highest commercial property tax in the nation at 3.78 percent–more than double the U.S. average for the largest cities in each state, according to a study by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence.

Put simply, Chicago’s downtown commercial real estate market cratered during the Black Lives Matter riots. The BLM riots were encouraged by Democrats as political leverage against Donald Trump.

To make matters worse for business, the blue state governors like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s shutdown of businesses helped kill the commercial districts in the downtowns. The shutdown of the Chicago schools for almost 2 years created a generation of students more apt to hijack a car or rob someone than crack open a book.

Those cratered leases for low cost commercial space will come due. And with crime increasing—downtown is a ghost-town from the evening on—the revenue from property taxes will shrink because the leases will not be renewed. Signing costly leases would be business suicide.

Who will pick up the slack? The businesses that will flee the region and the state due to crime that is uncontrolled? They’ll be gone.

Only the homeowners will be left to carry the burden. And given how Democrat politics works, they’ll be encouraged to forget that Johnson, his CTU allies and Johnson’s mentor, Cook County political boss Toni Preckwinkle had backed Kim Foxx to be George Soros’ top local prosecutor. They’ll be encouraged to forget who pushed for no-cash bail.

Perhaps the Democrats will gin up another racial incident to dangle before voters, making it easier to forget the easier to forget the reason for the crime wave. The Chicago media won’t remind them. All that will go to a familiar spot. It will be memory-holed.

All that will remain is confusion, as if by design.

Just as Johnson reached for his race cards to blame opponents for his frustrations, Chicago criminal violence continued to rise on the once crime-free Northwest Side. Aldermen and citizens from Logan Square, West Town and other similar areas tried to get answers from Mayor Johnson.

They failed to get answers from he mayor.

Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32d, told Block Club Chicago that he met with Johnson recently to discuss the explosion of robberies in his ward and the surrounding area.

Waguespack said he didn’t receive any substantive answers about what, if any plans the mayor was working on.

“I don’t think he understood the extent of the crimes taking place over the summer,” Waguespack said.

The mayor “has no comprehension of what’s happening here. He had no comprehension, and he had no answers.”

Johnson has no answers, no plans. He talks in vague terms about his “tent cities” approach to house illegal migrants in tents in Chicago parks.

No plans to stop robberies, no thoughts on the wide open border of offered by President Biden, and no plans for the long term health of downtown Chicago, and without downtown real estate, a greater tax burden will fall on the neighborhoods, and the city will circle the drain, like Detroit.

But he does have a full deck of race cards.  He’ll throw these whenever he can, however he can, with that idiot grin behind those thick glasses.

How long do those race cards keep working?

Not long enough. And he knows it.

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Comments 64

  1. BLM Brandon is as prissily sensitive as the very last ( in a long line ) Irish Mayor, RMD.

    They both need to stay out of the sun and button up against strong winds.

  2. Chicago is a majority minority city. Identity politics drives their votes. They voted for a symbol over a competent, experienced administrator because he didn’t check the correct boxes.

    Votes have consequences.

  3. Wow John, this statement shocked me “And the third black mayor whom I thought was funny and bright and I backed her,” I knew lightfoot was going to be a disaster before she won. How? Only her skin color, gender (what is a woman?) and sexual orientation was highlighted, yet YOU backed her? Pretty much all candidates whose gender/skin color and who they sleep with are highlighted are usually incompetent. Oh well. Chicao is paying for the continuation of identity politics instead of competence. So are NY, MN, LA and many other places who keep electing incompetent people only based on anything except ideas and track record of competence.

      1. Let’s look at the Lightfoot situation. I voted for her too (I am a Republican conservative). Lightfoot campaigned on getting rid of the Machine. She went straight after Ed Burke and stuck the knife in but forgot to kill him. Who was she up against? Toni Preckwinkle. The choice was Lightfoot or Preckwinkle….A Republican cannot get elected dog catcher in Cook County so people like me will never get a candidate who exhibits our values. Lightfoot totally blew it. She was so unlikable, there wasn’t a class of voter she didn’t offend. Preckwinkle had she won would have been like Brandon, but only smarter.

        1. Toni did win. Brandon is just an empty suit awaiting instructions from Staci and Toni. This is the (Democrat) way. He and they will get all the cover they need from the complicit local media flacks.

  4. Sadly, the race card is used often and liberally down here in Champaign. Our county clerk has the same thinness of skin and propensity to label anyone who questions his abilities or lack thereof as racist. But he’s also got a third quality – former Felon who was pardoned after his wife, a state legislator, lobbied for him. I’m not making this stuff up. The race card is also used by school board members, county board and city council. I fear our state and my hometown is circling the drain. I was so disappointed that Vallas wasn’t elected. And it’s just getting worse.

      1. Yeah, they did, most obviously the general mayhem, which you might think merits all caps IF YOU WERE THE ONE SLUGGED IN THE HEAD BY A RIOTER.

        The highlight was Kamala Harris, soon to be the baby-talking nitwit Vice President, who during the glorious 2020 riots promoted donations to a fund to bail out the rioters. She did this in the name of justice, of course, but the effect was encouragement of arson, robbery, and the other adjuncts of “justice” beloved by addled Democrats.

        2. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the leaders of the riots in Washington get 20 years in prison while the leaders of the BLM nationwide riots are buying multi-million dollar mansions in California.

      2. You seem to have forgotten the current vice president ready to bail out any BLM rioters
        You have also forgotten churches and synagogues closed,but ok to gather to burn down cities

    5. With all due respect, Chicago Dems keep voting these incompetent candidates into office in Chicago, and I’m talking about the majority of registered Dem voters, so frankly you all deserve who you vote for as well as the consequences of those votes.

  6. All your therapy and hard work have paid off! This reads like the columns we all used to devour in The Paper.” Although the message is gloomy somebody has to tell it like it is.

    1. Strong comment, JL, congratulations. It’s not easy to comment on gloomy realities in a way that makes the reader less gloomy. Journalistic guts and style are scarce commodities — increasingly scarce.

    2. @Jill,

      You nailed it!

      In the old days we sometimes used the expression: “Kicking ass and taking names” to describe what Kasso did this morning…and he did it with flair and style.

  7. Γιάννη,
    This catastrophe of a mayor is transforming Chicago into the San Francisco of the Midwest! Before long, we’ll see illegal migrant and homeless encampments in Millennium Park and all along Michigan Avenue! He looks like a deer peering into oncoming headlights, right before getting run over!! Θεός φυλαξη!

    1. Stunningly accurate, as usual. Johnson can’t answer questions about anything posed. His answer for whether schools are getting better is to “invest” more monies into them not whether kids can actually read. Absurdly ridiculous.

      But he’s not running this clown show. Toni and Stacy are merely using his ineptness to their advantage the way Obama is using Biden.

      2. I’m a bit surprised that Obama is not taking any action to address the problems arising in his adopted hometown. Summary of his bona fides: moved here in 1991; he married a lady from Chicago; accepted a lecturer position at UoC Law School; former 3 term state senator; one term US senator; bought a large home with help from Rezko he still owns; building a huge library, er I mean presidential center; was very active in his local church with Rev Jeremiah Wright and his acolytes. Hmm a cynic may think he just used Chicago.

  9. Not only does Johnson have his own deck of race cards to play, but he also carries the race cards for the rioters, carjackers, mobs, looters, drive-by shooters, gangs, etc., and plays the race cards for them, especially when they aren’t arrested and brought into custody so they can play their own race cards for themselves.

  10. Cold weather and Winter are going to bring a brand new test to the Brandon team and I wonder where all these illegals will be housed. NGO’s used to pass out lp gas bottles to the homeless encampments and I wonder who will finance the tsunami of lost souls freezing to death.

  12. My remarks keep getting removed by Facebook because it’s complementary and looking for likes according to Facebook. Great column! Nailed It! Wish I could share with non subscribers!

  13. So sick of race card politics. Johnson is as clueless as Nero was, when he was playing the fiddle while Rome was burning! Race card politics are destroying our city!

  15. “Let me tell you something, New Yorkers. Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this. I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City.”- Eric Adams
    It may be that the model of the largest liberal-run cities no longer is going to be viable. It began in earnest when they all prostrated themselves during the Floyd riots. It continues during their post-COVID crime surge. They all fail to effectively contend with the homeless and the illegals influx. The problems they abetted are no longer within their capacity to fix.

    1. Rory, you nailed it.

      I used to post graphics of Kurt Russell in “Escape From New York” as a warning. Now it looks like it applies not only to NYC, but Chicago, StL, LA, and all the rest of the cesspool Sanctuary Cities.

  16. John —- one of your best columns EVER. Of course when the incompetence is mind boggling, and to any thinking individual our beloved city is in deeper trouble than ever. Thanks for saying what needed to be said. Someone mentioned housing everyone at McCormick but oops isn’t the DNC coming there in a few months? Cannot have those handycam lenses wandering about during the “Show”. Too bad the new “library” on the south side isn’t done. Perfect location. The incompetence in this country starts at 1600 Penna Ave, includes the Naval Observatory (that’s where the VP lives) and extends to CA WA NYC DTW etc. Pritzger can just buy him an island somewhere when his time is done. Alfred E Neumann said it best “What me worry” And our new mayor is so deepIn trouble the Titanic seems still afloat.
    The new Casino is now a target rich environment for the punks. How many police will be needed to saturate the parking garages and streets?
    A cold winter is coming. BJ (and I’m afraid our beloved city) will fold like a house of cards. I predict cold deaths to rival the Heatwave. Maybe not in one swath but over tte course of the winter.

    Keep up the great work. So glad you are on the mend.

  17. The BLM and Antifa riots were allowed to occur by Democrat run cities as a strategy to suppress the Republican vote. Yes, robbery, theft and looting were encouraged as a way to keep those elderly Trump voters home. Media assisted this by parroting threats of violence at polling places. Looting wasn’t going to keep Democrat voters home. They were the ones doing the looting. This strategy was used again when national news media aired laughable footage of armed “Maga” Republicans at voter drop boxes in Arizona during the midterms. If these were real “Maga” Republicans they would have been overweight middle aged guys wearing fishing caps sitting in lawn chairs. The guys on display were all buff twenty something white guys who looked out of casting central to portray angry white men. Remember last year a local sheriff broke up another “Maga” crew going to bust up a “Pride” parade? Once again, all buff white kids, early twenties ( senior guys don’t have to take the shit details) who looked like they just got out of the FBI academy. Look up the footage. You’ll see what I mean. Whatever happened to this case? Remember the Maine. I write this in response to your letter writer who said Democrats don’t endorse “robbery, arson and general mayhem”. Yes they do. When it benefits them.

    1. Well as long as the demonstrations are “mostly” peaceful (as duly pointed out by the presstocracy) pesky little issues such as robbery, arson and general mayhem are minor distractions. So as the Democrats such as Ms. Conrad point out: “Nothing to see here. Move along”.

  18. I really regret having to say it but, Chicago and Illinois (New York, SFO, LA, et. al.) are all getting exactly what they voted for.

    Every election they make a choice between; “The GOP will stop abortions” scare tactics and the part nobody will say out loud; “The Democrats will increase the chances of your 11 year old getting shot and/or raped on their way to school”. They either can’t connect the dots, or they won’t believe it until it’s too late.

    Now the minority “Identity Voters” are just starting to realize they are being replaced by immigrants. But there’s nothing they can do about it as the mayor’s “Circus Tents” go up in their back yards and parks.

    It’s only a matter of a year or two at the most, before Durbin, or another equally slimy Lefty, announces; “They live here and they pay taxes, it’s only fair that these people be given ‘A Fast Track Path To Citizenship’ and allowed to vote.”

    The Democrats are still trying to play the “Party of the working man” card, while their campaign coffers are filled by Hedge Fund and Hi Tech Billionaires and Public Sector Union Leadership.

    The media has become the communication wing of their party, just pathetic stenographers for propaganda and they’re doing everything they can to have complete control and Censorship of Social Media outlets.

  20. I have come to the conclusion that any idiot can run for office and win.
    Identity politics is the new norm.
    Perhaps I could run for office.
    My identity card would be I’m old, fat, and ugly. That’s sure to make me a winner!
    Thanks for your column.

  23. The KKK could not have picked a more destructive candidate for the Black and Brown people of Chicago. If Frank Collins were alive today, he would be marching to keep Johnson in office. Daley, Sawyer and Washington loved Chicago, for all their flaws, they loved the city. The Barbarians are past the gates and celebrating in the town square with stolen goods.

  26. The voters of Chicago who elected BJ got exactly what they voted for. Period!

    When your only qualifications for office are skin color, who they screw, and whether or not you can Cuisinart your babies right up until the moment they are born, you have designed a city like Chicago and a state like Illinois.

    There is no sympathy for you. You ordered this.

    You believe that the reason that you have no food stores in low-income areas is corporate greed. What about shoplifting and robberies?

    You believe that white racists are to blame for the boarding up of Michigan Avenue. What about riots and the mobs of thieves who descend upon the stores?

    You believe that Kia and Hyundai are to blame for car theft. You really do. Are Kia and Hyundai responsible for stolen Fords, Chevys, and Jeeps, too?

    You believe that we are racist because we no longer visit Chicago. No longer dine, shop, visit museums, parks, ball parks, or Navy Pier. No nothing. No money spent.

    Listen to the media. They will tell you who to vote for. Go for it!

  27. Here’s a crazy idea. What about a white republican mayor. Silly as that may sound. It may actually work. It may actually bring back this once crown jewel of the midwest that we had umpteen years ago. It may actually brimg back law and order. It may actually bring back safe neighborhoods. It may actually bring back prosperity for the citizens and a balanced checkbook. Sound pretty good. Hmmmm. Maybe I’ll consider running.

  29. Here’s what Mayor Johnson said the other day, “I personally don’t give a lot of attention to grades,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “When you have the type of variables that exists within our Chicago Public Schools system, we have to establish a rubric that speaks to the needs as well as the unique dynamics that exist.”
    …………”establish a rubric……….” What the heck does that mean? I think he sounds like St Obama. Blah, blah, and blah.

  30. Well Chicagoans – you voted for him, now you and everyone else affected pay the price. This is what happens when all the voters who didn’t bother to exercise their right to vote, decided not to. As a suburbanite, who came into the city on a regular basis, those trips have diminished greatly. Too bad, it’s a nice city that is following a path that we have seen others take.

    If Chicago would have only done their civic duty, maybe it would not have been going in this direction. Oh well – enjoy what you have asked for – this one is on you Chicagoans.

  32. This column should be required reading by all citizens of the region—not just the city. All of us in the suburbs are affected by this idiocy as well. John, I pray your readership is growing. The ship is sinking and your voice must be heard

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