Legendary Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley had a way with words. One of his more memorable pronouncements, for example, was during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, when he was attempting to explain away the police riot that had taken place in Lincoln Park and downtown Chicago while his party was nominating its presidential standar-bearer, Hubert H. Humphrey: "Gentlemen, get the thing straight once and for all — the policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder." And here's another notable Daley malapropism: "We shall reach greater and greater platitudes of achievement."
The current mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, often tortures the language but seldom turns it inside out like his dad. Yesterday, however, Richie angrily spit out a logic-defying statement. In his city, with an African American population of 35 percent, Daley said that it is "unacceptable" that only eight percent of the city's contracts go to black contractors. Then, out of the other side of his mouth, he blamed the victims, arguing that "It's the general contractors you don't have. That is the major issue. Until we get general contractors," blacks will continue to get the economic crumbs-- according to a report in Monday's Chicago Sun-Times.
Unfortunately, there are real reasons their are so few blacks in construction in the Windy City. To this day, the nearly Lilly-white trade unions have not gotten around to welcoming anyone but their family members and friends of their family members into their exclusive club. Meanwhile, the city's major contractors have a history of finding a black janitor or black con-artist and setting him up to front a dummy black subcontracting firm. And, since white women are also classified as a minority, many of the bids that don't go to their husbands or relatives manage to find a way to them.
Mayor Daley is not always eloquent but he is always in the loop. He knows the real deal but apparently he's not smart enough to know that we know it too.
Stumble It!
