It
seems there won’t be a high school any time soon in Chicago named for President
Barack Obama.
For
months, Mayor Rahm Emanuel had made such a suggestion, saying that a new school
building to be constructed near the site of the former Cabrini-Green public
housing complex would get the president’s name.\
OF
COURSE, THAT aroused the anger of those individuals who don’t want anything
that could be perceived as a tribute to the current president. But it also
outraged the majority African-American population of the city’s South Side; who
believe that any school bearing the current president’s name ought to be
located somewhere south of Roosevelt Road.
It
certainly shouldn’t be located in an area so close to the Gold Coast where the
perception was that the demolition of Cabrini-Green was done more to chase black
people away from the wealthy part of Chicago, rather than any concern for the
area’s future development.
It
probably would result in a majority white enrollment at such a school named for
the nation’s first president of African-American racial origins.
The
perception was that Emanuel was offering up the idea of an Obama school as a
gesture of sorts to African-American voters, many of whom are still disgusted
at the notion that many of the school facilities that were closed in recent
years were in their neighborhoods.
AS
THOUGH THE problems with Chicago schools exist because of the high black
enrollments, rather than neglect of such schools by past and present
administrations.
Black
voters seem to have saw through the tactic. At least one alderman wondered why
the mayor didn’t try to focus on getting a decent supermarket into some of the
more impoverished neighborhoods of the city – ones that such chains often avoid
like the plague.
Others
wonder why city officials couldn’t build a new high school with college
preparatory programs somewhere on the South Side, rather than the near north
where some think there already are enough quality schools – this one would be
just a few blocks from the Walter Payton College Preparatory School in the
River North neighborhood.
Although
it should be noted that while Emanuel is backing off his talk of naming a
school for Obama, he’s not giving up on building a school near north in Chicago
– a facility that supposedly will accommodate about 1,200 students and will be
built by 2017.
NOT
THAT THERE won’t be school facilities in the Chicago area bearing the Obama
monicker. Officials with Park Forest-Chicago Heights School District 163 in the
south suburbs announced recently their plans to rename a couple of existing
schools.
One
will be called the Barack Obama School of Leadership and Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math, while the other will now be the Michelle Obama School of
Technology and the Arts.
Perhaps
Emanuel’s real mistake was in not including the first lady in his plans to pay
tribute to his former boss (the mayor is the former White House chief of
staff).
Maybe
South Side Chicago would have been more receptive to paying tribute to the South
Shore neighborhood native than to the guy who came to us following a childhood
in Honolulu?
PERSONALLY,
I’M WARY of naming buildings or streets for people. It can result in too many
trivial types getting honors. How many Carol Moseley-Braun schools are there in
existence that wish they could “take back” their choice of a name that a couple
of decades ago seemed like a natural tribute?
Then
again, I went to elementary schools named for World War II generals George S.
Patton and Dwight Eisenhower (along with a junior high school named to be a
memorial to that war’s soldiers). Perhaps I’m just too engrained to think that
the modern-day politicos whom I have written about can’t possibly be old enough
to be worthy of such a designation.
Just
as I can already envision the political fight of the future when somebody
proposes naming a school for Emanuel himself!
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment