Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democrat, has fired back at his city’s mayor for gloating that his office uses racist hiring practices.
It comes after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it is investigating Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hiring practices.
As Slay News previously reported, Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson is under investigation by the DOJ after he openly boasted about using race as a criterion when hiring employees.
The DOJ probe comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting racist hiring practices and restoring merit-based opportunities.
However, Mayor Johnson appears to have violated the order by selecting employees based on the color of their skin.
Johnson caused outrage by boasting about the number of black people he has hired.
Earlier this month, the mayor appeared at a church and suggested that he had staffed his administration based on race.
Johnson appeared at the Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn and talked about the racial makeup of his administration.
He also emphasized hiring “our people.”
“When we say ‘our people hire our people,’ I just want to name this,” he said.
He continued by pointing out how the percentage of white people in the mayor’s office had dramatically decreased during his administration.
The mayor then claimed to have used racist hiring practices to achieve “the most diverse administration in the history of Chicago.”
One example included his deputy mayor of business and economic development, a black woman.
After his remarks, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, notified Johnson that his administration is being investigated to see if it utilizes discriminatory hiring practices.
“Considering these remarks, I have authorized an investigation to determine whether the City of Chicago is engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination as set forth above,” Dhillon said.
“If these kind of hiring decisions are being made for top-level positions in your administration, then it begs the question whether such decisions are also being made for lower-level positions.”
Alderman Lopez says he’s glad the DOJ is looking into the Johnson administration’s hiring practices.
Lopez noted that many Chicagoans have the same concern.
“I am glad that they are looking into it,” Lopez said.
“I think it validates the concerns that many Chicagoans have had that Brandon Johnson is a mayor, not for the entire city, but for only one demographic.
“There are tens of thousands of individuals who work for the city of Chicago who feel as though they have been left out of promotions, left out of advancement, or even left out from being hired as a whole even on the front line.
“And I think that needs to be looked into by the Department of Justice.”
Lopez said he thinks the city is taking steps in the wrong direction in the way it hires.
“This is just one sad step backwards for the City of Chicago to have the mayor articulate so passionately that he prefers to hire one ethnic demographic at the expense of all others,” he said.
“It doesn’t make sense to me how, in the 21st century, we’ve done so much to try to move beyond seeing each other just solely based on race, that we are now taking a giant leap in the wrong direction.”
The alderman said there are black Chicago residents he talks to who disagree with Johnson when it comes to hiring decisions.
“Let me be 100%, 110% clear on this note,” Lopez added.
“There are African Americans who don’t like that statement either.
“There are many well-qualified leaders of departments who put blood, sweat, and tears into lifting up Chicago, who now have been trivialized by his comments and are viewed through a lens of they’re just here because they’re black.”
In comments made after the DOJ launched its investigation, Johnson said it came from a place of fear.
“You can tell when someone is fearful is because they act out,” Johnson said.
“We have a president that is screaming and having tantrums right now because we have an administration that reflects the city of Chicago, but he would much rather have administrations that reflect the country club. Period.”
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