“It is abysmal and it is an affront for everything that is good about this country for the extremism in this country to use people as political tools to settle political scores for something that happened over 400 years ago,” Johnson continued. “They’re still mad that a Black man is free in this country.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson has done it before, but in this statement it is official. The sound from the card slapped on the table is liken to when someone has that last card in Uno, and they slap it down hard while yelling “Uno out!” Maybe it is like when someone is playing Spades. When someone has the big Joker and one of the opponents plays the Ace of Spades, the Joker is traditionally slammed down hard on the table.

Well in this case the card that Mayor Johnson played is the race card. The financial weight of migrants coming to Chicago has been enormous. So much so that the funds allocated to accommodate migrants has disrupted the city. Since August 31, 2022, over 23,000 migrants have been bused from Texas by Governor Greg Abbott.

In 2023 it is estimated that 2.5 million migrants crossed the boarder into the US. If Chicago is being crushed under the weight of 23,000, imagine what is going on in Texas. So, Governor Abbot, trying to solve the problem for his state and residents, sent migrants to other US cities that are self-proclaimed sanctuary cities.

The governor of Texas did not arbitrarily choose Chicago, NYC, or Denver. Those specific cities were chosen because they announced to the world that they are cities where everyone is welcome. Mayor Johnson famously said during his campaign for mayor that we can increase the size of the pie to help everyone in need.

When Mayor Johnson became mayor, he proclaimed that Chicago is a welcoming city. He often uses “the soul of Chicago” to elicit a feeling of unity among Chicagoans. That was unsuccessful. Each time the city chose a site to house migrants, the residents protested vociferously!

Then he tried to build tent cities on vacant land. I am certain that he thought that if the land is not being used, the neighborhood residents would not care. We are helping homeless migrants that need a place to stay. As an aside if he ever believed that putting people into tents during a Chicago winter was a clever idea, the mayor has terrible counsel. Again, the residents protested, “No! We do not want migrants in our neighborhoods!”

The frustrated mayor then turned to the faith community. Certainly, the local pastor in the Black neighborhoods of Chicago can use their pulpits to convince Chicagoans that helping migrants is the Godly thing to do. After all the parishioners we sit in those church pews every week listen to their spiritual leaders. They unwaveringly give their time, talent, and treasure. Once the pastors advised their congregations to listen to them, then the pressure would abate. Once again Mayor Johnson was met with a resounding, “No!”

Being met at every turn with opposition to his egalitarian goal of using citizen’s tax money to take care of non-citizens, he played the last card that he had: the race card. Governor Abbot must have been thinking to himself as he saw millions of migrants coming across the border, “I sure am mad that Black people are free. I wish I could transport myself back four hundred years ago. However, since I cannot, because time travel does not exist, I will send 23,000 migrants to Chicago since the mayor there is black. That will settle the score!”

We all know that is ridiculous! Mayor Johnson is playing the race card because he believes that it will galvanize black Chicago behind him without whom he cannot get reelected. He is playing the race card because he does not have a long-term solution to the migrant crisis, the easiest of which is to simply say that Chicago cannot longer accept any more migrants.

Finally, Mayor Johnson played the race card because he believes that Black people are dumb. It is duplicitous. He believes that Black people can be easily manipulated with low hanging emotional fruit. All he has to say is “400 years” and “they are mad a Black man is free”, and the Black people of Chicago will say in unison, “If you attack our Black mayor, you are attacking all of us. We stand behind you Mayor Johnson!”

This attempt is intellectually lazy, banal, and petulant. Mayor Johnson is probably a nice guy and a good husband and father. He would have a fantastic conversation about the global history of slavery and geopolitics in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. He is probably a good card player. He is not a good mayor. Brandon Johnson is the wrong man for this moment.