Jackson to Daley: Keep race out of it

Jackson to Daley: Keep r
September 17, 2006

BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporter


U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. knocked Mayor Daley on Saturday for bringing race into the big-box minimum wage ordinance debate, maintaining racial polarization "has no place" in Chicago or in the mayoral election.

Daley's recent veto of the ordinance, which would have mandated that stores like Wal-Mart and Target pay their employees at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits by 2010, will fling Chicago in the "wrong direction," said Jackson, who is considering a mayoral run.

And for Daley to insist he is against the big-box ordinance because it will stagnate economic development in African-American neighborhoods is disingenuous, he said.

Aide fires back



"Mayor Daley, racial polarization has no place in Chicago," he said at Rainbow/ PUSH headquarters. "Leave race out of this campaign. We need one Chicago united, not two Chicagos divided by race."

Jackson said that while his civil rights leader father has been criticized for exposing racial inequalities, Daley has ignored minorities' concerns on such issues as police misconduct and white-owned companies using city contracts set aside for minority- and women-owned businesses.

But now that it's election season, he said, Daley wants you to "believe that he's a race leader when it comes to community development and providing low-wage jobs.

"Mayor Daley injected race into the public dialogue, and that is wrong. The mayor said no one objected to big-box stores until big-box retailers wanted to build on the South and West Side of Chicago -- communities with concentration of African Americans. Now, I guess we're supposed to believe that the mayor is a race fighter -- a civil rights leader for access to capital, for community development and for jobs without discrimination."

Reached later, mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard said Daley had simply pointed out facts.

"When big-box stores were building in suburban areas and the northern area of Chicago, it is true that no one did say much about it and there was no controversy," she said.

"When finally there was talk of building these stores on the West Side and South Side, there was controversy. A lot of it. The reality is that is exactly what happened."

rhussain@suntimes.com