The late Mayor Harold Washington, an insurgent progressive, when he was endorsing candidates in a primary always said, “It’s not that I don’t love the others, I just love [candidates name] more.”
On Tuesday President Barack Obama threw propriety to the wind and wore a Chicago White Sox jacket onto the field at the baseball All Star Game in St. Louis to toss out the ceremonial ball. For those of you who might be wondering, let me explain a few things about the south side of Chicago and our Chicago White Sox.
The Red Sox, Cardinals and Cubs may have their “nations,” we White Sox fans have our team and our neighborhoods. While those other teams sport an aura of glamour, ours is rooted in who we are as South-Siders and Chicagoans. In the interest of being polite, I’ll leave comparisons and commentary about that other Chicago team aside here. I, naturally don’t think too highly of them, so I’ll simply stick to the White Sox in this post.
The south side is not a tourist destination of our city. Rather it is a collection of hard working neighborhoods, of bungalows and families. It is a diverse part of Chicago. African American, Latino, Asian American, ethnic whites. It is a collection of historic villages really, from Oakland to Beverly, Pilson to Pullman. From Back of the Yards and Canaryville, to Grand Boulevard, South Shore and Chicago Lawn. Obama’s neighborhood is Hyde Park, Mayor Daley hails from Bridgeport, traditional rival political communities. Few wealthy or powerful people other than politicians live on the south side. We are more mill rats than yuppies and hopefully will stay that way.
We may be stout working class folk, but we expect to be treated decently and not looked down on. This is the life blood of the place the President comes from.
A long time ago there used to be other teams rooted in their community like our White Sox, teams that the people of those neighborhoods loved and cherished, and with whom they identified closely. The Brooklyn Dodgers come to mind.
When we travel we are always hurt by the lack of respect we and our team get, even though it’s a good and winning team. We are hurt that our neighborhoods and neighbors, good people who we love, don’t, as Rodney Dangerfield might have said, “Get no respect!”
So when it came time to toss out that pitch, that old neighborhood guy, the community organizer, Barack Obama, threw propriety to the wind and went out there with a White Sox jacket.
We love him for that. You should too!
