Chicago City Wire

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) says her experience in a “tough neighborhood” in Chicago inspired her to enter politics and push for socialist policies, including a 70 percent income tax rate and a tax on household wealth.

To be sure, Pressley and her fellow “Squad” members believe they can use higher taxes and other government mandates to to eliminate what they call “white privilege.”

But Pressley has downplayed her own considerable privilege. The 45 year-old is a graduate of one of Chicago’s most elite private schools— one that attracts the children of billionaires and currently costs $38,700 per year.

Pressley, 45, a former Boston City Council member who, like her fellow “Squad” member U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), won election to Congress last year, attended the Francis W. Parker School in Lincoln Park for 12 years, graduating in 1992.

She attended college at Boston University before building her political career there, working for U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA) and U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) before seeking elected office herself in 2009.

Pressley challenged and defeated 20 year incumbent Mike Capuano in the 2018 Democrat primary for Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District, arguing that the two would likely vote the same but that she better reflected the racial make-up of the district, which is 51 percent white.

Since taking office, Pressley has made identity politics her central focus,

“Let me say this about identity: It matters," Pressley said in a speech to supporters earlier this month. “I am black with a capital 'B,' What’s ruining our nation is white supremacy and hate."

Pressley believes “slavery reparations” are the antidote. She has sponsored a bill that would have the federal government transfer an estimated $17 trillion from white Americans to black Americans.

Many of her former Francis Parker classmates seem predisposed to agree with such policy ideas.

The school celebrated her victory, calling it “a perfect example of Parker’s role as a national resource for educating for responsible citizenship and leadership in a diverse democracy and global community.”

Pressley’s class of ‘92 included Lauren Creamer, stepdaughter of fellow socialist U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) of Evanston and former Democrat congressional and Illinois State Treasurer candidate Justin Oberman.