Chicago City Wire

State Rep. LaShawn K. Ford (D-Chicago) is pushing back against Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s assertion that darker skin is somehow a bad thing.

Ford has represented the 8th House District since 2007. He spoke with Chicago Morning Answers Dan Proft about Lightfoot’s racial remarks concerning an ad Proft’s People Who Play By The Rules PAC put out.

“So what about that, what about the assertion that Lightfoot made?” Proft asked Ford on the Aug. 25 broadcast. 

“Well I mean of course we live in America, people can make assertions all they want," Ford said. "I’ve been in politics for over 15 years and it's the job of the opponent to put out ads that they see and as a candidate, I mean, you have to have tough skin if you're in politics especially if you're playing at the level of mayor. And I really, really think that you have to pick your battles and this is not the battle that I think we need to be focusing on as a negative. I don't need anybody saying the darker you look, the more dangerous you are. That's bad. And so I find it offensive that we focus on saying that that's an ugly vision of a person because that person is darker.”

“That’s what Lori Lightfoot said,” Proft said.

”Yeah, that's what I mean," For answered. "I find…it takes us back. You know, in America where you have images of black people that have, you know…people have been discriminated because of darker skin, and so even if you had intentions on whatever, you pick your battles, and to say that because you made me [Lightfoot] darker, that means 'I'm scary to white people.' That’s not right. And so what we need to do is embrace all colors."

“You can't expect your opponent to put you in the best light when they're trying to defeat you. I know this. You know, so you're not going to give her best image for ads that you're trying to convey a message. Now, if you're trying to convey a message that she's darker than she is, and that makes her bad, then that’s your prerogative, but I don't see how being darker makes the Mayor of the city of Chicago threatening to white suburbia." 

“It's also so ridiculous because it's like, everybody knows who she is and what her skin color is, this is not like a controversy, it's not the topic of discussion which is why I can never even conceive of this allegation being made," Proft said. "This is like JB Pritzker arguing about being presented as ‘fat’ on screen, like ‘Oh no you know you got me from the wrong angle, you made me look fat’ I mean it's just…everybody knows the physical characteristics of people who have been omnipresent in our lives particularly because of the every other day press conferences we had for two years during the pandemic, so it's just silliness to suggest that I'm now I'm introducing a figure that people don't know anything about in order to 'scare' people."

“Right," Ford said. "Let me tell you, and this is the truth, whether you're a white person or black person, when you go into your Secretary of State office, go take a passport picture, and go do anything, everyone wants their picture to look pretty accurate and even in hands to make them look better. But you don't come out against the color of your skin when it could really make a person that color be offended. I mean, the color you had her in, is just a little shade darker than me, and so we cannot play…even if you are offended you have to have thicker skin to avoid that issue, I mean, you just can't do it."

“Do you think the black community is upset at all with this ad?” Chicago's Morning Answer co-host Amy Jacobsen asked.

“You know, I don't think so," Ford said. "So I don't think the black community is upset, I mean we've seen, when I think about ads that have been put forth, I've seen ads of white people darkened too...I've seen it happen. Now, we know that there is such thing as racism, and there's such thing as you know in society that you want to make people look scary...you know I mean just gotta have tough skin and pick your battles and this is not one that you go into to highlight, to make it you [Lightfoot] as a person confirming that 'because I'm darker, I'm scarier'…that’s her confirming that because she's darker, she's scarier. She validated…even if you had intentions on making that assumption, she validated it. And that's offensive.”

Lightfoot accused Proft’s PAC of using “cheap tricks to darken my skin and try to scare voters with false narratives about Chicago.”

In response, Proft called Lightfoot a “race hustler” for making an appeal to a manufactured racial issue in order to detract from the city’s ongoing crime problem.

By discussing the different shades of pigmentation and which is expected to be more desirable, Lightfoot is engaging in a type of colorism. Colorism is a form of racism, according to WebMD.

“Colorism is discrimination or a bias against someone’s skin tone. Racism is discrimination, hatred, or violence directed at people because of things like their race, ethnicity, or where they’re from,” WebMD reports.

On the anniversary of her second year in office Lightfoot infamously discriminated against white reporters in mid-2021 when she held a press conference in which she determined she would only call on “reporters of color.”

The City of Chicago and Lightfoot were sued by a conservative news reporter for first amendment rights violations in that instance.