Chicago City Wire

Chicago Public Health Director Dr. Allison Arwady was fired without cause by Mayor Brandon Johnson, a move some perceive as political payback enacted on behalf of the Chicago Teachers Union. 

In January 2022, CTU leaders, including current president Stacy Davis Gates, pushed back against Arwady's recommendation to reopen city public schools after winter break.

In response, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration blocked CPS employees from working remotely, as recommended by the teachers union.

“I am so pissed off that we have to continuously fight for the necessities, the basic mitigations … this makes no sense,” Davis Gates said at the time.

In February 2022, Johnson, who was both a CTU lobbyist and Cook County Commissioner at the time, was quoted by the Tribune as saying “The mayor and Chicago Public Schools are determined to punish those teachers who have been locked out,” Johnson said, calling the actions “incredibly anti-union.”

“For a town and a city like Chicago where the labor movement has a rich history, to have the public schools as well as the fifth floor attack the workers and laborers like this is quite egregious.”

The Lightfoot administration's decision to reopen schools in 2022 was based on the recommendation of Arwady, who said schools were safe for students, teachers and staff.

“It really is concerning to me that we’re pretending like it’s February 2020, at the beginning of all of this,” Arwady told WTTW in January 2022.

At a Monday news conference, NBC 5 reporter Mary Ann Ahern asked Johnson whether Arwady's firing was "payback from the CTU leadership because Dr. Arwady wanted the schools to open during COVID?"

Mayor Johnson dodged the question by mentioning a saying attributed to the late gangster rapper Tupac Shakur.

"Every single administration has to be prepared for transition … Transition is hard for everyone," Johnson said. "I don't know how many times you're allowed to quote Tupac in a press conference. You can't always go by the things that you hear, right. 'Real eyes. Realize. And real lies.' That's also Tupac Shakur."

Ironically, some people dispute that the late rapper is the originator of the saying 'real eyes, realize, real lies." The phrase has been used by people opposed to COVID shutdowns.

American visual artist Shiela Pinkel included that turn of phrase in a 1989 photo of that the Los Angeles Times described as a "huge image of the face of an American Indian with closed (blind?) eyes … [and] the image are the words 'Real Eyes,' 'Realize' and 'Real Lies,' suggesting that the truth of common 'knowledge' about the American Indian experience is deeply suspect."

"Real Eyes Realize Real Lies" also was the title of a 1994 song by the metal band Machine Head that included police radio audio and news interviews from the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Singer Robb Flynn said he saw the phrase written on three cement pillars near a punk rock club in Oakland, California.

Mayor Johnson did not deny CTU's influence in Arwady's firing.

Johnson said that his administration includes a "quite competent" team that has a full vetting process of city department leadership that he considers when making staffing decisions.

The mayor did not identify members of his vetting team.