Mayor Brandon Johnson finally named his own equity chief and began moving forward with a $500,000 task force on compensation he announced last year.
He was chosen by Carla Coby, who was previously the city's first director of diversity, equity, inclusion and compliance for the city's inspector general. She is the co-founder of a law firm owned and operated by Black women. She is also the founder and CEO of “a consulting firm focused on diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racist colonialism.”
Kupe was introduced to the crowd attending the Juneteenth flag raising at Daley Plaza on Monday.
In his remarks at that ceremony, Johnson showed off the signing of an executive order establishing a reparations task force that was supposed to begin work on January 1, thanks to a $500,000 appropriation included in his $16.77 billion 2024 budget.
Chicago has been without a chief equity officer since the departure of Candace Moore in December 2023, the first person to hold the position, which was created in 2019 by Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Kobe will likely play an integral role in determining what compensation will look like in Chicago. Kobe told the Daley Plaza crowd that she had “witnessed first-hand the challenges the city faces” and “the power of government and the community collectively” to create solutions that create a “fairer and more inclusive Chicago.”
At the inspector general's office, Coby said she helped create “27 racial equity action plans for city departments.” One plan paved the way for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to allocate $6 million to community artists, she said.
“This is as much about systems change as it is about healing and coming to terms with our complicated past,” said Kobe, the daughter of Congolese immigrants.
The Juneteenth holiday on Wednesday celebrates the emancipation of all slaves in the United States. Kobe said it was a “celebration of freedom” and progress and “a reminder of the ongoing struggle.” “It is important to continue dismantling systemic injustice as the journey continues.”
Johnson told a Daley Center crowd that he was “committed to driving reparations home” in Chicago.
“Now is the time to provide good reparations to the people of Chicago, especially black people,” Johnson said, though he did not say what form reparations would take or how the city would pay for them.
“The legacy of slavery and its consequences still resonate today. We saw it when previous administrations sold off public assets. We saw the damage when previous administrations closed black schools, shuttered public housing. When they raided pensions. These anti-black, anti-business endeavors…caused Enormous damage and pain.
Johnson said the reparations “will open the floodgates of prosperity to fully flow through neighborhoods that have not been invested in for decades.” “The same institutions we stand for today have harmed black people. And so, on behalf of the city of Chicago, I apologize for the historical wrongs committed against black people in Chicago. “On behalf of the city of Chicago, we apologize — not only on behalf of the Black people who were harmed, but their ancestors who never saw this day.”
“God bless the blackest city in the world,” Johnson concluded.
A follow-up press release from the mayor's office said the reparations task force “will develop a definition and framework” for reparations; Identify “fundamental issues of equity and reparative action”: conduct a comprehensive study of “all policies that have harmed blacks in Chicago from the era of slavery to the present day” and “present a series of recommendations that will serve as appropriate remedies and redress for the past.” Present injustices and harms.”
“Today’s executive order is not just a general announcement. It is a pledge to shape the future of our city by confronting the legacy of inequality that has plagued Chicago for too long,” the mayor was quoted as saying.
The City Council has had a compensation subcommittee since 2020. Precious little progress has been made during Lightfoot's single term.
Former Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), who chaired the Health and Human Services Committee that created the Compensation Subcommittee, was asked to explain the pace of Snail's progress after a June 2022 hearing on the issue.
“The mayor is not as supportive as I would have liked. A lot of us are willing to go further. But there has been some intransigence by the administration that doesn't think this is the right way to go,” Sawyer said that day.
“I keep pushing. I've been pushing this for years. I'm going to keep pushing this issue. If we do this right, we're going to see a similar decline in criminal activity as well as health outcomes and other things that we're seeing in the Black community.”
