Are voters in Chicago seeking the “great white hope?' For a certain type of voter, Paul Vallas might be that guy. | bennyjshow
New York Times
editorialized at the time, “If the black man wins, thousands and thousands of his ignorant brothers will misinterpret his victory as justifying claims to much more than mere physical equality with their white neighbors.”Obviously, I was not around to witness the Johnson–Jeffries bout. But I remember the eagerness of white people to watch Jerry Quarry, the last Great White Hope, knock Muhammad Ali on his ass in their 1970 fight.
In Chicago, the great white hope concept has carried into politics. Especially in 1983, after Black voters had the temerity to elect Harold Washington as mayor. Over the next few years, several white politicians—Jane Byrne, Eddie Vrdolyak, and Thomas Hynes—vied for the honor of doing to Washington what Quarry couldn’t do to Ali.It was only after Washington had died that Richard M. Daley took the title, so to speak, by first defeating Eugene Sawyer and then Timothy Evans in separate elections to fill out the late mayor’s term in 1989.
When Lori Lightfoot won, I thought those twisted days had passed. But with the recent surge of Paul Vallas in the polls, I realize I was naive. And I wonder—has Paul Vallas become the Jerry Quarry of Chicago politics?Vallas has certainly won Chicago’s MAGA vote—as well he should. He’s been courting it for the last few years, showing up at an
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