Notes from Chicago: Allen, Part I

Daniel Clardy is a sixty-seven-year-old mail handler for the United States Postal Service, a career he has enjoyed for almost four decades. He knows the city. I listen when he speaks. The following text has been adapted from my conversations with him:

I’ll tell anybody, I’m a proud Chicagoan. Have always been. Will always be. I grew up on the Southside in the Grand Crossing neighborhood, although I now live in a new community just north of Englewood called South of the Back of the Yards. I’m tempted to say “infamous” Englewood given its reputation for gun violence. Given that it’s one of the reasons why people started calling Chicago “Chiraq.”

But those comparisons between Chicago and Iraq were completely off. Iraq was a war, while Chicago’s issues come from crime. For a long time, the people that ran the city didn’t care much about inner city crime. They put their resources into protecting The Loop (downtown), The Gold Coast, Wrigleyville, and other affluent areas of the city. And the people who lived in those areas could ignore what was going on in the rest of the city, namely in the neighborhoods on the Southside and the Westside. Until they found themselves to be the victims of crime. That’s when the dynamic changed.

But the city has come a long way. Little by little.

The Democratic Convention will afford us a chance to show the world just how far we’ve come. Chicago is a top tourist destination. We have two baseball teams, a football team, and a basketball team. We’ve hosted two NASCAR races over the past three years. And we have many large music festivals. This convention will bring people to the city who’ve never been before, along with some who haven’t come to Chicago in a while. And they will walk away feeling good about the city. Positive.

I am excited about Kamala Harris’s candidacy, and for that reason I am thrilled that she will have her coronation at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. She embodies all my hopes as a progressive. I want to see our country remain a democratic republic and not morph into a Russian-style oligarchy, which is what Trump and the Republicans want. I want to see voting rights protected, and I want to see the lives of working-class people improve. When I was younger, in my twenties and early thirties, I used to think that Democrats and Republicans were pretty much cut from the same cloth. But now I see them as being diametrically opposed in what they stand for, in what they want to achieve.

For that reason, I was troubled when Biden was running, concerned about his chances to win, even though I thought it was possible he could still beat Trump. Since Biden dropped out, Harris has brought aspirational hope to her followers, including me. We haven’t seen that kind of energy since Barack Obama ran back in 2008. She and Tim Walz are always on the campaign trail. The unity that the party is bringing to her candidacy is a positive sign that perhaps the Democrats will also take back the House of Representatives.

The way that she campaigns on behalf of working-class people tells me that she wants to bring back the middle class. I sense this aspirational hope when I’m with other people in the city. For example, my coworker Sterling and I talk politics all the time. He leans Republican. Watches Fox News. And he is very skeptical of the Democrats over the degree to which Blacks have historically backed the Democratic Party and gotten little in return. Overall, he’s cynical about politics in America.

But he is as enthusiastic about Kamala Harris as I am.

He asked me, “Man, is it genuine?”

“Yes,” I said. “This is genuine.”

Harris is bringing what he wanted to see the Democratic Party bring to the lives of Black people and all working stiffs like us. Energy. Enthusiasm. Vigor. Biden was probably the most progressive president since LBJ, but it had become clear that his time was over, that he needed to pass the torch on to someone younger, someone who could build on his platform and carry it forward.

However, I will admit that Trump’s anti-immigrant message has certainly reached some Black folk, especially here in Chicago. Early on, newly elected mayor Brandon Johnson came under attack for the way he was handling the immigrants arriving in the city from Texas. Dumped off from Texas, I should say. Because that’s just what it was. Governor Greg Abbot dumping these desperate people off in the city. The city started mobilizing resources to help to shelter, feed, and clothe them. There was some resentment from both Blacks and Hispanics in the city who felt that the new arrivals were getting preferential treatment. They wanted to know, How is it that you can find the money to help them while you’re still closing schools in our neighborhoods? When we have a homeless problem that no one has dealt with in years? I get it. I understand how they feel.

The misconception is that the city is treating these new immigrants like royalty and putting them up in fancy hotels and nice apartments. In actuality they sleep on the floor of police stations and field houses.

Whatever the hard feelings, I haven’t seen Chicagoans showing hostility towards these recent migrants. In fact, just the opposite. I see some of these newcomers hanging out in the parking lot at a grocery store or a Home Depot. They are looking for opportunities to work and make a few bucks. And sometimes they ask if you can spare some change or spare a dollar or two. I see people give to them. They are happy to receive it.

You know what I don’t see? Anger. I don’t hear any hateful speech or people directing hateful actions towards them. That’s Chicago.

Black church groups have been part of an effort to gather clothing and to provide coats, jackets, and other warm clothing that these new arrivals need to get through our tough winters. Such advocacy shows that Chicagoans are sympathetic to the plight of these people who’ve endured a lot and who simply want a better life. When all is said and done, I don’t think that Trump’s propaganda will be effective in persuading Black people in Chicago and across the country to vote for him. Far from it.

I think Kamala Harris also feels for these people. President Biden asked her to investigate the root causes of the border problem. She went over and beyond her duties. The evidence suggests that she did much to reduce the number of illegal immigrants coming across from Mexico while treating them with humanity.

I hear some Black people asking, What is Kamala Harris going to do for us, for me?Unfortunately, Barack Obama disappointed a lot of Black people, especially Black people here in Chicago, given his ties to the city. If I were advising Harris, I would tell her to keep doing what she’s doing. Her platform encompasses many issues that are pertinent to Black people, such as consumer protection laws and other laws that help curb predatory lending practices. Harris and the Democrats promise to go after the airline industry and other corporations that charge high surcharges and hidden fees. They promise to go after the credit card companies for high interest fees.

I would advise Harris to preserve and expand the social safety net programs—social security, unemployment insurance, food stamps. And pursue other policies that help working people like a livable wage, Medicare for all, and reasonable drug prices. Policies that are good for working people will also be good for African Americans.

My last piece of advice, she needs to give a hell of a speech at the Convention. The whole world will be watching.