CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday denounced a recent television ad from an organization opposing Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reelection because she said it features racist images and uses a likeness of her in which her skin appears darker than it is.
Lightfoot called the TV ad “the ultimate dog whistle being propagated in support” of GOP candidate for governor Darren Bailey, a state senator from Xenia. Speaking at an unrelated event, Lightfoot said the commercial “darkens” her skin in footage from a speech she gave earlier this year at the City Club of Chicago during which she declared, “It will be the summer of joy in Chicago.”
The 30-second ad warns in big, white lettering that “CHICAGO VIOLENCE IS COMING TO THE SUBURBS” and shows a montage of video surveillance and TV news footage of various crimes that occurred in Chicago, including a shooting near the site of Puerto Rican Day festivities in Humboldt Park in 2021.
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