Tulsi Gabbard demands Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot resign over 'blatant anti-white racism'

Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D) says that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) should resign after granting interviews only to journalists and reporters of color.

What are the details?

In a strongly worded Friday tweet, Gabbard wrote, "Mayor Lightfoot's blatant anti-white racism is abhorrent. I call upon President Biden, Kamala Harris, and other leaders of our country — of all races — to join me in calling for Mayor Lightfoot's resignation. Our leaders must condemn all racism, including anti-white."

Earlier this week, Lightfoot announced that she would only give interviews to media representatives of color in order to honor the two-year anniversary of her mayoral inauguration.

Despite facing significant backlash, Lightfoot defended her stance, and insisted that people should take a cue from her decision and hire more persons of color across all industries, and particular within the local and national media.

A two-page letter to local media saw Lightfoot double down on the move and complained that area news outlets are disproportionately male and white.

She wrote, "By now, you may have heard the news that on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of my inauguration as Mayor of this great City, I will be exclusively providing one-on-one interviews with journalists of color. As a person of color, I have throughout my adult life done everything that I can to fight for diversity and inclusion in every institution that I have been a part of and being Mayor makes me uniquely situated to shine a spotlight on this most important issue."

Lightfoot asserted that "overwhelming whiteness and maleness" dominates Chicago-area media outlets, editorial boards, and political press corps, and complained that were no female reporters of color covering city hall.

WBEZ-TV, however, dashed the claim and pointed out that two of its three city hall reporters were female reporters with Hispanic and South Asian backgrounds, respectively.

What else?

In April, the former Hawaii congresswoman implored Americans to tamp down on what she said was "racialization" taking hold across the country.

In a widely shared social media post, Gabbard wrote, "My dear friends and fellow Americans, please, please let us stop the RACIALIZATION of everyone and everything — i.e., racialism. We are all children of God and are therefore family in the truest sense, no matter what our race or ethnicity. This is aloha. This is what our country and world need."

In a related video, Gabbard said that "propaganda media" are complicit in sowing hatred and took aim at politicians willing to capitalize on resulting division.

"The mainstream propaganda media and politicians, they want us to constantly focus on our skin color and the skin color of others, because it helps them politically or financially," she said. "'Aloha' means respect and love for others. It's what enables us to see beyond our skin color and see the soul, the person within."

She concluded, "[L]et's do our best to cultivate this aloha in our hearts, and see and treat others through this prism of love, not through the prism of race and ethnicity. Please let us not allow ourselves to be led down this dark and divisive path of racialism and hate."