Pastor and Project H.O.O.D. founder Corey Brooks says Chicago leaders keep using scare tactics and race wars as children fail.

The one thing I have learned over and over as a pastor on the South Side of Chicago is that when you challenge a child, he or she often thrives. They may stumble or misstep here and there and sometimes it takes a day or even several months, but when they "get it" the smiles on their faces tell you everything.  There is nothing more amazing than a child discovering that he or she is more powerful or smarter than they originally believed. And for the rest of their lives, they carry within themselves the knowledge that they are stronger than their fears.  That is why I believe the gift of merit is the greatest gift a child can receive. 

It saddens me that the leaders of Chicago and elsewhere do not believe in this simple lesson. They believe more in race than merit. 

I remember decades ago when the elites, intellectuals, academics, and politicians lectured us that if we had a Black mayor and Blacks in power in key parts of the city and Black teachers teaching Black kids, then Blacks would begin to thrive. They told us that it was white supremacy and Whites who didn’t understand Blacks that were holding us back. But by magically making everything Black, there would be no more inner cities, ghettos, poverty, or gang violence. We Blacks would thrive because those Blacks in power understood us, they got us.

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