Right Wing Media Coverage of Lightfoot Loss Follows Familiar Pattern of Racist, Sexist Attacks
By Jaden Satenstein, March 12, 2023
Chicago voters may have given Lori Lightfoot the boot, but right wing media isn’t letting her leave quietly.
The first Black female and first openly gay mayor of the Windy City, Lightfoot lost her reelection bid last month, winning only 17 percent of the vote. She placed third behind Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, who will continue to April’s runoff. Lightfoot is the first Chicago mayor to lose reelection since Jane Byrne, the city’s first female mayor, lost her primary 40 years ago.
Lightfoot’s term has been marked by crisis and controversy. Critics on both sides of the aisle have condemned her handling of everything from crime, to COVID policies to conflicts with the city’s teachers union. While Lightfoot’s loss has inspired a wealth of thoughtful commentary on her tenure, a quick look at the kind of stories far right media has published in the weeks since the election reveal that these outlets aren’t providing legitimate critiques of Lightfoot’s policies. Instead, they’re grabbing every possible opportunity to tear a Black gay woman down.
Endless Insults
In classic right-wing fashion, their first line of attack has been Lightfoot’s appearance. FrontPage Magazine wrote that “You won’t have Beetlejuice to kick around anymore.” The American Spectator called her a “creep.”
Clearly the right hasn’t let go of the “nasty woman” stereotype, with The Gateway Pundit calling Lightfoot “nasty,” “foul-mouthed,” and “classless.”
“This woman was such a disaster,” Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft wrote.
Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld held nothing back, comparing Lightfoot to “a garden gnome, a woodland nymph, a magical imp, a Ghost of Christmas Past” and “Medusa.” He even joked that Lightfoot is actually male by displaying a photo of her and remarking that she is “seen here having her prostate checked.” He continued the sexist tirade by saying, “She’s like a masculine version of Jussie Smollett. Did I get that reversed?”
Gutfield also noted that Lightfoot “broke another glass ceiling” by being the “worst mayor ever.” Naturally, he’s not the only conservative pundit to ascribe this insult to Lightfoot. The Washington Examiner declared that “the position of worst mayor in America will soon be up for grabs.” Not surprisingly, the outlet suggests bestowing that title on another Black female mayor, LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans.
A History of Scorn
While the right’s vitriol toward nationally-known female politicians of color like Vice President Kamala Harris and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is well-documented, these outlets have a history of going after local leaders as well. Since Karen Bass was sworn in as the first female mayor of Los Angeles at the end of 2022, Black mayors have been leading all of the nation’s four largest cities for the first time ever. As more Black politicians begin to win these historically white-dominated positions of power, national right-wing media is sharpening its focus on Black mayors. When FrontPage published a 14-part series called “Racist Mayors” in June 2021, 50 percent of the mayors featured on the list were Black.
One of those highlighted mayors is Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., a Black woman who has faced a barrage of attacks from the right since she took office in 2015. Just last week, Fox News’ Jesse Watters called Bowser a “kook.” American Greatness called her “demonstrably incompetent” and a “tetchy leftist sock puppet” in an August 2020 hit piece.
“Bowser is either a vertiginous dolt, a useful idiot of BLM Marxists, or she is the kind of deliberately vindictive, venomous usurper not seen since the days of Duchessa Lucrezia Borgia,” American Greatness contributor Chuck de Caro wrote.
These powerful Black women represent a direct threat to the systemic and structural forms of racism that right-wing media uphold, and relentless scorn is the only way they know to strike back. They try to mask their racism by throwing in partisan criticism and inventing scandals to incite outrage, but a survey of these pieces shows that it’s never really been about policies.
There’s a clear line between political commentary and callousness, and when it comes to Black women the right always ends up on the wrong side.
Jaden Satenstein (@jadensat) is a writer, producer and social media consultant. She has worked for WNYC, FRONTLINE PBS, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Straus News Manhattan.
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Since losing her reelection campaign last month, Chicago’s mayor has been a target of right wing media looking to tear down a Black gay woman. Powerful Black women like Lori Lightfoot represent a direct threat to the systemic and structural forms of racism that right wing media uphold, and scorn is the only way they know to strike back. (Image: Flickr)
