Shock and anger erupted this week around Waukegan and beyond over an anti-immigration poster affixed to a utility pole in the Sixth Ward depicting Mayor Sam Cunningham, the city’s first Black chief executive, as an apelike creature.
State Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, who represents Waukegan, called it a “racist stereotype designed to perpetuate hate against the Black community.”
State Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Gurnee, said whoever put the placard on a utility pole knows nothing about the mayor who stood between a constituent and federal immigration enforcement officials during Operation Midway Blitz.
The poster insulting Cunningham and another saying “MAGA” were affixed to utility poles Sunday night near Franklin and Hickory streets and were removed the same night by community activists to remove the negative messages from their neighborhood.
The Rev. Julie Contreras, pastor of United Giving Hope church in Waukegan, said when anti-immigration posters began appearing in the city’s Sixth Ward in early April, those opposed formed Waukegan Residents United Against Violent Extremism.
Contreras said Aurora Flores, a Waukegan resident and member of the organization, is one of the people who patrol the neighborhood looking for such posters and remove them as soon as they see them. They give them to the police for investigation.
Waukegan Police Chief Edgar Navaro said Tuesday the investigation began in April with the first posters and is ongoing. His department is regularly communicating with the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office about the ongoing investigation.
Cunningham said in an email on Tuesday that the investigation into the people behind the posters will grow more intense. No one in the city should be intimidated by hatemongers trying to scare community members, particularly those in the immigrant community, he said.
“Let me be clear: hate has no home in Waukegan,” Cuningham said. “We will continue to stand united against racism and bigotry in all its forms. In Waukegan, we are better than this, and we will not be intimidated.”
Using the caricature of Cunningham as an ape triggers a longstanding and historic racist trope, the mayor said. He said it is an attempt to spread fear to both the Black and Brown communities, something he added will not work.
“Seeing yourself depicted through a painful, historic racial image is upsetting,” he said. “It is one of the oldest and most hateful racist acts in the country’s history. Combined with hateful attacks on immigrants, these anonymous acts of intimidation are a cowardly attempt to spread fear, division, and prejudice.”
President Donald Trump posted caricatures of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes on social media in February. Cunningham said whoever posted the cartoon of him did something very similar.
“President Trump’s video of the Obamas is from the exact same playbook as this racist poster,” Cunningham said. “Both rely on deeply ingrained, historical racism specifically designed to undermine the intellect, dignity, and humanity of Black leaders and Black Americans.”
Johnson said the posters are “disturbing for immigrants, the Black community and Waukegan as a whole. She calls the anti-immigrant message “abhorrent and against everything our country should stand for.” She sees the portrayal of Cunningham as something deeper
It is “a racist stereotype designed to perpetuate hate against the Black community,” Johnson said. Hatred has no place in Waukegan or Illinois. Our state has prided itself in being a welcoming place for all residents, and we can never let acts of racism change that.
Mayfield said the person who designed and posted the placard knows nothing about Cunningham. He took a leading role supporting the Hispanic community when federal agents accelerated enforcement efforts last fall.
“He has stood with the Hispanic community,” Mayfield said. “He has been very vocal. We have passed resolutions in Waukegan all denouncing (immigration enforcement) action. I commend Mayor Cunningham for providing sanctuary and assistance to those whose family members were terrorized.”
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, said, “These racist posters depicting the mayor of Waukegan are disgusting and grotesque. Efforts to spread hate and sow division will not succeed because, as Mayor Cunningham said, hate has no home in Waukegan.”
Keith Brin, the Republican state central committeeman for the 10th Congressional District, said in a text that the language and images used in the poster have no place in political discourse.
“I think whoever put up the signs ought to be ashamed,” Brin said. “It’s one thing to have honest political dialogue about illegal immigration, but to use disparaging and racist depictions of anyone, never mind the mayor of Waukegan, should be condemned by everyone.”
Dulce Ortiz, the executive director of Mano a Mano Family Resource Center and a Waukegan Township trustee, said such posters not only spread fear in the community but also embolden the perpetrators.
“What they are doing is a hate crime,” Ortiz said. “It’s an anti-Black and anti-Brown racist post. It leads to the killings in Minnesota. It encourages people because they see the (Trump) administration is not going to hold them accountable.”
Navarro said the police plan to do everything they can to learn who is responsible and put an end to the posters and the fearmongering they foment. Waukegan residents should be free from fear caused by people who keep posting the signs, he said.
“We don’t like what these people are doing to the good people of Waukegan,” Navarro said. “They are working and contributing to the community. This should not be part of their daily lives.”
