Editorial: Stacy Davis Gates as Lady Macbeth? In her own head, perhaps.

On Tuesday, a journalist had the temerity to ask Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, what role she played in the recent contentious negotiations between Mayor Brandon Johnson and the owners of ShotSpotter, the controversial technology used to alert police when guns are fired on the streets.

Davis Gates’ preferred narrative is that she quietly does her job as CTU president over here, even as Johnson does his mayoral job all the way over there, entirely separate and apart from her. So she bristled mightily at the question.

“I’m not going to be part of the narrative of a Lady Macbeth to a Black man who doesn’t have a brain,” she said, in the first of two mentions of the notorious Shakespearean sleepwalker and murderer in as many minutes.

“The insinuation that I play the role of the Lady Macbeth actually is both racist and sexist in the way that it is almost always leveled,” she continued. “Please stop doing that. Please let me be the president of the Chicago Teachers Union.”

The analogy, of course, did not come from the journalist but from Davis Gates herself. The journalist was merely asking a fair question, given that Davis Gates is well known to be a close Johnson adviser. Asking about her role in ShotSpotter negotiations was neither a racist nor a sexist question. It merely reflected what political reporters are honor bound to do, given their constitutionally protected role to try to ferret out where governmental power truly resides, which is a prerequisite to holding public officials accountable.

The president of a major union should understand that and not try to forestall, nor insult, somebody doing their job.

There are many issues with the ShotSpotter contract extension, as we’ve noted before. Davis Gates just wanted to delegitimize a fair question, even though she eventually allowed (in a much quieter voice) that she had, in fact, been at “60 meetings with 500 other people creating the basis of the transformation that we’re going to undergo with this contract.”

That was all she needed to say. Mayors have trusted counselors who come to meetings. Nothing wrong with that. No need to pretend otherwise. It’s just that voters have a right to know who they are.

And, for the record, we’ve not heard anyone allege that Johnson is not smart. We think very much to the contrary. But being smart is not the same as being experienced. Intelligence also is no inherent barrier to insecurity or ideological blinkers.

Which brings us back to Lady M., a determined character if ever there was one. Perhaps Davis Gates, who has said she is an admirer of audacity, is a fan.

“But screw your courage to the sticking place,” Lady M famously said. “And we’ll not fail.”

Sounds a lot like Davis Gates’ approach to the coming CTU negotiations with the city.

As led by the mayor.

The Editorial Board , 2024-03-06 20:55:22

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