Chicago is a highly diverse city, and it is a good example of life in a multicultural democracy. The image above is a photo of the crowd on Navy Pier on a recent Saturday summer evening. According to local estimates, as many as 120,000 people visit Navy Pier on a Saturday night, and it is a good practical example of the benefits of multicultural democracy. The crowd is highly diverse, with adults and children from all racial groups and many ethnicities and language groups. And there is a substantial degree of social class mixing as well, from young professionals from the North side to working class families from the South and West sides of the city. Turn your head in different directions and you will hear a dozen different languages. The atmosphere is comfortable, fun, accepting, and interactive, with a Latino music performance going on in the open-air music venue, families enjoying a meal from the food court, and a beautiful view of the Chicago waterfront and skyline. It's a fun outing for all the residents of the city. (Chicago's population is about 2.8 million, so a typical Saturday night on Navy Pier in the summer draws almost 5% of the city's residents.)
What are the facts of Chicago's diversity? Chicago's population is now about 2.75 million, of whom 21% are foreign born. According to the US Census Bureau 2020 Decennial Census (link), the largest racial/ethnic communities in the city include White (36%), Hispanic/Latino (30%), Black/African-American (29%), and Asian (7%). 11% of respondents reported "two or more races" in the Census questionnaire. (It will be noted that these population groups add up to more than 100%. The Census Bureau provided some information about changes in methodology in 2020 which may account for this discrepancy; link.)
So Chicago is highly diverse. However, the city remains significantly segregated by neighborhood, and these patterns of segregation produce a continuing legacy of disadvantage in terms of important measures of social wellbeing (health, economic opportunity, educational outcomes). The Metropolitan Planning Council and the Urban League have studied these trends carefully, and their "Shared Future" report (link, link) serves both to detail the facts of segregation in Chicago today and to outline some strategies for reversing these trends.
So Chicago's problems of achieving racial equality persist. And yet on a warm August evening in the center of the Chicago Loop, it is possible to see how this city is creating a climate of mutual respect and civic equality. Multiple community-based organizations do the work of striving for racial justice and establishing an inclusive community for all Chicagoans through ongoing efforts, programs, and community alliances. The city's political leadership recognizes that "unity within diversity" must be the beginnings of Chicago's public values and urban politics. And academic institutions like the University of Illinois Chicago's Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (link) have a continuing commitment to documenting the facts about racial and ethnic equality in Chicago, and identifying policy initiatives that can lead to meaningful progress. It is possible for our society to become more just and more harmonious through our own patient collective efforts.
If we look carefully at the photo of the Navy Pier crowd, we will see something surprising looming over the horizon of this vibrant mass of multicultural humanity. We see in the distance the luxury hotel and tower developed by the president of the United States, located a half-mile up the Chicago River. The contrast could not be more striking, between the glittering symbol of the political movement that is demonizing diversity in our country, versus the social bonds and community spirit of mutual acceptance that constitute the reality of our multicultural democracy.
Langston Hughes caught much of the paradox of race in America when he wrote these lines in 1935:
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
And Walt Whitman was right too when he wrote, "I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear" as his own celebration of the breadth of experience of American society. America sings on Navy Pier and the many other places where citizens do better than politicians at facing the challenge of creating durable multicultural democracy. Being there reinforces one's confidence that the community and diversity of our country will prove stronger than the forces of xenophobia, mistrust, and antagonism that are being mobilized against us.
