VOA常速英语:首位黑人女市长承诺为芝加哥带来变革

Both candidates, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle, were African-American and women. The winner, 56-year-old Lightfoot, promised her supporters a new direction in America’s third-largest city. Today, you did more than make history. You created a movement for change. Her 72-year-old opponent is chief executive of Cook County where Chicago was located. Voters anxious for a change back to Lightfoot. I’m ready for someone new to come in. I’m ready for fresh, new, bright, eager ideas. 

Chicago had more than 550 murders last year, a drop from the previous two years, but more than Los Angeles and New York combined. The US Justice Department has accused Chicago’s Police Department of excessive use of force and racial bias. With gun violence fueled by the drug trade and racial inequality, one analyst says Chicago is really two cities: One with gleaming downtown and very wealthy and importantly safe neighborhood, but also one that struggles with extreme and persistent segregation that have been Chicago’s legacy. Chicago is a city of progressive politics where Democrats dominate. Former President Barack Obama began his political career here. His one-time White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been mayor since 2011. Today, minorities dominate, but another analyst says the election was not about race. You can’t help but feel that the city and the city leaders have turned their backs on you, and so just another person, just because they look like you doesn’t necessarily mean they’re gonna be for you.

The defeated candidate pledged support for the winner. Not long ago, two African-American women vying for this position would have been unthinkable, and while it may be true that we took different paths to get here, tonight is about the path forward, and meeting many challenges ahead.

Mike Sullivan, VOA News, Los Angeles.