![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Sen-Morimoto_Dennis-Elliot-e1599172770635.jpg\")
Amidst a pandemic largely impacting people of color, during a summer that\u2019s seen some of the most racially-charged unrest in recent memory \u2014 surprise! \u2014 a lot\u2019s been happening in the American city with the third largest Black population. <\/span><\/p>\n Unlike cities such as New York or Los Angeles \u2014 or even Chicago\u2019s Great Lakes sibling, Minneapolis \u2014 the Windy City has not reduced its police budget. In fact, while crime rates have declined over the last two decades, Chicago is currently spending more on policing per person<\/span><\/a> than at any time in the last half century. For a hot second, Mayor Lori Lightfoot even enlisted private security to take on police responsibilities<\/span><\/a> \u2014 because that\u2019s the logical response to a conversation about state abuses of power, right? More cops with less oversight!<\/span><\/p>\n This was the gist of the criticism that got musician Sen Morimoto booted from a public concert<\/span><\/a> series provided by the city at the end of July. Throughout the summer, Chicago\u2019s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) has been streaming a free music series called Millennium Park at Home that showcases local musicians. At the end of July, Morimoto was slated to perform, but when he refused to remove comments about the mayor\u2019s response to protests from his set, he was kicked off the bill. Co-performer Tasha<\/a> withdrew her set in solidarity, and DCASE canceled the show. This spurned many local conversations around artists, platforms, and censorship.<\/span><\/p>\n At the start of August, Chicago lost Carlton Weekly \u2014 better known as the rapper FBG Duck<\/span><\/a>. He was murdered<\/span><\/a> in the Magnificent Mile, an affluent shopping area and tourist trap not dissimilar to Times Square. Duck was an innovator of drill rap, a sound that\u2019s native to Chicago and pairs nihilistic, often violent lyrics with bass-heavy trap beats. <\/span><\/p>\n Because of this, Lightfoot<\/span><\/a> told a press conference that Duck \u201cfancies himself a rapper but is also a member of a gang. \u2026 There\u2019s been an ongoing conflict between his gang and another.\u201d By the mayor\u2019s implication, this is what you get for being a gangster rapper (never mind that those close to Duck said he\u2019d been putting that life behind him<\/span><\/a> and speaking out against gun violence). <\/span>Many heard the mayor\u2019s remarks as a deflection of the bigger issues. Not only do they diminish Duck\u2019s cultural work while suggesting his death was somehow deserved, but they also resist engaging what\u2019s on the forefront of many Chicagoans\u2019 minds: the conditions that encourage gun violence and how the state creates them.<\/span><\/p>\n Small irony then that, almost a week to the day later, riots broke out in the Magnificent Mile. Outsiders of Chicago have to understand the city is deeply racially and economically divided. When people say \u201cChicago,\u201d a lot of times they mean downtown and North Side. \u201cSouth Side\u201d is often code for a Chicago to be distanced from. It\u2019s the part that gets less money, less schools, and less accessible public transit. It\u2019s the part with more Black people.<\/span><\/p>\n The divide really crystallizes in the Loop (a track that circles downtown where all the subways converge), and specifically the Magnificent Mile. So when police shot someone on the South Side on August 9 (luckily, the victim survived), angry Chicagoans headed to the Mag Mile for a standoff between cops and protestors that lasted about a week. It peaked with a very publicized showdown on August 15, though the flagrant inaccuracies in police accounts<\/a> of that day have been less publicized.<\/span><\/p>\n If you read rioting and looting, not as solutions or even demands as much as expressions of anger against symbols of power \u2014 people reclaiming space and agency when both are limited \u2014 they seem\u2026 maybe\u2026 logical? At the very least, understandable. <\/span>But the mayor doesn\u2019t see it that way. Lightfoot\u2019s response was to revisit her favorite punishment: shutting off all access to downtown, including raising the drawbridges. This, too, upholds a racist division of the city<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n With so much happening, it\u2019s hard being a Chicago columnist right now (I know, I know, whip out the world\u2019s smallest violin, right?). Time isn’t on my side for articulating our city and how it’s affecting our cultural exports, like music. As a transplant, I also am always in a state of learning. A thing I know for sure right now: even if you\u2019re not in or from Chicago, you can still use Bandcamp Friday<\/a> to support change here. <\/span><\/p>\n Below are four auditory treats from people using proceeds to benefit Black Chicagoans:<\/span><\/p>\n