Pot-Smoking Black Folk at the Playoffs, Oh My!

The day is Oct. 3, 2005. Thousands of easily frightened rich white people are flying into Chicago from all over the country, but especially from the East Coast, to see the White Sox play the 2004-champion Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series. What greets our nervous tourists on the front page of the Tribune? A story about squalor, poverty, and drug-use by -- gasp! -- curiously stereotypical African American characters who live near U.S. Cellular Field. Way to frighten the tourists, Trib. By the way, what happened to all the poor people of color who used to live in squalor in Wrigleyville? Are they keeping up with those rents or did you clear them all out?