A City Council hearing called to determine why an artwork viewed as antisemitic was placed on display at the Cultural Center dissolved into name-calling Tuesday with one member being evicted after accusing another of being a “white supremacist.”
Progressive firebrand Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) ended up apologizing to Ald. Bill Conway (34th), but only after being evicted by normally affable Special Events Committee Chair Nick Sposato (38th).
“You should be out of here. … You can’t call anybody a white supremacist. You gotta go,” Sposato said, directing the sergeant-at-arms to remove Sigcho-Lopez.
“We’re not gonna take that. We’re not gonna stand for that,” Sposato added. “You’re not gonna be here disrupting my meeting. … You disrespected a colleague. … Get out of here. For calling him a white supremacist, plain and simple.”
Sposato then called a five-minute recess to give combatants in the ever-widening rift between the Council’s progressive and conservative members time to cool off.
That allowed Sigcho-Lopez to apologize to Conway in an anteroom behind the Council chambers. Conway accepted the apology and said he has no interest in pursuing the censure against Sigcho-Lopez some alderpersons are demanding.
Last year, an effort to remove Sigcho-Lopez as Housing Committee chair for appearing at a City Hall rally after an American flag was burned to protest U.S. support for Israel was snuffed out on a 29-16 vote, after a private apology public forgiveness.
Tuesday, it was Conway’s repeated references to flag-burning being a right protected by the First Amendment that apparently sent Sigcho-Lopez over the edge.
“We got in there and he said his comments weren’t directed at me specifically and he apologized for them. I take him at his word,” Conway told the Sun-Times later, referring to the “white supremacist” remark.
“Emotions were running high. … It was clearly an inappropriate comment for him to make. We owe it to each other in City Council to conduct ourselves as good public officials and treat each other with respect. But he very quickly apologized for using that term and said it was not directed at me.”
Conway said he accepted the apology because “tempers were running high on the Council floor” during a hearing that exposed the Council’s philosophical differences.
“The fact that he very quickly came out and apologized after we went in the anteroom, I appreciated that and think it’s best to move on so we can make sure we’re doing the peoples’ business. I really hope that we can move past this,” Conway told the Sun-Times.
Sigcho-Lopez stressed his comment was “not directed at” Conway. Instead, it referred to his belief that, “White supremacy is taking over our country” and Tuesday’s hearing was a local example.
“Five hours to talk about an exhibit that has, in my opinion, nothing controversial. … Hours spent in a kangaroo court while our communities are facing threats of sending migrants to Guantanamo Bay,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
“It shows a serious disconnect. And yes, white supremacy is on the rise and it was sad to see that displayed in the City Council today.”
Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th), the Council’s lone Jewish member, said she would continue to push for removal of the offensive artwork — and for the City Council to censure Sigcho-Lopez for the white supremacist remark.
Sigcho-Lopez insisted it was a “mutual apology” between himself and Conway.
“He did say that he was not talking about flags burning in reference to a previous incident. And I said I did not call him a white supremacist but this was white supremacy in the City Council,” he said.
What got lost in Tuesday’s vitrol was the hearing’s purpose: To determine how and why a puppet display titled “U.S.-Israel War Machine” — viewed as antisemitic by a City Council majority that voted in favor of its removal — remains on display at the city-owned Cultural Center.
Cultural Affairs and Special Events Commissioner Clinee Hedspeth has, so far, refused to take it down.
Mayor Brandon Johnson explained why during an unrelated news conference held while all hell was breaking loose in the Council chambers.
“I’ve seen very provocative artwork that depicts slavery. I’ve seen artwork where a noose with the colors of the American flag were gripped around a Black man. Very provocative,” Johnson said.
“It’s important — particularly at a time when history and culture is being threatened and undermined — that we don’t find ourselves exacerbating the attempt to silence the voices of individuals that speak their truth through their lived experiences. … To have any discourse shut down is something that we should be very wary of.”