Since April, the Chicago Sun-Times has had an interesting mini-section on their web site called Chicagopedia.  It’s basically all things Chicago and is a handy guide for newcomers or out-of-towners or people simply interested in Chicago lore and terminology.

Anyone who has lived in Chicago at any point can easily tell you what certain words or phrases mean such as Pulaski Day, cash station, a Polish, a Grabowski, “couple two tree” and the like.  They don’t freak out when the Chicago River turns bright green on St Patrick’s Day and they accept the fact that the city simply doesn’t function like it should if the mayor’s last name isn’t Daley.

One of the definitions they put up this week though was quite troubling.  I don’t know what it has to do with Chicago, it doesn’t need any definition and I have no idea why they included it.

As you can see from the screenshots below, I’m baffled as to how the word “racist” has anything to do with Chicago, as if the city somehow is synonymous with that word by any stretch of the imagination.  I can think of quite a few other major towns that would be considered more “racist” than Chicago, yet I still wouldn’t associate that word with any city or town. Whatever the Sun-Times’ mission was for including this one, they really missed the boat on this one.

Perhaps there is some other explanation that I’m simply missing?  I know they're attributing a quote to MLK but it still seems to be a stretch in trying to make it Chicago-related.