I was born and raised in Chicago and my biggest pet peeve is when people say they’re from Chicago, but REALLY they’re from the suburbs. It makes me so mad because many people do this just because Chicago is a big city and well known.

Since I arrived at school, I have met quite a few girls that do this and it gets kind of awkward when they ask “Oh really? Where in Chicago?” and I tell them, “Brighton Park,” and they have no clue where that is because they don’t know Chicago!

A couple of weeks ago I went on a retreat and I was having this conversation with a guy and he referred to Chicago as “Chiraq.” I was so infuriated when he said this because not only was he not from Chicago, but he obviously didn’t know what it is like to come from Chicago. As I tried to explain all the danger there is in Chicago, I was quickly shot down and ignored. As a feminist, I don’t know if he got bothered with the fact that a woman was “telling him off,” but I kept going and stating why Chicago shouldn’t be called Chiraq. Many know the term Chiraq because there are more deaths in Chicago than there are in Iraq. Yes, there is violence, but that does not give it a person a right to call Chicago Chiraq.

When I was growing up I never noticed how bad Chicago really was. I just kind of always had the mentality that if it was not affecting me directly in a way where people I care about are affected, I didn’t care. It was such a bad way of thinking and no matter if the violence is not directly toward me or the people I know, it affects me because it makes it more difficult to grow. I knew about many people that were shot and killed because of gang violence. I knew about people my age or younger doing drugs or selling them. There are many girls that are getting pregnant at such a young age and bringing more people into this community filled with evil.

I have been in the Brighton Park community throughout my entire life, so I got to know who the local gangs were and their leaders and everyone in them. It wasn’t until sophomore year of high school where I actually got scared to walk around my neighborhood alone. The looks gangbangers look as if trying to claim an area that isn’t there’s. I felt like I couldn’t even walk around the area I LIVE IN because of them.

I remember this summer, my nieces would come over and always ask me to take them to the store and playground near my house. I would take them and often the gangbangers would be out and about watching what we did, carefully looking at the cars and people that passed and threw gang signs. As soon as I would see many come together I would grab my nieces’ hands and leave. A couple weeks ago when I went back home there was a drive-by at the corner of my house while my nieces were outside.

It bothers me when people say they’re from Chicago because they do not know what it is like to grow up in that area. People outside of Chicago love to talk about how bad the violence is, but they don’t know what it is really like; to grow up hearing gunshots, seeing people get murdered, seeing gangbangers and seeing people do drugs. To those that are not from Chicago, please don’t be ignorant about this city. Yes, it is beautiful, but many don’t know the struggles of living here.