The fact that tourists come from out of town fearful to step foot out south because of what they hear is troubling. The fact that Bill Maher immediately cited Chicago as a prime example of a city suffering from an “influx of guns” is shameful.

I’m a firm believer that Chicago has been, as of late, the poster child for other major cities with the same problems to point at and say “at least we’re not that bad.”

But believe it or not, things in Chicago are actually getting better. It’s a wonderful city; one of the best this country has to offer. But if you didn’t know any better you would think that there’s a truckload of angry, misguided youth waiting for unsuspecting passers-by with assault rifles on every street corner.

That’s not the case.

Sure, growing up on the Southside I’ve seen some things. Like my friends playing at the local park, kids running to the ice cream truck on a hot summer day and block parties where everything goes right. These things aren’t as foreign as you’d expect in a city labeled “Chiraq.”

Kanye West, another local artist, used the term in “Black Skinhead,” a single for his latest album Yeezus. That gave it more exposure than some of us were comfortable with, but it was more of a cry for help for his hometown than a glorification of its problems.

Now that it’s the title of a track by an artist as popular as Minaj, dreams of the term fading to black in the near future are getting dimmer with every new listener. Now, “Chiraq” has become mainstream and made it to places that it probably never could’ve before, which despite how it sounds, isn’t a positive.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a native to the Midwestern capital. It doesn’t matter if you’re Kanye West. It wouldn’t even matter if President Barack Obama himself decided to call his adopted home “Chiraq.” The term is loaded with negativity that shouldn’t be applauded by any means.

– Keith Reid-Cleveland (@kreid_c)