By Georgie Anne Geyer, NEA ColumnistCHICAGO -- Some years ago when I was living in Brazil, I observed a male driver stupidly and dangerously cut off a woman driver on the road along Rio de Janeiro's beautiful seaside.

Instead of swearing or chasing after him, the well-dressed lady just leaned out her car window and said to him in tones that would make a CEO quiver: "The gentleman does not have a mother?"

It was such a wonderful put-down that, unless you are Donald Trump in one of his carnivals of bad-mouthing, no one could doubt that the "gentleman" more than got the point.

For various reasons, this little story came back to me as I visited my beloved hometown of Chicago over Mother's Day weekend.

First, there is little room for doubt that far too many of the third of Chicago that is now African-American come from fractured families as between 70 and 80 percent of black children in America are now alleged to be born out of wedlock. Second, even poor African-American mothers, and especially those splendid, self-sacrificing grandmothers, are surely far superior to their men in caring for their offspring.

But the implicit message in the Brazilian case -- that the male driver had not had the advantage of a mother's cultivating and civilizing effect -- is present here in America, too. It is surely present in Chicago, despite the wondrous changes:

The front door of the city, opening onto Lake Michigan, is more extravagantly elegant than ever. New skyscrapers glow at night, like a metropolis of a million diamond chips, and flowers soothe the soul everywhere. The famous Loop downtown has reached its fingers out in every direction, with charming new condos, boutiques and cafes that would make the Left Bank of Paris green with envy.

But only on the North Side.

On the infamous South Side and West Side, poor black people and Latinos live in historically white bungalow neighborhoods filled too often with the shadows of death and destruction.