Race relations in Milwaukee. They ain’t good.

Saturday’s scenario spurred many thoughts about this complex, tiring, worn thin but still so relevant issue.

The very most eastern border of Milwaukee is Lake Michigan. The neighborhoods closest to the lake are, unsurprisingly, mostly white, mostly lower to upper middle class, and many residents of Milwaukee’s East Side neighborhood are students and/or TAs and professors or other professionals/artists. Cross the Capitol Dr, Locust St and North Ave bridges and you’ll find yourself in the Riverwest neighborhood, which is not predominantly white. It’s a mix of Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics and other ethnic groups. Many college students and artsy/punk rock musicians and their followers live in this neighborhood amidst the families. Some of the punk rockers have families of their own now. This neighborhood is consistently plagued with petty and serious crime. One of the latest incidents involved two youth beating someone with a brick and videotaping it. Sometimes the crime filters further east, and certainly it thrives further west of Holton St, the western-most border of the Riverwest. West of Holton, all the way west until around 60th Street (of the North Side, not of the South Side; my boundaries aren‘t as precise as they should be), if not further west, depending on what street one drives westbound upon, the neighborhoods are comprised of almost solely African Americans, many who are of lower economic status.

A friend of mine lives about west of Holton St, but not further west than the freeway. We stopped by his place the other night so he could run in and grab some cash and check on his cats. While he was inside, an older African American woman sitting outside of the adjacent building started yelling to someone I couldn’t see from the car about how it was none of his business. I hadn’t heard the “white boy” part. My female friend who stayed in the car with me picked up on it. (We later learned that he’d asked her “You working today, on a Saturday?” because the building also houses a children’s day care.) When our friend was on his way back out to the car, the African American woman began saying to him repeatedly that it wasn’t his business. He stepped closer to her, trying to discern what she was trying to say and why she sounded so belligerent. She repeatedly told him to mind his own business, emphasis on the business, and asked who he thought he was, and told him that he should get off of the block. “Neighbors” he replied wearily, as sunk into the back seat of my car, meaning that “I thought we were neighbors and it was appropriate to speak casually to one another.” We drove off as she glowered at us, so clearly despising us, especially our male friend for daring to traipse upon her block, based only on our skin color.

He was attempting to be conversational, but she was having none of it because he was white. She was clearly just a very angry, bitter and bored person. She emanated it. She might be terrible to other African Americans in the neighborhood too. In short, she wasn’t worth getting upset about. But me being me, I got upset anyway, about issues tangential to the actual incident. This scene made me angry about the inequality between the races/classes that STILL FUCKING EXISTS, especially in terms of education, angry that my friend had to bear the brunt of someone’s hatred and angry that I feel I can do little to nothing to change the racism and classism that is so ingrained into American culture. Milwaukee is an awesome city, but it’s segregated and violent, and becoming more so each passing day it seems, and the only response offered by the mayor and police chief thus far is hippie rhetoric about how everything will be just fine if we all stop being so darn angry. Yes, that advice is really going to encourage unity and less gunfire in the city. Thanks, New Age Guru politicians.

So all night while I was at the bar and bowling, some of these thoughts popped into my head:

That woman was so ridiculous. What she said was so uncalled for. My friend is hardly an oppressor, but on the other hand

Black people get treated poorly all the time by whites. We should just grin and bear it sometimes, but on the other hand

Randomly going off on white men or women on the street instead of going off the true culprits (local and national politicians and big business one doesn’t have easy access to) is a complete waste of energy and is not helping blacks get more job opportunities or better educations, but on the other hand

Black folks who are also poor get slighted in their educations unless they are very lucky so many just don’t possess the high level critical thinking skills that would allow them to understand that governmental officials and big business enforce racism and poverty on a level that individual citizens like my friend can not dare match in power, but on the other hand

People who get good schooling and come from middle class or even upper class backgrounds do not necessarily have high level critical thinking skills, either (Namely the religious right!)

And so on.

My point here is that the issue is complex. It stymies me. I don’t want to blame the African American woman alone. I have to also blame a society that intentionally keeps POOR people, many of whom are people of color, from opportunities and/or fighting back. But I also think that people of all races have to make more of an effort to understand that not all white people are devils, nor are all black people or all Hmongs or whomever. That effort has to be made by everyone. Maybe whites should make a tad bit more of effort due to the racism that prevails in this country, but all people have to get involved. It can’t just be one group.

And for some reason, for me, it all comes back to education. Maybe I’m naïve, but I still believe that if everyone had the best, most critical thinking-centered education available, the tensions between people of different backgrounds would dissipate greatly, and people would become more empowered to fight for equality instead of fighting for further separation. In order for this miraculous event to occur, however, everyone is this godforsaken country would have to be entitled to an equal education, but everyone is not currently entitled to one. It’s complete and utter bullshit that property taxes fund public schools because it’s then a given that students who live in poor areas are at a disadvantage from the time they are five or six years old. This lady irritated me, and I don’t know that she was justified for being so dismissive and rude because she has probably been treated like trash by numerous white people but I also know that I can’t vilify poor and/or uneducated people until everyone has equal access to better better better! educations.

I want to help break down the barriers. I hope I can do that by focusing on literacy while earning my Ph.D and using it to teach those going for a GED and those going for a Master’s degree, or those who just want to come into the center I hope to someday create simply to learn…for themselves.