Photo by Sean Hoyer, Flickr CC
Now that a long-overdue political effort has finally begun to address the well-known racial inequalities devastating African Americans in Milwaukee, we all knew where the ugly cries of outrage would come from.
Right-wing radio absolutely hates the idea of county government establishing an independent Office of African-American Affairs to deal with “issues that have crippled the African-American community.”
A core belief on the extreme right is that anything that helps black people hurts white people. In fact, just the opposite is true. White folks are also being hurt by the denial of equal opportunities to racial minorities.
When the enormous African American segment of the Milwaukee population faces some of the worst obstacles in the nation to achieving legitimate employment, a decent education and livable wages for their families, the economy of our entire community—white, black and brown—suffers.
Right-wing talk radio, of course, has a racist explanation for all those terrible “worst in the nation” Milwaukee racial disparities in employment, household income, educational achievement, incarceration, childhood poverty and other measures of African American misery.
It just shows Milwaukee has the worst black people in the nation, the right-wingers say. The people with the fewest resources and the least power in our community need to stop living in extreme poverty and making Milwaukee look bad.
Right-wing radio even has its own pet African American, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr., claiming blacks engage in crime instead of having jobs “because they’re uneducated, they’re lazy, and they’re morally bankrupt. That’s why.”
I’ve never really believed right-wing radio reflects the views of the overwhelming majority of white people any more than Clarke represents the overwhelming majority of black people.
But there are a whole lot of white folks who seldom think about how keeping black folks at the bottom damages their community. They’re more oblivious than openly racist.
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After all, most decent white people in this community don’t listen to extreme right-wing talk on AM radio. They listen to country music or oldies or sports rants or other innocuous amusements.
That’s why the unanimous Milwaukee County board approval of Supervisor Khalif Rainey’s resolution creating an office to address racial inequities actually could start removing Milwaukee’s stigma as one of the worst cities in the nation for African Americans.
It’s already picking up momentum with Milwaukee Ald. Willie Wade proposing a matching office within city government.
And the looming city and county elections should keep pressure on Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and any legitimate challengers not just to voice support, but also to commit to taking substantive action to reduce the most glaring racial disparities.
We Need Action, Not Reports
We don’t need an office to generate more reports on how bad those disparities are. They just keep coming. The statistics define a continuing racial crisis. What we need is an agency to promote concrete steps to alleviate that crisis.
Let’s face it. Whites can enjoy most of the personal benefits of white privilege without ever consciously forming a racist thought.
The definition of institutional racism includes all those automatic policies, practices and attitudes built into our everyday life that treat people differently based on race without anyone even thinking about it.
But when decent white folks become aware of many of those extreme disparities, they recognize unfairness when they see it.
It’s a millionaire black Milwaukee athlete being locked out of a jewelry store while suburban employees cower in the back of the store. It’s blacks being humiliated with anal searches in the middle of the day while neighbors watch during routine traffic stops.
It’s never been news to black people that everyday encounters with police can turn deadly. But until the media highlighted a series of unconnected police shootings of unarmed blacks across the country (which could have been reported at any time in our history) many whites thought little about it.
Today police are starting to get fired and prosecuted for unjustified violence against blacks just as they would be if it happened to whites.
A white friend recently asked a racially mixed group if a white person feeling apprehension being approached by two young blacks wearing hoodies on the street was exhibiting racism or a rational fear. I thought the African Americans were awfully polite.
I had no problem saying it was fear and it was racist. The definition of racism is making an automatic negative assumption about someone else based solely upon their race when you know absolutely nothing else about them.
I know those feelings very well, of course. No one can grow up white in our historically racist American white culture without being affected by it.
The important thing is to recognize how those feelings can drag down our entire community and unfairly eliminate opportunities for others.
That’s why an Office of African-American Affairs won’t just benefit black people. It will benefit all of us and make Milwaukee a stronger, more successful community.
