I’ve got a gut feeling though, that in the long-term being the “worst place in America for black people” isn’t a good investment either. And yes, there are reasons why business development in high poverty black and brown neighborhoods is a “risky” short-term investment. I also desperately want a black-run corporation employing hundreds at Century City, but in the meantime I’d love one of the new white-run companies popping up out in ‘Tosa to open there too and start hiring up and down the block. I ALSO want our beloved Colectivo to open a branch, run by folks from the neighborhood, over at Fondy and Locust. If you own a successful business in our city, prioritize job creation in our city’s poorest neighborhoods.Īs per point number one, I really want more black-run coffeeshops in town. I share not because there isn’t great work being done by white-led nonprofits in our city, but because we are at a moment when transferring as much capacity and resources as possible to organizations that aren’t just doing great work in communities of color but are led by them matters.ģ. I made a (still growing) list here of organizations that fit both bills. Give your time and money to effective nonprofits run by people of color. If we are going to create a condition where more small businesses are run by people of color, where every neighborhood in the city has a vibrant commercial district and wealth flows to-and-from everyone, not just to white folks, we have to first support what we’ve got right now.Ģ. The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s directory of businesses is being updated but it isn’t hard to ask a business that serves the Latino community if they are Latino-run or not. Spend your money at businesses owned by people of color.ĭid you know that there is a beautiful, easy-to-navigate directory of black-run businesses in the city? It’s true! There’s also a directory of Hmong-run businesses across the whole state. There’s levels to this.Īs white Milwaukeeans, we have to actively make the choice to support communities of color (especially black Milwaukee) in their work to build power and capacity.ġ. Part one focuses on how we support communities of color, part two on how we work on ourselves and part three on the role we play for other Milwaukeeans. This is about a built-in power differential, borne into the DNA of our city.īut here’s the good news… the depth of this mess also means that if we care about the future of our city, then far from not knowing what to do, we have enough work ahead of us to keep every one of us busy. This is NOT just about relationships or about people who are fearful of each other. But if the problem were as simple as “we’ve got loving people over here who don’t know the loving people over there - let’s create spaces where they can dialogue and eventually move together and we’re all good” this would be solved by now. And yes, most white folks don’t actually know more than a token few folks of color. Yes, different groups ‘round here largely don’t live/socialize/worship/learn around each other. Part of the problem here is that we often over-simplify what it means to be ‘most segregated.’ It’s actually not as simple as just having half the white folks move to the black side of town and half the black folks move to the white side of town. We’re honestly flummoxed by the question. We’ll do some furrowed-brow haranguing about our place in the world and move on, but not before wishing that there was something we could do.Īnd then, seeing nothing immediately satisfactory - no single evil law we can rail against - we’ll go back to our lives. You likely know all this… that we’re “ the most segregated metro area in the country,” “ the worst place in the country for black people” and that coming here is like stepping back “ 60 years in time.” What’s different this week is that it’s harder to sweep the truth under the rug.Īs I write this, the cameras have turned away from Sherman and Burleigh. By the time the sun was out Sunday morning our not-so-well-kept secret was clear for all to see… that our fires actually didn’t start this weekend. This past Saturday, the world watched as our city burned. I write though because one of the simplest and most often ignored requests that people of color make of us is to talk to each other. I write with a heavy dose of humility - I’m not scoring perfect tens here and know darn well that we have to do a heck of a lot more listening. I’m a white Milwaukeean writing to other white Milwaukeeans (though I hope it’s useful for white folks elsewhere).
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