Being Black in Wisconsin (Appleton)......... (Milwaukee, Madison: live, gangs, garden)

[Milwaukee City]

About Milwaukee; is it really as bad as I'm reading?

You normally hear this from people that go to one bucks game and see a homeless guy and freak out. No its not that bad at all, homicides aren't everywhere and the whole city isn't a dump but that's for another thread.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

You normally hear this from people that go to one bucks game and see a homeless guy and freak out. No its not that bad at all, homicides aren't everywhere and the whole city isn't a dump but that's for another thread.

That said, I think a lot of people from outside the area underestimate how serious the crime problem is in Milwaukee, figuring that if Wisconsin is mostly a dainty, tidy little humdrum state, Milwaukee must be an urban version of that idyllic perception of Wisconsin. About a year ago, one poster from L.A. showed up in the Milwaukee forum about a year ago proclaiming that he was going to move there from L.A. because Milwaukee "is like a resort town" where there is "very little danger at all" even though its crime rate is substantially higher than L.A.'s.

Milwaukee's violent crime rate is typically on par with places like Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Houston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, etc. -- in other words, middle of the road by urban standards. It's certainly no New Orleans or Detroit, but it's no "resort town" either.

[FormerCaliforniaGirl]

Originally Posted by SongBird1

Hey, FormerCalforniaGirl! I'm not making any judgments agaist you. I'm the first to say that I don't know anything about you. I just know what racism is like. My parents had to ask their would-be-neighbors if they would object to us being their new (non-white) neighbors! I'm not making this up? Can you say the same? Have you deposited $$ into your bank account, and practically had to leave a DNA sample, because the teller just couldn't seem to wrap their brain around the idea of a non-white person earning money honestly? I have. Have you tried to buy something nice (and ok, maybe a bit costly), and had to clerk look at you and say, "You do realize that that costs $xxx.xxx, right?" Such encounters tend to make one's antennae go up, at the very least.

No...I can't say that I've had any of the experiences you mention above.

Question: You say your parents "had" to ask their would-be-neighbors for permission to move into the neighborhood. Why did they "have" to ask? Who made them? I mean, I believe you...but it just seems sad that your parents demeaned themselves in the way they did, and I wonder why they felt they had no other choice.

Anyway, I come from Southern California...the land of diversity and multi-culturalism, so the kinds of behavior you mention above are quite foreign to me, and I can't begin to imagine being treated that way. It's inexcusable.

Southern California is very racially tolerant (as a matter of fact, whites are the minority in SC).

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by jjacobeclark

I think you will do just fine in Appleton, WI. Its demographics are ever changing and the schools definitely need more teachers who speak/teach Spanish

Don't let pirate_lafitte try to scare you away with tales of Wisconsin's sundown towns. Many cities had rules like that in the past, some existed all the way up until the 60's and 70's. Other examples of sundown towns include Glendale, CA (near Los Angeles); Warren, MI (near Detroit); Parma, OH (near Cleveland); La Jolla, CA (near San Diego); Greenbelt, MD (near DC); and Levittown, NY (on Long Island). It's a sad but true element of our past, but its in the past. Come see for yourself. Appleton is a great little city and consistently ranks among the safest metro areas in the entire nation.

I wasn't trying to scare people, I was just giving a history lesson. I was telling the truth, not to scare people, but for awareness. I am aware that there were sundown towns in most of the USA.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by jjacobeclark

You live in Georgia, the Capitol of the Confederacy. Where do you get off bashing Appleton or Wisconsin for that matter? How many lynchings and cross burnings is Georgia responsible for?

I wasn't trying to bash Appleton. I was just telling the truth. As for GA being the Capitol of the Confederacy, that would be Richmond,VA. Go read a history book.
As for cross burnings, I am aware that GA had alot of cross burnings. I do live in GA and I am very aware of that. With that said, I was talking about Wisconsin, not Georgia.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by Drover

What the hell is your obsession with "sundown towns?" There haven't been actual "sundown towns" for like 50 years now, yet you keep mentioning it in post after post after post no matter how tenuously connected to the thread topic. Attitudes and demographics change a TON in 50 years, so why keep bringing it up and smearing towns with it 50 years later, as if anyone in these places had anything to do with policies from half a century ago? In fact you're so enamored with the concept that this is the second time you've mentioned this gratuitous little fact about Appleton in this thread alone. Get over it already. This is 2009.

What is my obesssion? I was just giving historical facts. Actually, some places were sundown towns all the way into the 1980's. I am aware that most places, Appleton included, got rid of their sundown laws. I mention these things to make the point that if you are looking for a place free of racial prejudice, it won't happen. I just give facts.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by FormerCaliforniaGirl

This thread is bizarre. I can't believe people are actually having this discussion. I mean, how can an ENTIRE state be labeled unwelcoming to any one race? Sure, there are bound to be individuals who are bigotted toward blacks, but to try and ascertain as to whether an entire state's (or city's) population is welcoming or unwelcoming to blacks, is ridiculous.

Pick the city you think you would be most happy living in. Move there, and live your life to the fullest. If you encounter biggots (which, as you say above, is inevitable no matter where you live), then you deal with it in the best way you deem fit.

Personally, I think presenting yourself to your potential new neighbors by right off the bat asking if we're biggoted, is bad judgment on your part.

That is the main point. The words you highlighted in red out of my post, I said them to say that NO PLACE is the exception. Just find a place that fits you.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

What is my obesssion? I was just giving historical facts. Actually, some places were sundown towns all the way into the 1980's. I am aware that most places, Appleton included, got rid of their sundown laws. I mention these things to make the point that if you are looking for a place free of racial prejudice, it won't happen. I just give facts.

How about giving facts that are relevant to 2009 and to the OP's question? What is so important about this "fact" of yours that you felt it necessary to mention it not once, but twice in this thread and mention it in about 25 other threads of similar import? Why are you so obsessed with this topic that you feel the need to bring it up at every available opportunity?

And no, there were no "sundown towns" in the 1980s, including Appleton.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by Drover

How about giving facts that are relevant to 2009 and to the OP's question? What is so important about this "fact" of yours that you felt it necessary to mention it not once, but twice in this thread and mention it in about 25 other threads of similar import? Why are you so obsessed with this topic that you feel the need to bring it up at every available opportunity?

And no, there were no "sundown towns" in the 1980s, including Appleton.

Not in Wisconsin, but New Market,Iowa was a sundown town all the way into the mid 1980's.

[city414]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

This is what I can say. I have HEARD, not known, but have heard that there are many whites in Wisconsin who would rather not have blacks move to Wisconsin because they feel like blacks have ruined places like Milwaukee, Racine, etc. .

i wonder how did blacks ruin milwaukee, during urban renewal many of the neighborhoods were left in decay... or is it because

they must have also forgotten that they caused violence as well. a spark in the 1967 riots.

thing about that is there were already ghettos in milwaukee before the heavy influx of blacks from the south