Let's Discuss Wisconsin's Paranoia Towards Milwaukee

[Devitron5000]

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

I have even got a response from someone from Appleton once that "I couldn't live in Milwaukee, all that traffic is horrible!", So I quickly said Milwaukee has the 2nd best traffic of any major city only 2nd to Salt Lake City, and the average time for someone living in the Milwaukee area is 22min. Seriously do people actually think Milwaukee has a lot or bad traffic? how do you even combat idiots like that.

That was a big part of my reason for starting this thread... albeit when it comes to crime rather than traffic.

Originally Posted by Drover

That's probably because, among the older generations anyway, a lot of those suburbanites used to live in Milwaukee and have memories of when the city was in better shape than it is today, whereas your average Appletonian doesn't have that basis of comparison. A whole lot of suburbia wouldn't exist today were it not for people fleeing cities in the 50s through the 80s.

This was also in the back of my mind when I created this thread. I wanted to give other members a chance to chime in before I said anything, and as thrilled as I am that someone else was able to connect those dots, I'm a little disappointed that it had to be someone from Illinois.

(BTW, to answer your earlier question... it's yes, if you consider Kalamazoo to be "rural.")

That said, I still think there's something deeper and more unique to Wisconsin at play here....

Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Missouri all have towns all across their states where people of color make up a significant portion of the population. You don't have to have grown up in one of the major cities in these states to have had regular interactions with people of other races.

Minnesota's cities are some of the whitest major cities in the country. It's not unheard of to go to Minneapolis or St. Paul and only have interactions with… or even see anything but… white people (although that has gotten significantly harder to do in the former over the past decade).

Wisconsin, on the other hand, is pretty much wall-to-wall white outside of its finite Indian reservations and only major city, where blacks happen to outnumber whites… there's only two places (Madison and Beloit) outside of the Milwaukee area where people of color even make up 30% (the amount they do nationally) and there's even only two Milwaukee two suburbs (Brown Deer and Racine) where this is the case.

Wisconsin also happens to have a significantly higher incarceration rate for black men than all of the other states in this discussion.

This is why I find it hard to believe that NOTHING deeper than sheltered townies being afraid of the big bad city is going on in Wisconsin.

[northnut]

Well, you probably don't see black people outside of bigger cities because bigger cities are more tolerant of diversity. I go up north to Rhinelander frequently, ever since I've been a baby, & it's always a little surprising when I see a black person up there because it's just so rare.

[Devitron5000]

Not disagreeing, but howcome a state like Michigan (which probably has more in common with Wisconsin culturally than any other state) can have so many smaller cities and towns like Saginaw, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Flint, Benton Harbor, etc. in which people of color make up a significant portion of the population?

There must be some deeper bias against people of color in Wisconsin (and thus, against Milwaukee) that doesn't exist even in other Midwestern states.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by northnut

Well, you probably don't see black people outside of bigger cities because bigger cities are more tolerant of diversity. I go up north to Rhinelander frequently, ever since I've been a baby, & it's always a little surprising when I see a black person up there because it's just so rare.

It has a lot more to do with migration patterns and where the jobs were. Blacks came up north to the cities because that's where the jobs were, not because they were welcomed with open arms in the interest of "diversity," because it most cases they certainly were not.

[Mashed Potatoes]

Why dont we just build very high walls around the "urban" portions of milwaukee and then fill it with water?

It would solve countless problems.

[Devitron5000]

Originally Posted by Mashed Potatoes

Why dont we just build very high walls around the "urban" portions of milwaukee and then fill it with water?

It would solve countless problems.

...this is EXACTLY the type of bulls~ht that inspired the creation of this thread.

Self-righteous bigots like you are much more dangerous to Wisconsin than any of those scary black people in North Milwaukee could ever hope to be. What ambitious and educated person would ever want to move to a state that's full of a bunch of bitter, culturally-backwards racists who are so idiotically afraid of change that they're still struggling to accept something that happened 40 years ago... let alone start a business here and trust their livelihood to such trashy people?

People like you are digging a SERIOUSLY hole for future generations of Wisconsinites... which is why everyone under 35 with an education and a means of making it elsewhere is fleeing the state. But you'll be long dead by then, so why should you care, right?

[Mashed Potatoes]

Originally Posted by Devitron5000

...this is EXACTLY the type of bulls~ht that inspired the creation of this thread.

Self-righteous bigots like you are much more dangerous to Wisconsin than any of those scary black people in North Milwaukee could ever hope to be. What ambitious and educated person would ever want to move to a state that's full of a bunch of bitter, culturally-backwards racists who are so idiotically afraid of change that they're still struggling to accept something that happened 40 years ago... let alone start a business here and trust their livelihood to such trashy people?

People like you are digging a SERIOUSLY hole for future generations of Wisconsinites... which is why everyone under 35 with an education and a means of making it elsewhere is fleeing the state. But you'll be long dead by then, so why should you care, right?

Actually I want to create a better & safer place for my kids to grow up. Unfortunately for you, a safer place with a higher standard of living, higher property values, & less crime means a state with fewer blacks not more.

That isnt bigoted. It is supported by statistical data sets, as well as facts from the criminal justice system. Just because you dont like an opinion doesnt make it racist or wrong.

Racial diversity isnt beneficial, it is simply a touchy feely emotion based thought process with no basis in reality. There is nothing culturally backwards about wanting fewer dregs in society.

It seems you are the self righteous one, you are the one who thinks you know best and trash contradictory opinions. There is a reason why major urban areas only have a small percentage of whites....they foresaw the problems that come with an influx of blacks into their area, and they were smart and got out...aka white flight, and with good reason.

[CowsAndBeer]

Originally Posted by Devitron5000

Not disagreeing, but howcome a state like Michigan (which probably has more in common with Wisconsin culturally than any other state) can have so many smaller cities and towns like Saginaw, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Flint, Benton Harbor, etc. in which people of color make up a significant portion of the population?

There must be some deeper bias against people of color in Wisconsin (and thus, against Milwaukee) that doesn't exist even in other Midwestern states.

I don't believe this at all - There aren't many black people in MN (as you noted) because of migration patterns. Factory jobs opened up during the migration in Chicago/Milwaukee and that's why there are a lot of black people in that corridor (including Racine/Kenosha/Beloit). North of Milwaukee, there was never opportunity, and this includes Minnesota and Iowa and the Dakotas. Outside of the Chicago/Milwaukee megacity or whatever you want to call it, WI/MN/IA/ND/SD simply never had a large northern migration, which is why all of those areas are primarily white.

As was mentioned several times, overt racism is far more perceptible in the Milwaukee suburbs than the mostly-white rest of the state. And I've heard the same exact "city" complaints about Milwaukee as you hear in Minnesota about the Twin Cities, Illinois about Chicago, etc. across the country. I'm not buying any of your story. The incarceration numbers are awful, but this has to do with what the city itself is doing in terms of targeting blacks, not the areas outside Milwaukee - that doesn't even make any sense.

[northnut]

Originally Posted by Mashed Potatoes

Actually I want to create a better & safer place for my kids to grow up. Unfortunately for you, a safer place with a higher standard of living, higher property values, & less crime means a state with fewer blacks not more.

That isnt bigoted. It is supported by statistical data sets, as well as facts from the criminal justice system. Just because you dont like an opinion doesnt make it racist or wrong.

Racial diversity isnt beneficial, it is simply a touchy feely emotion based thought process with no basis in reality. There is nothing culturally backwards about wanting fewer dregs in society.

It seems you are the self righteous one, you are the one who thinks you know best and trash contradictory opinions. There is a reason why major urban areas only have a small percentage of whites....they foresaw the problems that come with an influx of blacks into their area, and they were smart and got out...aka white flight, and with good reason.

What's stopping you? Go move into a gated community with only whites. Why are you even arguing about this?