In the publication ProPublica the author notes that the Corona Virus entered Milwaukee from a white affluent suburb and once it did it spread in the black community at a higher rate than it did in the white community.
It literally “erupted.”
We should not miss this fact because it is a significant one.
The ProPublica article would cite that African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 cases and noted further that 81percent of the deaths from COVID-19 were black in a county whose population is only 26 percent black.
I would reach out to a local Milwaukee African American Pastor that I know and trust for his view.
He would tell me that Milwaukee was not equipped for any of the 3 critical steps to flattening the curve.
It was ill-equipped in testing.
Ill-equipped in the messaging of social distancing and stay at home.
And ill-equipped in tracking those who were infected.
But it is important to put all of this in the larger social context of race.
Cornel West would remind us that in America race matters and it matters in every area of our lives including Health Care.
The Affordable Care Act, the signature piece of Legislation of President Barack Obama would insure medical coverage for 40 million previously uninsured Americans many of them poor and black was steadily under attack by Republicans in Congress.
They sought to repeal it over 60 times.
While they failed in those efforts Donald Trump has at every turn sought to weaken this important piece of Legislation which has been a safety-net for millions of people and he has had great success at doing this.
Milwaukee used to have 100 polling places in the city. It now has 5.
This is an affront to Democracy. It is unconscionable and it is criminal.
This is the result of intentional voter suppression by white Republicans.
Yesterday in another medium I wrote about Milwaukee being the most segregated city in the Nation-some demographers would use the term, hyper-segregated.
We lived in Milwaukee for 28 years.
I know the politics there and so much of the politics is shaped and driven by race.
JUST as so much of the politics of this Nation is shaped and driven by race.
Jim Crow Segregation may have been dismantled by law, but it is still lived out loud attitudinally and practically.
We still live as a segregated Nation.
Our cities, our neighborhoods and our schools are still living under the auspices of Apartheid.
But if I can be clear today and I hope that you will hear me.
Wherever segregation exists there is inequality.
Inequality is inherent in segregation and so is violence.
No one wants to address the violence that is inherent in social policies, educational and Health Care policies that are punitive and where resources favor one community over another based upon skin color and class.
This violence is systemic.
This violence is more insidious.
It creates even more pain for communities that were already in pain.
It’s time to speak to this violence.
To speak out against it.
KW