To the people that think they know my city.
So when writing this I don’t know if I experienced stockholm syndrome with Milwaukee or if I genuinely love Milwaukee, because in many ways it is a sense of home. But within it being a home, it’s a very abusive one. I guess my problem with the discourse of improving Milwaukee is that there is always a non Milwaukee resident giving their opinions about things that we’ve already tried. They oppose that their city has been through it, went through it, and met the Jeffersons.
For the folks that just moved to Milwaukee from wherever you think is a much holier than us, welcome. Yes we know that folks don’t shove, forcing us to spend more moments in the day avoiding snow banks. Yes we know that our potholes are inches away from the center of the earth, and that it messes up your kia soul tire. We know. That ourselves, our mothers, and our mothers mother has always complained to the city about the same problems that you have. But since you think when you’ve moved here you have melted ice cap problems and made them flood the streets with progress. So let’s digress as to some things that I hear everyday, and the solution based thinking that I want to address.
When you say: “The people here just act so strange here”
What I hear: “I’ve noticed some segregation in this very concentrated area and I feel hella uncomfortable because I don’t know the historical point that had to exist to even make this happen, but I’m just going to complain about it to the nearest Black person to show others in the room that I don’t operate like that.”
What I want to say is: Milwaukee natives don’t need an explanation of why the rest of the world is not as segregated as we are. Or how we move different in certain spaces in areas. Do y’all think we don’t notice it? It is ingrained in every space that we move through, we navigate in it so much that it has become a regular practice. I don’t even notice it anymore. So the last thing that I need to hear is a long winded disbelief that this is how we operate. We operate like this because a multitude of systems insured that it stays operated this way. Black people all over this country are experiencing the same things, but you think just because its Wisconsin that it’ll be different? Nah. Also, no, I’m not going to validate your observation because you’re not going to fix the redlining, or gentrification, or housing and job discrimination towards Black people so why should I bother engaging in this conversation.
What I actually say: On what.
When you say: “Do people just not shovel in this area? Do they not care.”
What I hear: “ I think in my brain that I’m the first humxn being to complain about this and that everyone is obviously oblivious to the exact same struggles I’m going through right now at this very moment. There’s no possible way that folks actually thought of a better solution that I did, because I feel entitled to knowing what is good and what isn’t good for this community that I do not belong to. I haven’t once thought about that those people have jobs, kids, and disabilities that pushes back this amount of labor every time it snows in Wisconsin.
What I want to say is: Do you recognize how incredibly ableist you are to even consider that folks don’t care about their wellness of their environment. So what if they don’t care, are you going to buy them a shovel that won’t break, salt that will work, boots that are sustainable for 6 inches of snow, layers and layers of socks and gloves so people won’t frostbite, a thick scarf so we won’t have to take off of work for getting sick for shoveling something that comes back? Man we’ve thought about this a million times beforehand. Don’t you think we know. We don’t need the added stress, money, or time from your opinions on how we don’t care, cause we do, we just don’t have time.
What I say: Damn. Felt.
When you say: “I can’t wait to just leave Milwaukee. Shit here is just trash”
What I hear: I can’t wait to just leave Milwaukee. Shit here is just trash.
What I want to say: I know it hurts. To experience a place like this in a time like this. Where our very own Sheriff says that missing black girls from the northside will never be found. Where latinix men are victims of acid throwing maga rage on the southside. Where east side students are terrorized with Nazi hate threats all because someone wanted to start a conversation. Or how Black people of all sides of town are more incarcerated than any other area in this country. Yeah shit here is kinda trash. But my question is where is it not. No we don’t, and no we’re not going to swallow it. So people are always going to leave because yes this shit is heavy. It will always hurt and this city will always be oppressive. We don’t have a choice but to experience it. Loving this city is hard, when it’s only goal is to destroy you. I can’t wait to leave this city as well. But I would like to pick up some trash before I leave. Even if I didn’t contribute to it, even if my imprint of how shitty the world is, is not because of me. Someone has got to do it. It doesn’t matter how far and how low I go, it is still here.
What I say: Yeah.
It’s not a hard concept to understand that with any city there comes the trauma from the past, and how that is currently represented in the present. There is no guideline or rulebook on how to fix it, especially for Black people living in this space everyday. So how do we both recognize and destroy the injustices within Milwaukee; but also not subject ourself to more of it? How can we accurately make this a place where people want to settle and thrive in but not gentrifying those spaces that don’t have those resources quite yet.
I would love for new ideas and different regional cultures to intermingle with ours, but y’all can’t come here and act like your city has their shit together. We’re all struggling when it comes to amerikkka. There’s different layers to where our struggle comes from. We are always trying to incorporate new bodies into our city, but nobody can truly integrated change. There is a reason why our elders chose this place over any other, they saw something. They saw hope and mixed it in with their own resilience and called it home. It didn’t change within the night and their prayers never reached city hall, but it reached within us and clung on to the belief that we’ll change it. I guess that we all respond to systemic trauma in different ways. So it is not for us to uphold this placement because we do not owe this city anymore of our time, explanation, and effort. But for those of us who think they know this city an inch more than we do, let’s walk for a while and find out together.