Wisconsin Has a Shameful History of Racism

If you are afraid to speak the truth then what good are you?

I grew up in Wisconsin and I went to a segregated school.

I’m not 90 years old. I’m 46. I graduated in 1993.

This isn’t ancient history.

I didn’t even realize my school was segregated until last year.

Sure, it wasn’t openly segregated, but the school district and the community did everything they could to let Native Americans know they weren’t welcome.

Every now and then we’d get a new student. He’d last maybe a week before he received enough pressure to “voluntarily” quit.

For the first couple of days, the new students would be all excited to meet new people. They’d be telling jokes and interacting and we’d be getting to know them just like any other kid. Then something would happen and the life would go out of their eyes.

People would start to say things like, “Go back to the reservation.” Maybe they were told to say this by their parents. People still say things like this. They say it without shame.

Who knows what happened to those students? Maybe they got beaten up? Maybe a teacher pulled them to the side and told them they weren’t welcome.

It’s embarrassing to think I was forced to attend an institution like that.

I remember the controversy over spear fishing rights in the late 80s. Teachers in my school organized protests. “Why do they have rights we don’t have!” they’d scream. They used a racial slur to describe Native Americans. It’s the slur you know, but they would add “timber” at the beginning.

Teachers said this.

I was around 12 when that was going on. I remember getting into a lot of trouble when I pointed out spear fishing rights were granted in the treaties. A teacher looked at me with such rage I thought he was going to kill me.

All I’d done was read the class textbook.

After I graduated, it took me about 10 years to get my head straight again.

There were three suicides while I was in school.

One kid got busted for a small amount of marijuana and the police paraded him through the whole school in handcuffs. He went home and shot himself.

Then we had to endure the lectures of the administrators trying to make the suicide into a “teachable moment.”

“Well, if he hadn’t broken the law, he’d be alive today.”

No, if you had treated him with an ounce of decency and compassion he’d be alive today.

It was terrifying to think that our teachers would be willing to completely destroy us socially if they thought it might benefit them in some way.

The whole war on drugs was invented by Nixon as a way to criminalize potential political opponents.

Consider the hatred you’ve seen in your fellow citizens when they speak about Marijuana.

They’re repeating political propaganda designed to oppress people.

It’s just hatred.

There’s too much hatred in this state.

My wife is an immigrant. She’s non-white. Some of the stuff she has to put up with makes me sick.

I’ll have people I’ve known for decades randomly start spewing anti-immigration rhetoric.

These are people who become offended if you ask if they’re vaccinated, but they feel entitled to ask, “Is your wife here legally?”

Anti-immigration rhetoric is a major part of political discourse.

Sometimes I’ll stop them and say, “You realize my wife is an immigrant right?”

“Well…I’m not talking about her!”

But, the thing is, you are talking about her. Every time you bleat your anti-immigrant hate rhetoric somebody hears it. The person who hears it becomes emboldened. If he ever decides to act, it will be my wife and people like her that suffer.

Words have consequences.

Hate has consequences.

Sometimes I look at the choices of the people of my generation and the generations that came before and I’m filled with contempt and revulsion.

It’s said you’re supposed to “respect your elders.”

What for? For driving Native Americans out of my school?

For complaining about immigrants?

For complaining about Millennials?

For making a classmate kill himself over a speck of Marijuana?

Over the last year we’ve seen an increase in violence. There was a violent attack on the Capitol. People are gunned down in the streets with AR-15s.

People insist this is a great country.

You know what’s really great?

Compassion.

Generosity.

Tolerance.

Love.

Healthcare for children, that would be great.

Racism is the opposite of great.

Wisconsin is racist. It has been racist all my life. It remains racist. If you can’t see the racism, then you’re probably one of the people perpetuating it.

Wouldn’t it be a fantastic thing if our churches started talking about the evils of racism?

Wouldn’t it be great if honest discussions about racism appeared in the papers and on television?

Why shouldn’t we encourage people to treat each other with kindness?

If you discuss the things I’m talking about in this article, you’ll be met with hostility. People will deny the truth and embrace a lie and delusion of greatness.

I think it’s because a huge number of Wisconsin residents went to schools like I did.

I bet they’ve never even considered that those schools were segregated.

Over the years, they’ve made the slow transition from victim to oppressor.

Tradition!

It’s always easier to pretend that there isn’t a problem.

Yeah, your kids aren’t depressed.

Yeah, you are treated well at work.

Yeah, your wife still loves you.

Yeah, you’re satisfied and content and happy and appreciated.

My life is great!

Yeah… right.

That’s why I’m heading to the bar for a night of binge drinking.

Wisconsin leads the nation in binge drinking. Second place isn’t even close.

Drink enough and ignore enough and the days start to blur together.

Next thing you know you’re standing at the funeral of a loved one wondering how you missed the signs.

If you find yourself shaking your head in disagreement as you read this article, you’re missing the signs.

Just for a change of pace, why don’t we pretend like human life means something?

Let’s start today.

You don’t have to really mean it.

Just go through the motions.

Try to not deny that racism exists. That’s it. That’s all I ask.

Let’s try to do something, anything, to make our state and our nation more tolerant, more compassionate, more decent.

Let’s admit our mistakes.

Let’s recognize our history of racism.

Life would be better for everyone.

We’ve tried it the other way, it doesn’t work.

It doesn’t work for you.

Because, deep down, you’re decent.