What's the most segregated city in the country?

[aaaaaa5a]

Is it Birmingham, Alabama? Memphis Tennessee? How about Charlotte North Carolina or Richmond Virginia? Little Rock Arkansas? Oklahoma City maybe?

If you thought it would be a city in the deep south or traditionally conservative state, you would be wrong.

The answer is Milwaukee Wisconsin.



Milwaukee is the most segregated major city in the Country. According to the latest census figures 90% of the African American population lives in just 4 counties north of the city. And outside of the city limits (or the north side of the city), the rest of the city and state is virtually all white.

Very interesting.



Full article and video report here.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/witi-20110331-segregated-city,0,6920627.story

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. I always thought Jacksonville, Florida was very segregated.

[ReggieVeggie]

9. Montgomery, Alabama as well

[Mimosa]

2. Doesn't surprise me in the least.

All my life in the South black and white people have socialised and lived closer together. When I'd visit up North it was different. And people in the Midwest are the most segregated and prejudiced in my experience.

[aaaaaa5a]

3. It s very interesting that within the video

the top 5 cities they mention for segregation are all midwest or northeast cities. One would have thought that places like Jacksonville, Biloxi, etc. would have led the list. But they did not.

[druidity33]

8. I'd noticed that too...

Lived in southern MO for a little while. There's a degree of respect that seems incongruous to the racism i saw there. I could sit at the dinner table with 3 old guys, 2 white, 1 black... with everyone cordial and friendly to each other. After the black guy gets up to go to the bathroom, 1 white guy sez to me... "Jimmy boy is alright, not like them other n----rs". Jimmy "boy" of course being the eldest at 73.
James came back and we all had pie together! It was a little weird to me.

:shrug:

[eowyn_of_rohan]

11. People in the Midwest are the most segregated and prejudiced?

please don't stereotype.

[SoCalDem]

4. Financial segregation "works" as insidiously as the old style

Build houses that poor folks cannot afford to buy, pass laws minimizing multi-family structures & you get instant segregation.

Keep poor folks poor by keeping wages low & jobs in service-related fields the main opportunities for the poor folks, ans you'll keep "them".."over there", and not living near the entitled group.

[DesertRat]

5. Well said. n/t

[Nikia]

13. But why are whites afraid to live near blacks?

I've never lived in Milwaukee, but visit it occaisionally. There is an area of decent looking older homes near downtown. We noticed some for sale last time we went there and looked them up. They are priced as low or lower than comparable homes in rurals areas, making them affordable to working and middle class people. As far as we can tell, this area is almost all black. All white people in the Milwaukee metro area are not rich. A middle income white family that works near downtown should consider those homes good deals and want to buy them. For some reason, though, they are afraid to live there even though it doesn't appear to be a high crime area.

[bettyellen]

14. you won't get families with kids because they schools + shopping suck, they have to wait for young

pioneers to go in first, then maybe some stores will follow, impovements made etc... by the time families come in, they will inevitably be displacing he residents. The "stable" folks want to invest only when there;s a guaranteed upswing. Messed up, but that's how it works.

[provis99]

6. Most segregated doesn't mean most racist.

Jackson, Mississippi is pretty integrated; but all that means is you can have a black family and white family living next door to each other, but still hating each other.

[Scuba]

7. As a Wisconsite living in a 'red' district, I can tell you that ....

... racism is alive and thriving in this corner of the Badger State. If in doubt, just read blog entries from jsonline.com for a few days. You'll understand.


I would disagree that most of the state is "virtually all white".

The presence of minorities is tangible throughout the state now, at least compared to 30 years ago. Large populations of Hmong live in LaCrosse, Eau Claire and other areas. Hispanics and blacks are now routinely seen most everywhere. This is a welcome change to some of us and a horror to others.

Asshats.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. Manhattan's pretty segregated.

Or used to be. South of E.96th Street was 90% white. North of it 90% nonwhite.

On the west side, a similar breakdown, with 125th Street being the great divide.

This was the case circa 1990s. Things have changed a bit; gentrification and all. But probably not that much.

[bettyellen]

12. 96th to 59th street maybe, but even then you'd be leaving out everything west of 9th avenue....

and the fact that it's one of five boroughs where most of the less wealthy actually live. Some parts of the city, inluding 96th to 125th have always been heavily integrated. Some parts including parts of the boroughs are still very intergrated. It's always been a very mixed bag, and always changing. The small and super wealthy strips along either side of Central Park are not at all representative of the city's very diverse population. Not by a long shot.

[Smarmie Doofus]

15. Leave out the outer boroughs ( which have their own ethnic and racial divides...

....; just not as dramatic as Manhattan's is - or was.) Are there large non-white #s on the "far" east side? ( I.e. York, First, Second, Third)? I don't think so.

East 145th to E 96 was *overwhelmingly* non-white ( black and hispanic) as late as the early 90's. (Not sure about now.).

True, the UWS has always been harder to characterize. Not monolithically white but--- except for isolated pockets--- overwhelmingly Caucasian.

West of 9th Ave is mostly commercial and industrial.

[bettyellen]

18. If your frame of reference for the east side on Manhattan is York Avenue and not Alphabet City, Chin...

.... Chinatown or the Lower East Side, I'm not surprised you think it was segregated and not ethnically diverse.
NYC is not all that big in terms of landmass, the UES and harlem is but a small fraction of NYC, but it seems to be your only frame of reference.
why would you leave out 3/4 of Manhattan and the other four boroughs, when they are where most residents actually live, when other cities are being judged by their actual boundaries?

And btw, Spanish Harlem always has a fair share of white people, as well as latinos and african americans. It was always an incredibly diverse area, and remains so, despite a great deal of gentrification. Harlem now has luxury condos, and the LES and the whole poverty stricken extreme western edge of the city (which used to have a very mixed population living among the industries that largely left the city in the eighties) does too.

My old neighborhood was white 45 years ago, became very mixed with hispanics, was getting very jamaican and now has many immigrants from south east asia as well as a huge and new muslim population from pakistan. The whole time it's been in flux, it has remained very stable, fairly safe, and a great place for immigrants to plant roots in NYC. It is not. nor never has been segregated. There isn't any strife or fighting between various ethnic groups, despite your hinting here. It really sounds like you are getting this all from watching TV!

There are dozens of such neighborhoods in the city, and they are much more representative of the city's makeup than anything in your very small example. Soho was industrial in the seventies, artists moved in and made it hip (and it was mixed all right) and now it's super wealthy and touristy, w. Chanel and Swatch replacing the artists. So it has always been. It sounds like you missed a lot of great stuff in your time here, sorry you didn;t get out more. The UES is probably the only part of the city that hasn't changed dramatically, but it is hard to re-purpose those mansions that line 5th avenue.

[RagAss]

16. Jacksonville, Florida....This is an unrefuted fact.

[thelordofhell]

17. Segregation isn't just "black" and "white"

I live in Southwest Phoenix, otherwise known as the "brown" side of town.

[TheMightyFavog]

19. A bit of hitsory...

Those old Northside neighborhoods that are today predominately black were once home to German-American populataions. During and after WWII, many blacks moved to Milwaukee seeking jobs in the factories. When the blacks moved in, many of the old German families moved out to the suburbs and exurbs.

The result? The counties surrounding Milwaukee are some of the reddest in the state. These are the assholes who put Sensenbrenner in office.

[dana_b]

20. I guess it's not surprising. Around here, I'd say Palo Alto, CA.

East Palo Alto (EPA) has the lower socioeconomic folks (mostly African American and Latino) while the west side includes some of the wealthiest, mainly white, folks in the country.