- Wisconsin is often described
as the most segregated state in the nation.
I didn't know that.
I moved here from the DC area in 2014
and didn't know a lot
about the Black population in Wisconsin.
But since then, I've learned a lot
about Wisconsin's Black community,
their successes and their challenges.
I've had loads of conversations
with friends and those working to improve our community.
But I still wanna learn more.
Together, let's discover and explore
Why Race Matters in Wisconsin.
[upbeat music]
Before I became a public television host,
my journey started in Washington, DC,
and I grew up in southern Maryland
in a city called Fort Washington.
Fort Washington is about 32 minutes
south of the nation's Capitol,
where 65% of the population is Black.
I was very accustomed to seeing
people that look like me on a regular basis.
I very much, I guess, came to see that
as like the standard way of being just like,
yeah, you go to the grocery store
or the airport or the doctor's office or school
and you see people that look like you.
Like, that was very much the norm for me.
The point is, like I saw me everywhere that I went.
In 2014, I moved to Madison, Wisconsin for a job,
moving from a majority Black space
to a city that's almost 80% white.
So I was pretty aggressive.
At least the first month, of trying to figure out
where were the spaces where I could find foods
I appreciated, I could find hair products.
I could find like some sort of semblance of a social life,
and I'd never had to put forth that effort before.
Like, any other place in which I lived, which is interesting.
Soon after I moved to Madison,
the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families
launched a multi-year initiative
called the Race to Equity report.
The goal was to explore, measure, and analyze
the racial disparities in Dane County, Wisconsin.
I've never lived in a space-- at least that I was aware of--
and maybe that's a privilege I took for granted,
where like, race was in my face in that way.
On the one hand, that felt exciting to be like,
okay, they're talking about race.
That feels progressive.
And then kinda later on,
there were other feelings that developed
the longer I was here and the more it felt like
race felt more like an academic exercise
for people and not like an actual intentional focal area
that there was desire to change anything around.
After the death of George Floyd in 2020
and the increased media attention around racial justice,
I felt a responsibility to use
my connections in public broadcasting
to highlight some of these issues in Wisconsin.
Certain spaces in Wisconsin are often credited
as some of the most livable cities.
But for whom exactly?
A 2019 report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy
showed that Wisconsin ranks near the bottom nationally
on a number of racial disparities,
including worst for unemployment,
second worst for out of school suspension,
third worst for voter participation,
and fourth worst for infant mortality.
During this season, we'll talk
with Black people living in Wisconsin
and the issues important to them,
like the school-to-prison pipeline
and a white-centered education.
- Roderick Bankston: When you know you're a human,
you're not finna accept slavery or oppression.
And it's similar to today.
When we know what we're truly worth,
we're not gonna accept.
So just that education piece became critical,
but not a white-centered education.
- Angela: Civic engagement and the fear behind change.
- Tatiyana Benson: To expect me to feel like I'm loved
in this society, in this country is ridiculous.
To try to fix a system that literally was started
by stealing land and stealing people
is a ridiculous idea to ever think
that like, this could be a just system.
- Angela: Black mental health and the trauma
surrounding the images of Black death.
- Myra McNair: We've heard countless Black men say
"I can't breathe."
And I always explained with COVID
and then with all of the racial unrest,
we can't breathe as a community.
- Angela: Black farming and land ownership.
- Robert Pierce: It's so hard to convince people
that what I was doing was the right thing,
because it was like they equated it with slavery.
They, you know, the hard work, you know,
it was like you know, you know, they didn't realize
there was a payout for that hard work.
[upbeat music]
- Angela: The Black experience in Wisconsin
needs to be talked about.
Our stories need to be heard.
My journey here started in 2014, but it's still going.
Let's explore and recognize why race matters in our state.
Part education, part celebration of the solutions,
but also part call to action.
Like just because you may not be personally affected,
does that mean these issues don't exist
and that you don't...
that you are removed from playing a role
in bringing about the change that we all need to experience?
'Cause it affects all of us at the end of the day.
So ultimately, race matters because of all of those things.
It shouldn't, but because we recognize it does,
now what are we doing about it?
[upbeat music]
To learn more, go to pbswisconsin.org/whyracematters
to find additional links and resources
to help keep you informed.
There, you can also check out
the Why Race Matters podcast as well as additional episodes.
[gentle music]
- Announcer: Funding for Why Race Matters is provided
by CUNA Mutual Group, Park Bank,
Alliant Energy, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art,
Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.