Exposing A Lie About Milwaukee
Mr Charles Sykes
WTMJ-TV
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Dear Mr Sykes:
Enclosed please find a clipping from the June 30, 2010, issue of the Milwaukee Community Journal entitled "Signifyin': The New Racism" by your Sunday Insight panelist Mikel Holt. I draw your attention to the last page of this piece, in which Mr Holt discusses his participation in open-housing marches in Milwaukee, which occurred in 1967 and early 1968. The section I have enclosed in red ink reads as follows:
"At the time it was illegal for Black Milwaukeeans to live in certain areas of the city-----north of Keefe Avenue, or south of downtown."
You know, as I do, that this statement is demonstrably false. There was never a law on the books of the City of Milwaukee or the State of Wisconsin barring Blacks (per Holt's capitalization) or anyone else from living anywhere in the city. Since Mr Holt had ample time before publishing this statement to check the city law books of that time, it is either a deliberate lie or, at best, a statement made with reckless disregard of its truth. Either way, tens of thousands of readers of the Milwaukee Community Journal will never look up the city ordinances in effect in 1968, and will come away from reading this column believing that Milwaukee had racist laws on its books some 42 years ago.
Lies like this fan the fires of racial animosity in this city, especially when they are not confronted with the truth. If the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel or another "mainstream media outlet" had printed this pernicious lie, I am confident that you (along with others) would call them on it and demand a retraction. But are you willing to confront your own panelist on your show with this quote and demand either proof that it is true or a public retraction in the Community Journal?
As a reader of two of your books and viewer of Sunday Insight, I respect your commitment to honest dialogue. I hope you will not disappoint me by ignoring this blatant lie.
Gerald S Glazer
2944 N 50th Street
Milwaukee, WI 5321
GSGlazer@sbcglobal.net
WTMJ-TV
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Dear Mr Sykes:
Enclosed please find a clipping from the June 30, 2010, issue of the Milwaukee Community Journal entitled "Signifyin': The New Racism" by your Sunday Insight panelist Mikel Holt. I draw your attention to the last page of this piece, in which Mr Holt discusses his participation in open-housing marches in Milwaukee, which occurred in 1967 and early 1968. The section I have enclosed in red ink reads as follows:
"At the time it was illegal for Black Milwaukeeans to live in certain areas of the city-----north of Keefe Avenue, or south of downtown."
You know, as I do, that this statement is demonstrably false. There was never a law on the books of the City of Milwaukee or the State of Wisconsin barring Blacks (per Holt's capitalization) or anyone else from living anywhere in the city. Since Mr Holt had ample time before publishing this statement to check the city law books of that time, it is either a deliberate lie or, at best, a statement made with reckless disregard of its truth. Either way, tens of thousands of readers of the Milwaukee Community Journal will never look up the city ordinances in effect in 1968, and will come away from reading this column believing that Milwaukee had racist laws on its books some 42 years ago.
Lies like this fan the fires of racial animosity in this city, especially when they are not confronted with the truth. If the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel or another "mainstream media outlet" had printed this pernicious lie, I am confident that you (along with others) would call them on it and demand a retraction. But are you willing to confront your own panelist on your show with this quote and demand either proof that it is true or a public retraction in the Community Journal?
As a reader of two of your books and viewer of Sunday Insight, I respect your commitment to honest dialogue. I hope you will not disappoint me by ignoring this blatant lie.
Gerald S Glazer
2944 N 50th Street
Milwaukee, WI 5321
GSGlazer@sbcglobal.net
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 12:52 PM
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