Wisconsin Is about Race

An IWW anti-Klan poster from the 1920s.
(Ruff, Facebook)

Madison, Wisconsin — In 2011, the eyes of the nation looked askance at Wisconsin as a racist Evangelical from Iowa bragged to a man believed to be David Koch that one Scott Walker would not back down on his secret designs to depress wages for working families.

Walker has not backed down.

And Walker has proven adept using the Republican Party playbook inflicting race and myriad others as the political tool for inflicting the Republican anti-democratic legislative project in Wisconsin, including ongoing programs against voting, and gerrymandering.

White supremacy and social dominance and terror are defining features of America.

In Wisconsin where progressives still have a powerful presence, it is instructive to consider the magnitude of labor and progressives' fight against white supremacy and white terror.

One problem facing forces fighting racists today is the German ancestors of the 21rst and 20th century have rejected the socialist and anarchist roots of the 19th century, substituting a racist and anti-Semitic ethos where in this writer's lifetime 'nigger' and 'Jew' jokes were told in public settings in east-central Wisconsin with the assurance the humor met an appreciative audience.

This horror of Wisconsin is the margin of Donald Trump's victory, and Scott Walker's gubernatorial runs.

How effectively the opposition performs against Walker and contemporary racists remains to be seen but the heart and soul of Wisconsin's work for equality resides in the cities and universities, which remain targets of fascists.