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EDITORIAL STAFF Jonathan Gramling Publisher & Editor Contributing Writers Alfonso Zepeda Capistran, Theola Carter, Fabu, Lang Kenneth Haynes, Eileen Cecille Hocker, Donna Parker, Heidi Pascual, & Lisa Peyton-Caire Webmaster Heidi M. Pascual |
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| Vol. 9 No. 14 JULY 10, 2014 |
| Subscription Information: ($45 a year) The Capital City Hues PO Box 259712 Madison, WI 53725 (608) 241-2000 Advertising: gramling@capitalcityhues.com |
| UNIQUE HITS |
Reflections/Jonathan Gramling
Maneuvering Room
Maneuvering Room
| Artist Michael Ward Expresses Hope and Emotion |
Back when I first came to Madison as a freshman at UW-Madison, people used to say that Madison was a
large university surrounded by a small town. Back then, its population was about 173,000 people and when
the university practically closed down in the summer, there was a noticeable void. Back then, the newly-built
West Towne was surrounded by fields and one could ride a bike into the country by just crossing under the
Beltline near the Dane County Coliseum. There were no real suburbs and there wasn’t any development, for
the most part, on the outer part of the Beltline.
My, how things have changed. I took a drive out to someone’s house in Middleton the other day and I felt as if
I had driven just about all the way to Cross Plains. There are so many large houses and corporate offices
west of the Beltline that it almost constitutes a second urban center for the city of Madison. The city of
Madison’s population has grown to an estimated 243,000, which is pretty decent when considering that the
populations of many urban areas have remained stagnant or have lost population during this same time
period. And of course Madison now has suburbs and exurbs. Looking at the growth of Madison and the
surrounding area, the population has nearly tripled in my estimation.
Back in the early 1970s, Madison almost was a small town and a relatively small number of wealthy
individuals exercised a lot of influence over civic affairs although the rising Baby Boom generation and
politically organized neighborhoods like Willy Street also influenced city policy.
And back then, Madison didn’t really know how to deal with its citizens of color. An African American friend
of mine told me how when he was a student in the early 1970s, he and his friends would walk into stores
sometimes and shoplift items and the proprietors wouldn’t say anything because they didn’t know how to
deal with Black people.
And I was at a forum or engaged in a conversation with a woman one time — she must have been middle
aged at the time — who wondered why all Black people couldn’t be like Snowball, who was a white-haired
elderly Black gentleman who washed the windows of businesses on State Street. He was widely loved and
recognized. His photo still hangs in the Madison mayor’s office. But I couldn’t help but feel that the woman
was wishing that all Black people were as docile and unthreatening as Snowball.
In some ways, Madison didn’t know how to deal with its African American and later Latino populations. Did
they need to be contained? Did any concentration of African Americans create uneasiness for the general
population? Was any sense independent Black political power or a base of power threaten the control that
some felt was needed over this population? Do we not try to control that which we do not understand?
You can be a Euro-American community business leader in the Madison area and have no personal
connections with people of color and only deal with them if you chose to do so. And yet you are making
decisions and helping to shape a community in which people of color are immensely impacted by the results
of those decisions — and somewhat dependent on them. And this situation does not depend on your personal
qualities, whether you are a good or bad person. It just reflects your position within a society that is still
relatively segregated.
As the African American and Latino populations have grown in the Madison area, especially over the past 20
years, I can’t help but feel that there is still that desire to control and to have a certain level of dependency of
those communities of color on the greater population. Centro Hispano and the Urban League have been
relatively weak organizations that while their mission is to assist the Latino and African American
communities respectively to grow and develop, more often than not, they have had to do what others felt that
they should be doing. In some ways, they have had to do the bidding of others, especially those who give
money to the organization.
On some levels, this is understandable because people do like to approve where their donated money is
going to and they have that right. But because of where the money lies in Madison and who controls those
purse strings, in an environment where private donations are crucial to the ability of non-profits to effect their
missions, in the case of organizations of color, it is Euro-Americans who are deciding what the agenda of
these organizations of color should be. And no one really complains loudly that these organizations remain
weak.
A couple of Fridays ago, Centro Hispano of Dane County rolled out its strategic plan that defines the role that it
wishes to play on the Latino community and the community beyond. In essence, Centro Hispano would
become a hub for many activities and services for the Latino community that would be developed
collaboratively with other Latino and non-Latino service providers in Dane County.
There were about 70-100 people at Centro Hispano to listen to the announcement. Many of them are current
and future partners of Centro Hispano. Everyone in the room seemed to be enthusiastic about the plan and
was willing to lend their support.
In my opinion, the natural outgrowth of the successful implementation of this strategic plan is a stronger,
more independent Centro Hispano as it implements its plan. It will require resources for it and its partners to
fulfill the promise of the plan. But if those resources come with a lot of strings attached, it may send Centro in
a million directions and the momentum of the plan will dissipate.
The powers that be in Madison need to learn to trust its organizations of color and not be overtly or covertly
paternalistic of them. They need to develop as peer agencies that have the semi-autonomous ability to help
the Latino, African American and other communities of color — whether geographically or virtually — become
vibrant, positive and developing communities. And when this happens, all of Madison and Dane County
benefits.
Agencies like Centro Hispano and the Urban League need to have enough control over their missions and the
implementation of their plans that their constituents are assured that these agencies are working in their
interests and on behalf of their communities and not on behalf of someone else. Otherwise, their constituents
will not buy into their services and allow them to have the impact on their communities that is needed to
move their communities — and the rest of the Madison area — forward.
The Madison area has grown out of its small town population status over the past 44 years. And it needs to
grow out of its small-town control if it is to grow into a cosmopolitan area where everyone can pursue life,
liberty and happiness unencumbered by small town or perceptual strictures. I hope that the Madison
community allows Centro Hispano — and the Urban League when it emerges from its leadership transition —
to grow and strengthen to effect its mission for when this happens, everyone will benefit.
large university surrounded by a small town. Back then, its population was about 173,000 people and when
the university practically closed down in the summer, there was a noticeable void. Back then, the newly-built
West Towne was surrounded by fields and one could ride a bike into the country by just crossing under the
Beltline near the Dane County Coliseum. There were no real suburbs and there wasn’t any development, for
the most part, on the outer part of the Beltline.
My, how things have changed. I took a drive out to someone’s house in Middleton the other day and I felt as if
I had driven just about all the way to Cross Plains. There are so many large houses and corporate offices
west of the Beltline that it almost constitutes a second urban center for the city of Madison. The city of
Madison’s population has grown to an estimated 243,000, which is pretty decent when considering that the
populations of many urban areas have remained stagnant or have lost population during this same time
period. And of course Madison now has suburbs and exurbs. Looking at the growth of Madison and the
surrounding area, the population has nearly tripled in my estimation.
Back in the early 1970s, Madison almost was a small town and a relatively small number of wealthy
individuals exercised a lot of influence over civic affairs although the rising Baby Boom generation and
politically organized neighborhoods like Willy Street also influenced city policy.
And back then, Madison didn’t really know how to deal with its citizens of color. An African American friend
of mine told me how when he was a student in the early 1970s, he and his friends would walk into stores
sometimes and shoplift items and the proprietors wouldn’t say anything because they didn’t know how to
deal with Black people.
And I was at a forum or engaged in a conversation with a woman one time — she must have been middle
aged at the time — who wondered why all Black people couldn’t be like Snowball, who was a white-haired
elderly Black gentleman who washed the windows of businesses on State Street. He was widely loved and
recognized. His photo still hangs in the Madison mayor’s office. But I couldn’t help but feel that the woman
was wishing that all Black people were as docile and unthreatening as Snowball.
In some ways, Madison didn’t know how to deal with its African American and later Latino populations. Did
they need to be contained? Did any concentration of African Americans create uneasiness for the general
population? Was any sense independent Black political power or a base of power threaten the control that
some felt was needed over this population? Do we not try to control that which we do not understand?
You can be a Euro-American community business leader in the Madison area and have no personal
connections with people of color and only deal with them if you chose to do so. And yet you are making
decisions and helping to shape a community in which people of color are immensely impacted by the results
of those decisions — and somewhat dependent on them. And this situation does not depend on your personal
qualities, whether you are a good or bad person. It just reflects your position within a society that is still
relatively segregated.
As the African American and Latino populations have grown in the Madison area, especially over the past 20
years, I can’t help but feel that there is still that desire to control and to have a certain level of dependency of
those communities of color on the greater population. Centro Hispano and the Urban League have been
relatively weak organizations that while their mission is to assist the Latino and African American
communities respectively to grow and develop, more often than not, they have had to do what others felt that
they should be doing. In some ways, they have had to do the bidding of others, especially those who give
money to the organization.
On some levels, this is understandable because people do like to approve where their donated money is
going to and they have that right. But because of where the money lies in Madison and who controls those
purse strings, in an environment where private donations are crucial to the ability of non-profits to effect their
missions, in the case of organizations of color, it is Euro-Americans who are deciding what the agenda of
these organizations of color should be. And no one really complains loudly that these organizations remain
weak.
A couple of Fridays ago, Centro Hispano of Dane County rolled out its strategic plan that defines the role that it
wishes to play on the Latino community and the community beyond. In essence, Centro Hispano would
become a hub for many activities and services for the Latino community that would be developed
collaboratively with other Latino and non-Latino service providers in Dane County.
There were about 70-100 people at Centro Hispano to listen to the announcement. Many of them are current
and future partners of Centro Hispano. Everyone in the room seemed to be enthusiastic about the plan and
was willing to lend their support.
In my opinion, the natural outgrowth of the successful implementation of this strategic plan is a stronger,
more independent Centro Hispano as it implements its plan. It will require resources for it and its partners to
fulfill the promise of the plan. But if those resources come with a lot of strings attached, it may send Centro in
a million directions and the momentum of the plan will dissipate.
The powers that be in Madison need to learn to trust its organizations of color and not be overtly or covertly
paternalistic of them. They need to develop as peer agencies that have the semi-autonomous ability to help
the Latino, African American and other communities of color — whether geographically or virtually — become
vibrant, positive and developing communities. And when this happens, all of Madison and Dane County
benefits.
Agencies like Centro Hispano and the Urban League need to have enough control over their missions and the
implementation of their plans that their constituents are assured that these agencies are working in their
interests and on behalf of their communities and not on behalf of someone else. Otherwise, their constituents
will not buy into their services and allow them to have the impact on their communities that is needed to
move their communities — and the rest of the Madison area — forward.
The Madison area has grown out of its small town population status over the past 44 years. And it needs to
grow out of its small-town control if it is to grow into a cosmopolitan area where everyone can pursue life,
liberty and happiness unencumbered by small town or perceptual strictures. I hope that the Madison
community allows Centro Hispano — and the Urban League when it emerges from its leadership transition —
to grow and strengthen to effect its mission for when this happens, everyone will benefit.
Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kappa
Psi Omega chapter president (l-
r) and Toya Johnson, Walk It Out
Chair along with Nichelle
Nichols, the chapter’s program
chair, are organizing Walk It Out.
Psi Omega chapter president (l-
r) and Toya Johnson, Walk It Out
Chair along with Nichelle
Nichols, the chapter’s program
chair, are organizing Walk It Out.
| Alpha Kappa Alpha's Walk It Out |