Yesterday, an article on Salon.com named Milwaukee the most segregated city (of at least 500,000 people) in the country. We’ve heard this before, and we’ll hear it again. For now, sadly, we top this latest list that features New York City as the second most segregated city and Chicago as the third.
The rankings are based on a dissimilarity index -- a measure used by social scientists to interpret residential segregation -- and the recent census.
The article says that 90 percent of African Americans living in Milwaukee live in the city. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor Marc Levine says Milwaukee has a very low rate of African Americans living in suburbs compared to other cities its size. Also, it suggests that de-industrialization is the largest contributing factor to Milwaukee's segregation.
What can we do to change this, Milwaukee?
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
