truesee's Blog

Mark Joyella | 5:28 pm, April 4th, 2011

Mike Lowe FOX6 Reporter

4:00 p.m. CDT, April 1, 2011

New census data shows Milwaukee is the most segregated city in America, and many are not surprised by this information. This new data has long been the perception, since the city is regularly ranks among the top segregated cities in America. The uncomfortable topic of race is now unavoidable after Milwaukee has been named the most segregated in America.

Milwaukee now has a new way to start tough conversations about race. According to the latest census data Milwaukee beat New York City, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland for the dubious honor of being America's most segregated city.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says the reason for this is rooted in the region's economic and political history. "We've got housing policies, zoning policies, steering that occurs in real estate industry. Historically that offers, and I think there are still some people who don't want to live with people who have different skin colors than theirs."

Stephanie Harling from Milwaukee predominately white neighborhood Bay View says, "Right now in Milwaukee, there are segregated areas of poverty, and unfortunately that translates to race in Milwaukee as well."

The latest census data shows that 90% of the black population in Milwaukee's metro area, which spans four counties, lives on the north side of Milwaukee.

Mayor Barrett also says the history of suburban opposition of affordable housing means black people are more likely to live in the City of Milwaukee.

Katie Couric to give up 'CBS Evening News' anchor desk, expected to launch talk show in 2011

Bill Hutchinson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, April 4th 2011, 4:00 AM

Obama about to launch his reelection campaign. It could cost $1 billion.

 

---

Brad Knickerbocker

Staff writer

April 3, 2011 at 4:33 pm EDT

Charlie Sheen's Detroit show gets jeers, few cheers at Fox Theatre

 

B.J. HAMMERSTEIN
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

 

 

Charlie Sheen's "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option" tour opened in Detroit on Saturday night with a boom. By the time he stepped off the stage a little after 10 p.m., it was an official bomb.

Wearing a Detroit Tigers jersey with "Warlock" emblazoned on the back, Sheen delivered a monologue, played videos, sat in the front row and talked loosely with the audience. But it didn't result in much of his famed catchphrase: "winning."

In front of a rowdy, often-dissatisfied sold-out Fox Theatre audience of 4,700 people, the embattled sitcom actor ranted and raved about anything and everything.

Trust me, "this is going somewhere," Sheen said as the crowd pondered his self-declared "radical" opening monologue. The 20-minute speech included many of his catchphrases, along with sayings like, "one giant heartbeat and one conscious thought."

But about 30 minutes into the show, the usual Sheen-isms started to sound old and tired. From the men's restroom to the expensive seats in front, it was a restless crowd, delivering plenty of jeers and only a few cheers.

The show had video montages throughout, including a "20/20" outtake reel that showed off his self-deprecating sense of humor. His so-called goddesses helped him burn a "Two and a Half Men" bowling shirt. Before it was all over, he asked the crowd if the goddesses should come out again. And then he asked them: How many goddesses do you have?

The show was a reminder that the pop culture phenomenon is serious about his beliefs, but most of the crowd wasn't entertained by the loose and disorganized attempt.

Valerie Piascik, 23, of Harrison Township said the videos were better than Sheen's live performance. "Wow, I am not sure what that was," she said from outside the Fox as Sheen was still on stage.

Bryan Gill, 53, of West Bloomfield said he was hoping for the best but saw the worst. "It was absolutely disappointing," he said. "Truly, it sucked."

Sheen, visibly worried that he was losing the audience, at times appeared close to becoming abrasive. He never completely fell apart, but at one point, he did tell a heckler, "Sorry dude, already got your money."

Near the end of the evening, with the booing intensifying, the 45-year-old Sheen slipped off stage in favor rapper Dirt Nasty. And then at about 10:10 p.m. -- roughly 70 minutes after Sheen's portion had started -- the houselights came on and most of the disappointed crowd headed for the exits, shell-shocked or angry.

For those who hung around, his "true, die-hard" fans, Sheen returned to the stage for about 15 minutes for meet-and-greets and the like.

WRIF-FM (101.1) host Drew Lane said if the tour continues like this, Sheen's career will be in jeopardy.

"It was bad," Lane said. "People were upset, but I don't think they knew what to expect. He's a movie star, not a stand-up comic."

 

 

LINK TO VIDEO 

http://www.freep.com/videonetwork/880763531001/Sheen-Scene-A-reporter-s-perspective

GOP shouldn't panic if whites become a minority

 

 

 

I think the picture is more complicated than that. And that the demise of the Republican Party is no more foreordained than it was a century ago when Italian, Jewish and Polish immigrants were pouring into the United States in proportions much greater than the Hispanic and Asian immigration of the past two decades.

The numbers do appear stark. The census tells us that 16 percent of U.S. residents are Hispanic, up from 13 percent in 2000 and 9 percent in 1990, and that 5 percent are Asian, up from 4 percent in 2000. The percentage of blacks held steady at 13. Among children, the voters of tomorrow, those percentages are higher.

But it's a mistake to see blacks, Hispanics and Asians as a single "people of color" voting bloc. The 2010 exit poll shows that the Republican percentages in the vote for the U.S. House were 60 percent among whites, 9 percent among blacks, 38 percent among Hispanics and 40 percent among Asians.

Simple arithmetic tells you that Hispanics and Asians vote more like whites than like blacks. The picture is similar in the 2008 exit poll.

Moreover, while blacks vote similarly in just about every state, there is wide variation among Hispanics. In 2010 governor elections Hispanics voted 31 percent Republican in California, 38 percent Republican in Texas and 50 percent Republican in Florida (where Cubans are no longer a majority of Hispanics).

As RealClearPolitics senior political analyst Sean Trende has written, Hispanics tend to vote 10 to 15 percent less Republican than whites of similar income and education levels. An increasingly Hispanic electorate puts Republicans at a disadvantage, but not an overwhelming one.

The same is true of Asians. In 2010 Democratic Sen. Harry Reid got 79 percent from Asians in Nevada, where many are Filipinos. But the Asians in Middlesex County, N.J., most of whom are from India, seem to have voted for Republican Gov. Chris Christie in 2009.

The 2010 census tells something else that may prove important: There's been a slowdown of immigration since the recession began in 2007 and even some reverse migration. If you look at the census results for Hispanic immigrant entry points -- East Los Angeles and Santa Ana, Calif., the east side of Houston, the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago -- you find that the Hispanic population has dropped sharply since 2000.

One reason is the business cycle. The 2000 census was taken on April 1, 2000, less than a month after the peak of the tech boom. Unemployment was low, immigration was high, and entry point houses and apartments were crammed with large families.

The 2010 census was taken after two years of recession, when immigration had slackened off. We simply don't know whether this was just a temporary response to the business cycle or the beginning of a permanent decline in migration.

Past mass migrations, which most experts expected to continue indefinitely, in fact ended abruptly. Net Puerto Rican migration to New York City stopped in 1961, and the huge movement of Southern blacks to Northern cities ended in 1965. Those who extrapolate current trends far into the future end up being wrong sooner or later.

Finally there is an assumption -- which is particularly strong among those who expect a majority-"people of color" electorate to put Democrats in power permanently -- that racial consciousness never changes. But sometimes it does.

American blacks do have common roots in slavery and segregation. But African immigrants don't share that heritage, and Hispanics come from many different countries and cultures (there are big regional differences just within Mexico). The Asian category includes anyone from Japan to Lebanon and in between.

Under the definitions in use in the America of a century ago, when Southern and Eastern European immigrants were not regarded as white, the United States became a majority nonwhite nation some time in the 1950s. By today's definitions we'll become majority nonwhite a few decades hence.

But that may not make for the vast cultural and political change some predict. Not if we assimilate newcomers, and if our two political parties adapt, as we and they have done in the past.

Michael Barone,The Examiner's senior political analyst