Madison is often praised as one of the best places to live in America. But I call cap! That title doesn’t hold when you look at the lived experiences of Black people here — and especially not when you look through the lens of the Race to Equity 10-Year Report: Dane County. Decades of data paint a different picture: for example, despite Black people making up only around 7% of the population in Madison, Black adults and children are overrepresented in homelessness, incarceration, and evictions. These disparities are not accidental. They are the direct result of systems upheld by the status quo of white capitalist heteropatriarchy — values that remain entrenched in Madison.
What makes this reality more insidious is that some who loudly and proudly call themselves “progressive” are often the very ones stalling progress. While claiming the moral high ground, they hold on to anti-Black ways of thinking that show up in policymaking, in community conversations, and in the way they respond to Black leadership. And here’s the truth: progressives who see this behavior among their colleagues have a responsibility to call it in. Silence in the face of toxic dynamics only helps preserve the status quo. As the Shriver Center reminds us, “Internal equity work, within ourselves and our organizations, is crucial for real change in the communities we serve.” Until white progressives grapple with their own internal biases and the cultures they protect, their politics will continue to fall short of real equity. Their coded remarks, their closed-door strategy sessions to attack and put Black leaders in check, — all of it signals that their progressivism is faulty at best.
As bell hooks reminds us in Black Looks:…