A Sociological Eye

[This post was written as protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police were spreading around the U.S.. Curfews were beginning to be set in major cities and National Guard being mobilized. Major media outlets were alternating clips from the video of officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes with stories about looting and scenes of flames. The Minneapolis mayor had declared the uprising "domestic terrorism," and Trump had just threatened to send the U.S. military into cities without consent of their governors to force order on the populace. It seemed to many that the U.S. might descend into chaos, military occupation, or civil war. Yet every day, despite threats and negative media portrayals, more and more people were taking up Black Lives Matter signs and heading out into the streets.] _________________________________________________________________________________ I hear a lot of people asking that question Marvin G...

This is a map of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Milwaukee on Saturday, March 28th, 2020. Take a look. Keeping that image in mind, I want you to look at another city view. Milwaukee is an extremely segregated city. Here is a map of where people of different races and ethnicities live in the area, as of the last U.S. Census (each tiny green dot represents an African American person, each blue dot represents a white person, each orange dot a Latine person, and each red dot an Asian individual): Look what happens if we superimpose these (sorry about the quality of this quick image layering): Just by eyeballing one map laid over the other, you can see that areas populated by people of color are heavily overlaid by confirmed Covid-19 case dots. Then look at the very white suburbs outside the central city. On the north shore, Fox Point--with a population that is 96% white--contains just two tiny confirmed case dots. Bayside, 91% white, has one confirmed case. To the south, we ...

You think I’m joking, but I am not. I would vote for Gloop the Goldfish for president. Yes, even if Gloop’s running mate turns out to be an old apple core, or a singleton sock, or a chipped coffee cup. In fact, I’d campaign for Gloop the Goldfish and An Old Apple Core 2020. So let me start now: if they are nominated, I plead with you to vote for them, because anything will be better than four more years of the destructiveness of Team Trump. I know many of my fellow progressives don’t feel that way right now. I see a lot of anger and depression on the left, wrought by the Democratic primaries. A large field has suddenly narrowed, and many have seen their favored candidates drop out of the race. This has made fans of those candidates feel burned by other Democratic voters, and frustrated with the two old straight white men left standing. This week, for example, Warren backers have been mourning, as their fiercely smart and well-prepared candidate fell amidst a media narrativ...