State of Black Milwaukee

African Americans in Milwaukee are taking stock of the city tonight at 6 to 8 p.m. at the Inc-U-Bank building at 2803 N. Teutonia Ave. I have less of a problem about this than some of my fellow bloggers. After all, I'm in favor of any group that wants to get together to discuss what's going wrong on Milwaukee's North Side and what can be done to fix things. I just doubt that it can be taken seriously after statements like this:

Milwaukee County Supervisor James White said the event is a way to hold elected officials accountable.

"There are some young people in the community who are concerned that African-American elected officials seem to only want their involvement when there are elections coming up, but when serious issues come up they don't feel that same sense of being welcome and invited in," White said. "I think it is fascinating and long overdue."

Maybe I'm wrong and Supervisor White will suddenly call for County Board Chairman Lee Holloway's resignation, but I don't think that's what he meant by holding elected officials "accountable."

Looking at the three items expected to be emphasized, "education, social justice and economics," I think reasonable people might be disappointed that violent crime did not make the list. Perhaps at the next summit.

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend (Waukesha mayoral forum) to see if Joel McNally will be there to talk about his Black experience.