See enlarged chart below

With all the talk of St. Vincent de Paul undeserving North Central Milwaukee, 85% plus African American, with all the homicides and violence in North Central Milwaukee, with the high employment and incarceration rates in same area (North to Siliver Spring, 60th to Milwaukee River), comes a startling statistics from a local Foundation’s study. 38.1% of African Americans in Milwaukee live below the poverty level, the highest rate in the nation. Is anyone, St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP) in Milwaukee, the police, county executive or mayor making the connection between poverty and violence, high unemployment, incarceration, poor housing and education in North Central Milwaukee. As I said in the posting No Room in the SVDP store for the poor the four million dollars that SVDP Society invested in the suburbs with hope of some trickle down to needy in the future, could have purchased 277,000 beds, stoves or refrigerators for the needy in North Central and South Central (poor Hispanic population). As we tried to say in the parable Thy Kingdome Come On Earth As It is Heaven a good bed to sleep on, good food stored in a refrigerator and cooked on a stove can do more good for young men and woman in poverty areas than a fancy store serving the suburbs.

Racial segregation and poverty in Milwaukee is not only hurting Milwaukee but will eventually come back to hurt the County and State. White people in the suburbs may think they are doing good for low income people, the 38% of African Americans living below the poverty line in Milwaukee, by donating money and items to the SVDP store to be sold in the suburbs but the opposite is a result.

If they would just keep the principles of the SVDP society, people in affluent areas making home visits to poor in central city they would be doing a lot more good. Personal contact with poverty moves people to change laws and systematic inequality while donations perpetuate the myth that donations without personal contact will make a change.

This racial injustice, racism, is making Milwaukee one of the most violent cities per population with highest rate of incarceration and poverty in the USA. It must stop with you and I speaking and acting out. Stop racism in Milwaukee now.

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