Author Of ‘Justified Anger’ Checks In 5 Years Later

Five years ago, the Rev. Alex Gee of Madison wrote that while he loved his community, he was “fed up” with the racial disparities and lack of respect African-Americans experience in what is widely considered a liberal city.

“Justified Anger,” published by the Cap Times, inspired a movement and conversations statewide about opportunities and treatment of people of color. Five years later, he wrote an update on that article.

Gee, who is also the founder and president of Nehemiah: Center for Urban Leadership Development, recently spoke about what has changed, and what hasn’t, with Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time” hosts Rob Ferrett and Derrell Connor.

The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Derrell Connor: In the original article you said that you’re not upset because Madison has issues, but because Madison skates on many of those issues. Can you talk about what you meant by that?

Alex Gee: I’m a product of Madison reaching out to folks who may be disadvantaged. My mom was a high school dropout after her freshman year in Chicago, she came to Madison and got her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin and a full ride for graduate school and graduated with honors.

Fast forward 40 years later, people can’t find a place and it’s hard to get into the campus. And so when that shift happened I just wanted to remind Madison, ‘Hey I’m a product of the great work done. Let’s get back to that.’ And I felt that the city just rested on its laurels of what it had done historically, who it used to be, and didn’t feel the pressure of changing with increasing diversity.

Rob Ferrett: And we’ve seen in the news lately, not just Madison, but Wisconsin as a whole is the most racially segregated state in the country. Why do you think we are so segregated here?

AG: In a state that sort of promotes itself as colorblind, it’s certainly a black eye. But I think it’s because we don’t bring the people to the table who can help us understand the issues. We need to be at the table.

Typically something is planned, there’s going to be a formula, there’s going to be a response to that segregation report, and then once it’s done, typically black people and people of color will be asked to come and rubber stamp it and not really shape it and tell us why have we gotten here.

Part of it is we don’t listen to our own residents who say this is happening. For decades African-Americans have said, ‘We feel safer in rural Mississippi than we do in Wisconsin’ because we have this concept that because we’re the north, we are accepting. And now that is proving the segregation, the disparity, that African-American people and people of color have been touting for decades, but no one has listened.

DC: You have called the last five years a roller coaster of emotions. It felt like a few years ago that every day we heard about a young African-American male being shot by police. And the feeling in greater Madison was that it could never happen here until it did. Can you talk about the the death of Tony Robinson and the aftermath of that?

AG: We rallied around it, we were shocked … it’s what Madison does when there’s trouble, but then we quickly went right back to our own normal lives. So part of the roller coaster is, we know how to rally and have meetings when our dirt comes to light, but we quickly went back to our normal life.

When that news came about what happened with Tony Robinson, it broke my heart. (Madison Police) Chief (Mike) Koval asked me before that shooting, ‘Could Ferguson ever happen in Madison?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Could I put you on speed dial so that we can talk whenever these things kind of happen?’

But as national news outlets started reaching out to me and other black leaders to talk about our experiences, we were told by white leaders in the community that that was not our job to speak on Madison’s issues on a national level because we were threatening Madison’s business … that we were told to stand down and that we were getting out of place.

DC: You’ve been working on creating change for a while now. How do you think that change is made? Is it many small actions, is it a few drastic changes or is it a combination of both?

AG: It’s a combination of both.

But the big thing is we need the help of our non-black allies to help us to dismantle these systems, so ask questions of the media about diversity, ask questions about banks and their lending practices … use your voices as white allies to help us move this system while we build capacity in black leaders to continue to lead and share their voices.

We’re so afraid of each other and separate from each other that we don’t have the capacity to really build solutions together. It’s got to happen on a policy, on a practice and on a personal level. But we’ve got to walk and work together and strategize together.