The Milwaukee metropolitan area is taking what seems to be its annual beating in the media because of its racially segregated housing patterns.  According to a new report from the Brookings Institution based on 2005-09 census data, the City of Milwaukee and the surrounding area including Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha Counties is virtually tied for first  (or last!) with Detroit and New York City for the highest degree of black-white residential segregation.  A second study conducted by John Logan of Brown University ranked Milwaukee second in residential segregation by race to only the New York City metropolitan area.  Newark, Detroit, and Chicago were next on Logan’s list.

To what extent are the troubling rankings and the patterns to which they point truly based on race?  American racism is hardly dead and buried, but in our society race often obscures the equally pernicious workings of socioeconomic class inequality.