Well, I'd thought Lileks would comment on recent events in His Fair City (I just live here). No, but he did have this to say:
Rearrangement of the entire national purpose along racial lines. E Pluribus Unum vs. Ein Reich, Ein Volk. I know, I know - just because it's on the money doesn't mean it's so, but if you think this nation is trending towards some sort of government-enforced ethic purity, you really need to get out of your suburb more, and visit me in the city. Black people! Brown people! Yellow people! Mingling and living with impunity!
I'm guessing he wrote this before he saw the news, then.
You can see the neighborhood change before your eyes going through Minneapolis. The bus is best for that, I think; driving is too isolated, walking (for me, at least) means getting asked for drugs and stopped by the cops. But any way you do it, it's impossible not to notice that you move from African-Americans here to Somalis there to Hmong there, and even though there'll be a mix with your fellow passengers/drivers/pedestrians, it's a stretch to say they're mingling. Unless this is a euphemism for "not openly at each other's throats."
You might be wondering about white folks.
Note carefully how Lileks ain't mention 'em either.
Want to know more? See the Racial Segregation Statistics for Cities and Metropolitan Areas if you're into that whole objective data thing. Before the Racial Privacy Initiative types shut 'em down.
Update: Fuckit. SEGREGATION: NEIGHBORHOOD EXPOSURE BY RACE for Minneapolis/St. Paul. And here's Chicago, just for comparison.
I'll agree with Lileks on one thing, though. The suburbs are usually even worse.
Fortunately, most of them are within the blast radius.
Do the queers [mostly white- it IS Minneapolis] in Loring Park count as wimmen&minorities, then? B/c if I remember correctly, the Franklin bus kinda starts there, before moving through [at least] Hispanic/Latino, Hmong, Native American, Somali, African-American areas before running smack into the U [again, mostly white.]
& I always wondered why the goodwhitefolks at the Dept couldn't understand why I took it.
Obviously- we weren't at each others' throats.
Kinda nice, really.
According to the segregation statistics on that site I linked, no, queers count for nothing. Typical. Minneapolis does rank 3rd for concentration of gay and lesbian couples, according to gfn.com, among others. After Fort Lauderdale and Seattle.
For some reason, I find these rankings difficult to accept.
Or I'm out of coffee and don't feel like walking to the Wedge. Driving there seems silly. Wish there was a coffee shop nearby. . .