I see my peeps in Wisconsin are voting today, despite the single digit temperatures. Yes, I have peeps in Wisconsin too, in addition to New Mexico, Louisiana, Ohio, and yes, Texas. I lived in all those places, once or twice.
It seems as if Wisconsin is natural territory for Obama, but that's just my warped perception. When we were there we were affiliated with "the UW", as it was referred to. I can see Barack Obama racking up huge numbers from the 40,000 students in Madison's various student housing projects, and among the professorial enclaves in West Madison.
And, contrary to its reputation, Wisconsin does have more than a few black voters. After the diaspora of the early 20th century, when large numbers of blacks moved away from the sharecropper South to Chicago, there was another mini-diaspora, to more prosperous cities like Madison and Milwaukee. My neighbor was a black woman originally from Franklin, Louisiana, who'd moved to Chicago and then to Madison. I always felt I had more in common with her than I did with my white bread neighbors.
A funny you-had-to-be-there story: Once, when we were driving home (to Louisiana), somewhere in Illinois or Missouri we noticed another car with Wisconsin plates. Curious, we peered into the car, and beheld a black family. Okay, not too unusual. The next car also bore Wisconsin plates and a black family. After 20 or so cars, we were definitely seeing a trend. An African-American convoy. When we pulled in front of the last one, my daughter, who was around 12 at the time, said "I feel like Harriet Tubman! Except...we're going the wrong way!"
So, if you live in Wisconsin, consider yourself one of my peeps. Our six years there were among the best we had anywhere, and the people there are truly among the friendliest in the world, regardless of whether they are black, white, or striped like a badger.
(Did you know Wisconsin is known as the Badger State because of the Cornish miners who settled there, digging like badgers into the ground?)
