Amid anger and destruction, Kenoshans seek reconciliation

The world’s picture of Kenosha, Wisconsin, is of the city set ablaze by riots after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Today, its streets show the nuance of America’s racial narrative and the humanity that is never extinguished.

Andre Ross is leaning against the hood of his white Pontiac, drinking McDonald’s coffee in front of what used to be Uptown Restaurant. He’s staring at the boarded up and burned out strip of businesses along 22nd Avenue, which served mainly Black patrons.

“I used to get my phone there. ... And then those tacos over there I used to get,” he says, gesturing up and down the now-quiet street. “And that lady over there at the end, she used to sell mattresses and sometimes people would be short with the money, and she’d just let them have it.”

Mr. Ross lives a couple of miles away by the police station, where all the new fencing around a National Guard outpost – visible from his backyard – makes him feel as if he’s living in Afghanistan. Some 1,000 troops have been sent in over the past week to curtail the violence that ensued after a police officer shot Jacob Blake in the back on Aug. 23.

“I had to come down here and eat my breakfast and see it all,” he says. “I see this happen on TV in different cities. But my little city of 100,000 people?”

“I understand that Black Lives Matter, I understand all of that. But what I don’t understand is this,” says Mr. Ross, looking at the charred hulks of brick, twisted rods, and melted glass left in the wake of the violence. “If you don’t know a way to be heard, you need to find a way. Because this is not the way.”