So a couple of summers ago, while visiting family in my hometown, my little sister, now grown up, decided we should go bar hopping. She and her friends took me out to one of the bars downtown, and, to my surprise, Milwaukee did have a thriving nightlife. The crowd was majority white: we intrepid gaggle of a few men and women of color peppered the massive bar space with Nelly or Kanye or Jay or Big blaring a bit too loudly through the speakers drinking out of cups swaying to music. The bros sang on beat to every Jay lyric dropped on Give It To Me.

I caught the interest of one of the bros — a white dude in a ...