A New York Times article sought to expose Wausau and Marathon County’s racial tensions. Some say that ‘snapshot’ only made things worse. – Wausau…

WAUSAU When The New York Times first reportedon Marathon County's Community for All resolutionin mid-May, a national audience focused on a place in Wisconsin that would rather be known for primeskiing, a sprawlingstate park, ginseng and dairyfarms ... and its Midwestern niceresidents.

Wausau Daily Herald reporters, who have been following the resolution for months, receiveddozens of messages in the daysafter the Times article published, from local residents and people acrossWisconsin, askingessentiallythe same question:Whats the deal with Wausau?

"Does (the County Board)intend to continue embarrassing our community in front of the whole nation?" one local residentwrote in an email to the Daily Herald.

The widespread attention has heightenedtensions, concaving into the city of Wausau, which tends to lean slightly more progressive in its politics than other parts ofMarathon County. The city is now struggling with itsown version of the resolution one meant to signal the community is welcoming and inclusive for people from all backgrounds and identities, and stands against hate and intolerance.

At the last City Council meeting, council member Lisa Rasmussen said Wausau's adaption of the county'sCommunity for Allidea would not change peoples' behaviors but instead "pour gas on the fires of division" that already exist.

And those divisions are not unique to Wausau or isolated to the topics of race and equity, Rasmussen said.

"The community is as divided as the rest of the country. We spent all last year fighting about the pandemic. We spent all of last year fighting about the election. We spent a good portion of this year fighting about the election," she said. "There's a clear division in our community andall (of) this permeates into that."

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The Times wasn't the first to report on the Community for Allissue; the Daily Herald and other local news outlets had providedextensive coverage of the resolution.The gist of it is thatMarathon Countys Diversity Affairs Commissionhas beentrying to push forward a resolution that seeks to acknowledge racial disparities and inequities, while facing fierce resistance from conservatives and some elected officials who believe there's no racismin the county.

The County Board's ExecutiveCommittee shot down the resolution in a 6-2 vote May 13 that drew the attention of aTimes reporter, who covered the decision and the heated debate around the topic.

In his article, Reid Epstein wrote, About the only consensus that has emerged is that the prolonged fight over a four-word phrase (A Community for All) has only made things worse, ripping at the communal fabric in this central Wisconsin county and amplifying the tensions that had been simmering before(George)Floyds death.

But some who are deeply invested in the community believe the Times article itself amplified those tensions, no matter whether it was intentional.

Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg, already a frequent sourcein national media reports on Midwest politics, said the city has become a political punching bag since theTimes published the article, transformed intothe center of a national debate on race.

It kind of exacerbated whats already going on, Rosenberg said. Theres a lot offinger-pointing."

She detailed emails from constituents,whofalsely claim she recruited the Times to the cityto report on the issue.After that report,an anti-Black Lives Mattergroup addressed theMarathon County Board and madeanother false remark about Rosenberg, saying shesupported exterminating people who are Black.(On Twitter, Rosenberg immediately called the comments "absolute inflammatory nonsense," adding in a comment, "I absolutely oppose genocide.")

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Rosenberg is one of the more outspoken liberal figures in the city; she has expressed immense disappointment in the county's rejection of the Diversity Affairsresolution and proceeded to declarethe city of Wausau a Community for All."

But shes confused why the Times singled out Wausau specifically.

"After that first article ran, I was like This isnt a Wausau issue.It isnta Wisconsin issue, she said.While its about us,itsnot a story exclusively about us its happening across thecountry andworld.

Marathon County Board member William Harris(Photo: Courtesy of Marathon County)

Marathon County Board member William Harrisisone of the main proponents for the Community for All resolution. The only Black member of the County Board, Harris was quoted in The New York Times story.He said the article was accuratebut only a snapshot in time.

At the end of the day, this is for our community here,Harrissaid. Its difficult because people (across the country) will draw their own conclusions one way or the other.

It doesnt send a good sign outward if we cant even say were welcoming. ... I dont think itrepresentsus well. I dont think it shows us well. I think our community has so much to offer and so much to give.

Harris said he "fully intends" for a new versionto go to the county's Executive Committee again in July.

The Daily Herald has made several attempts to reach the County Board members who voted against the resolution in the Executive Committee Chair Kurt Gibbs,Vice Chair Craig McEwen and board members Matt Bootz,Randy Fifrick, Jacob Langenhahn andE.J. Stark but only oneresponded to an interview request.

Stark resigned in May. He told the Daily Herald that he is "done with politics for the time being" and that there was "too much stuff unfolding right now."

Fifrick, who represents District 15 encompassing the village ofKronenwetter, said he hopes the County Board can reach some middle ground.

Randy Fifrick(Photo: Wausau Daily Herald)

"If we're going to have a resolution that we title as a 'Community for All,' it should be something that the majority of our community can support, not something that creates a greater divide,"Fifrick said, explaining why he voted against the resolution in May. "I'm happy to support the resolution, but we need to find the right wording and language where people don't feel alienated."

But Fifrick acknowledged that even he's unsure if his rationale is "right or wrong."

"There needs to be some collaboration between both sides.That's what I'm hoping to see," he said.

Meanwhile, the Wausau City Council voted 6-5 on June 15to send its own version of the resolution mirroring the mayor's proclamation in Mayback to committee.

One of the proposed revisions was to remove mention of The New York Times' coverage in the resolution.

Rasmussen, who proposed sending the resolution back to committee, saidthere was "palpable division in the room."

"The decision that we need to make hereneeds to reflect the majority of public opinion in each district, whether we agree with that majority or not,"Rasmussen said."The county struggled with this issue for over a year and couldn't find common ground. There has got to be a reason for that.

"We have taken on issues that are a really hard fit for local governments to solve."

KayleyMcColley,a21-year-old local activist who lives in Wausau, said her hometownis being puton the map for all the wrong reasons. She's not sure that's entirely bad, even if it's not fair to those who believe in fighting racism and supporting equality.

I dont feel like it was a disadvantage for the article to come out because it holds a mirror up to Wausau, she said. But this is not representative of Wausau."

Kayley McColley at the June 6, 2020 march she helped organize in Wausau to honor George Floyd, who was killed at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020.(Photo: Courtesy of Kayley McColley)

Epstein, who declined to speak with the Daily Herald about his reporting, followed up on the resolution last weekin an article headlined, I Reported on a Community Dispute. The Dispute Got Worse.

Its always a reporters goal to illuminate an issue, not create more problems we travel to places like Wausau to reflect the mood of the country, Epstein wrote. This article happened to awaken emotions that broke out into the open after it published, shining a light on long-simmering community tensions.

Doug McLeod, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,said conflictcan indeed be threatening, especially to smallercities, and that the national attention that Wausau is receiving woulddisappearinto everything else in a city like New York or Chicago.

(Conflicts) can be more divisive, they can raise tensions in smaller communities, said McLeod,who studiessocial conflicts and the mass media. "Those communities might look for scapegoats to place blame, (and) its often the person coming in from outside like a journalist from New York.

Its true that neither Epsteinnor the Times nor any other outside force caused Marathon Countys problems in addressing the topic of race those have been embedded in cities and counties across the U.S.for centuries, McLeod said.But he addedthat sometimesjournalistsmake generalizations and get things wrong.

Journalists work hard and do their best, but they often dont get the whole story, he said.

For example, Rosenberg told TheNew York Times for Epstein's more recent article that seeing Wausaus local political dispute play out in front of a national audience has undercutherefforts to bring the community together.Shes quoted saying, We have ripped our relationship apart.

But she told the Daily Heraldthatsometimes things need to rip like a muscle in order to grow stronger.

Im hoping were not just irreparably torn apart I dont think we are, she said. I think were building the muscle and learning how to have that conversation.

Harris said, if anything, hehopes the national spotlight will press people who havent tuned in to the debate to make their voices heard.

We allhave todo our part to step up and have these conversations," he said. "I hope this will be a call to action for people to engage and get involved.

Contact Allison Garfield at 715-351-9799 or agarfield@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @aligarfield_.

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A New York Times article sought to expose Wausau and Marathon County's racial tensions. Some say that 'snapshot' only made things worse. - Wausau...