Belling 'Defended' Summerfest For Eliminating Black Acts

During his anti-Summerfest monologue Monday in the wake of its decision to remove a violent US Army game from this year's festival, WISN-AM 1130 talker and self-described jilted Summerfest sycophant Mark Belling listed all the apparently unappreciated "water-carrying" he done for the Summerfest.

Including this odd, racially-charged bit of 'defense' for Summerfest:

"It's decision to eliminate virtually all Black groups," Belling said, in favor of acts that appealed to what he called "Oldfogeyville."

Hey, Summerfest: How's all that sitting with you?

You can hear it on his podcast, Hour Two, Part One.

Begin at the ten-minute mark, though much of the entire segment is taken up with his unhappiness with Summerfest's current management.

By the way, this is not the first time that Belling has racialized Summerfest.

Last year he used his column in The Freeman, the Waukesha daily paper, to warn parents against letting their children attend the Summerfest concert by the hip-hop artist Ludacris.

(The link to Belling's column is no longer active, but I had copied some key sentences into a blog posting: "Thanks, Summerfest. This is what we really need right now," Belling writes. "Advice to the rest of us: July 1 might not be the night you want to be hanging around the lakefront.")

There were no reported incidents of violence following the concert - - just more affirmation that Belling demagogues race for ratings and effect.