How Not to Talk About Race

Black attendees got to silently listen to lots of well-meaning White folks talk about how, y’know, they felt bad about it, but they wouldn’t want to be Black because they would be profiled, targeted, have a more difficult life, etc. Being Black is, apparently, just being White but harder.

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Abuse of CDC Coronavirus Testers: Minnesota Nice

You know those stories you hear, about tribal communities in countries of the Global South refusing immunizations, attacking health care workers, rejecting science, and behaving in opposition to recommended guidelines when contagious diseases break out? Have you ever thought, what the hell is wrong with those people? Have you ever felt a little bit of […]

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Defunding Police and Seeing Clearly

I have never been so proud to be a Minneapolitan. There is no city I would rather live in right now. Real change is resting in our hands; not just in policing, but in community resilience and care and connections and in our way of thinking.

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LA 1992; Minneapolis 2020

On May 4, 1992, when the verdicts acquitting the officers who brutally beat Rodney King were announced at 3:15pm, my BFA acting class and I were between performances at the Globe theatre in West Hollywood, showcases for an audience of agents and casting directors meant to be our coming out to The Industry, the grand […]

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Racism in Minnesota

We have to stop lying about Minnesota. “Our” success is almost exclusively White. When we fail to acknowledge that our state reliably churns out some of the worst racial disparities in health, education, employment, and wealth, we are dehumanizing People of Color.

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Not Monsters: Americans

It is possible that those police officers are psychopaths, but it is a thousand times more likely that they, just like us, are the products of a racist education, racist myths, and racist media. Some of us are lucky enough to have been born into or found a community that attempts to deracinate that American foundation; others wind up in frightened, ignorant White families or frightened, toxic police departments that cultivate and extend those racist roots.

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Minnesota White

Originally posted on clawing my way to enlightenment:
Last night was the last night of our 6 month, once-a-month, Unpacking Whiteness exploration at the Zen Center. I honestly got more out of it than I thought I would, and when we went around the circle to give a brief comment on our reaction to the…

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