some personally interesting elements from this NY review of books essay by jelani cobb.
“In 2019 Minneapolis ranked, according to US News & World Report, among the best places in the US to live, but it was also among the cities with the worst socioeconomic disparities between black and white residents, with a $47,000 gap separating the median household income of the two groups—shocking even for the United States. Seventy-six percent of whites in the area owned their homes; only a quarter of blacks did.”
these stats are painful to read, and speak to a deep failing locally. so much for “minnesota nice”.
…
In an op-ed following Floyd’s death, former Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges pointed to racial hypocrisy as a cause of the crisis:
White liberals, despite believing we are saying and doing the right things, have resisted the systemic changes our cities have needed for decades. We have mostly settled for illusions of change, like testing pilot programs and funding volunteer opportunities.
These efforts make us feel better about racism, but fundamentally change little for the communities of color whose disadvantages often come from the hoarding of advantage by mostly white neighborhoods.
hodges nailed it. little/nothing has changed. everything from the pushback on the 2040 plan from ward 13, to the charter commission activities over the past year has had the stink of this kind of behavior and our current ward 13 representation has done nothing to address or change any of it.
– A Warning Ignored | by Jelani Cobb | The New York Review of Books
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- location: Minneapolis
- weather: 73.4°F and Mostly Cloudy