As Eric Holder ended his tenure as U.S. Attorney General, he said, “The troubling reality is that we lack the ability right now to comprehensively track the number of incidents of either uses of force directed at police officers, or uses of force by police,” he said, at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event. “This strikes many – including me – as unacceptable.” As it stands, both … [Read more...]
Increased Black home ownership would slice wealth gap
Researchers studying the affects of public policy on the racial wealth gap estimated that the median wealth of Black households would rise 451 percent if Blacks owned homes at the same rates as Whites. “With policies that advance the rate of Black and Latino homeownership to the same rate as White households, Black median wealth would more than quadruple and Latino media … [Read more...]
U.S. sets up disenchanted citizens
The CNN newscasts and others blast headlines like, “ISIS recruits threaten to carry out assassination of Obama.” And the headlines probably got most folks attention and scared most of them. ISIS members/recruits threatening to kill the president sounds serious. But upon further review this appears to be the case of the government setting up some poor people who have espoused … [Read more...]
Heeding a ‘Call to Action’
A biweekly column in which various contributors from both sides of prison walls explore common ground for effecting change. Our Bridging the Gap workshop on October 1, 2014 was an historic day on many levels. Forty community organizers and advocates came into the Lino Lakes Correctional Facility together. The workshop was a true collaboration of inmates, community leaders, … [Read more...]
Council on Black Minnesotans being weakened
In the new movie Selma, Martin Luther King, Jr. works tirelessly to integrate Black Americans socially (education, opportunity), economically (jobs, housing), and politically (voting, holding office). He understood “American” refers not to race, religion or country of origin, but to the ideal of “truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…with certain unalienable … [Read more...]