Insight ::: 02.20.2023

1. That Minnesota governor Tim Walz, meets with representatives of Minnesota Black communities t0 affirms Minnesota’s commitment to prioritize disparities elimination in all aspect of Minnesota governance and administration.

2. That the Governor hold his appointed State Commissioners and the state departments they lead accountable for measurable and reportable processes and strategies to eliminate disparities that exist in and that are supported by policies and procedures of state governance.

3. That the Minnesota Legislature prioritize intentional solution making that can occur when Legislators, Committee Chairs and Committees engage Minnesota’s Black community at the table of decision.

1. Business and Economic Development

Invest now in Black folks and their abilities to create businesses in the community.

An article published by the Brooking Institute stated that the underrepresentation of Black businesses does not come from a lack of will or talent. Rather, the underrepresentation of Black businesses encapsulates a myriad of structural barriers underscoring America’s tumultuous history with structural racism. One of the principal barriers to the growth and development of Black businesses is that Black households have been denied equal opportunities for wealth accumulation. The median Black household’s wealth ($9,000) is nearly one-fifteenth that of non-Black households ($134,520). The article states that 90% of new businesses among all races do not receive any outside investors. Most people use the equity in their homes to start their firms. This is a huge disadvantage to Black folks in Minnesota because of the home ownership gap. Further, the report stated that minority owned businesses experience higher loan denial probabilities and pay higher interest rates than white-owned businesses even after controlling for differences in credit-worthiness, and other factors. Limited access to investment capital in its many forms is inextricably linked to systemic discrimination in lending, housing, and employment. It cripples Black business development.

2. Employment

Invest now in creating employment opportunities for the Black community

In an article published by the Urban Institute, the issue of Black employment was addressed. It stated that, “while many are heralding the drop in the national Black male unemployment rate, which recently fell below 10 percent for the first time in seven years, joblessness remains much higher in many poor African American communities. It stated that for many low-income Black men, finding and keeping work is a constant struggle, never far from their minds. Black job applicants might not even make it into the queue if they have had an encounter with the criminal justice system. Helping Black folks secure steady employment at decent wages will require resources to break down the institutional barriers that separate people from decent job opportunities and to enable Black people to build the skills needed for well-paying jobs

3. Public Safety

Invest now in Public Safety in the Black community.

Public safety exists to protect citizens, organizations, and communities by preventing them from being in danger and guarding their well-being. Abraham Maslow defined safety in his famous “Hierarchy of Human Needs“. He said that to function as a society public safety is needed. He said this safety goes beyond just physical safety but also safety when it comes to health, money, possessions, and family. Less we forget, there’s an Emotional Impact on Public Safety. When folks feel unsafe, it could have major effects on individuals, their loved ones, and the community they live in. Violence has been way to prevalent in the inner cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Playgrounds are unsafe, the streets are unsafe, and the shopping malls are unsafe.

4. Housing

Invest now in multiple housing options for the Black community to close the home ownership gap.

Multiple housing options are an important part of any community. It provides a safe and affordable place for people to live and can help reduce poverty and homelessness. However, there are many challenges associated with providing low-income housing, such as limited resources, high demand, and the need to ensure that the housing is safe and secure. Minneapolis has one of the widest homeownership gaps in the country between whites and Blacks.

5. Education Invest now in ensuring that our Black students are educated at the same level as White students.

Dr. Sinclair Grey lll stated that education is without a doubt crucial to the success of our students competing for jobs. Quality education that enforces and reinforces math, science, writing, and cognitive thinking will separate those who desire a prosperous future from those who are simply content with getting by. Yet, in Minnesota, reading test scores for Black students are over 20 points below state average and math test scores are 20 points below state average. Minnesota ranks 50th in the nation for Black students who graduate on time. Minnesota has one of the worst college-readiness gaps in the nation by race and ethnicity – only 25% of Black students are prepared for college. Thus, Black students who attend college must take significantly more remedial courses than their peers as their starting point.

6. Health & Wellness

Invest now in efforts that will impact the health and wellness of the Black community. The Black community is faced with escalating social, economic, and life-style problems, which threaten the life and well-being of current and future generations of Black people in crisis proportion. The rising number of deaths due to heart disease and stroke, homicide and accidents related to substance abuse, AIDS, cancer, and infant mortality are among the leading culprits. They interfere with prospects of longevity and contribute to joblessness, poverty, and homelessness and further complicate the crisis in the Black community. The magnitude of the problems dictates the need for support from the Minnesota State Legislature.

7. Policy

Each member of the legislature, regardless of political affiliation, is involved in setting public policy. These policies should reflect the will of the people and is carried out by those elected to vote. Because of conflicting interests and capacities, some policies have disenfranchised the Black community. There is therefore a need for coherence of interest/capacities in an attempt to pass policies that reflect the needs of the Black community.

Every time another national “quality of life” is broadcast or published about the best places to live in the U.S., Minnesota and the Twin Cities always rank at or near the top. The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson once referred to this as the miracle of Minneapolis.” Likewise, every time those lists are parsed out further, the state and the metro fall all the way to the bottom when it comes to quality of life measures for Black people, or, what some have called the “Two Minnesotas.” But to ensure that all those in our state have the opportunity to thrive, we cannot forget about the communities that have been systematically abused, persistently underrepresented, and long underserved.

Minnesota is now the seventh (7th) worst state in the country for Blacks to live. This dubious recognition alongside the May 2020 murder of George Floyd has brought the State into an era of racial reckoning and has put racial inequity at the center of the national conversation, and Minnesota on the racial map. Today Black folks are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to live below the poverty line. Additionally, the typical Black household earns just 63 cents for every dollar a typical white household earns, and African American workers are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white workers.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 24/7 Wall St. created an index to measure socioeconomic disparities between Black and white Americans to identify the worst states for Black Americans. High on the list of cities that have extremely troubling disparities is Minneapolis-St. Paul. Minnesota’s urban core boast these disturbing rates:

• Black population: 290,210 (8.2% of total)

• Black median income: $36,127 (44.0% of white income)

• Unemployment: 9.2% (Black); 3.2% (white)

• Homeownership rate: 25.2% (Black); 75.5% (white)

• Black poverty rate of 28.3% in the metro area, 5.9% (white)

• Black medium household earn $36,127 a year — the median income among white area households is $82,118.

The profound racial wealth gaps for Blacks in Minnesota is structural, as they are across the United States. Structural racism is inherent in intersecting and overlapping institutions, policies, practices, ideas, and behaviors that give resources, rights, and power to white people while denying them to others. The roots of racial wealth gaps can be traced back centuries through racialized public and private policies and practices, which fueled economic boosts to white families that allowed for intergenerational wealth transfers and created barriers to Black families. Past discrimination and injustices accumulate and build across generations, making it hard for communities that have been harmed to catch up. As one example, the losses from unpaid wages and lost inheritances to Black descendants is estimated at around $20 trillion today. The NAACP Twin Cities 2019 Economic Inclusion Plan states: “There are two Minnesota’s, one white, one Black – separate and unequal.”

Data from the 2019 Prosperity Now Scorecard shows that 40% of Americans are liquid asset poor—meaning they do not have enough in savings to make ends meet at the poverty level for three months ($6,275 for a family of four in 2018). This problem is even more stark when disaggregated by race. 31.7% of white households are liquid-asset poor compared to over 62% of Black households.

Recent trends in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties are moving in the wrong direction. The share of Black families who own a home has declined from 31 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2018. The racial homeownership gap in the Twin Cities is the highest in the nation and has only widened over the past two decades, especially in neighborhoods where investors have acquired hundreds of single-family homes to now use as rentals, according to a June 2021 report from the Urban Institute.

Repa Mekha: Changing lives

By Pulane Choane Contributing Writer

It is hard to imagine the wise, articulate and charismatic Repa Mekha, today a community leader in the Twin Cities, as a troubled 20-something-yearold sentenced to more than five years in prison. Yet on YouTube’s

The Conversation With Al McFarlane, he admits bravely that his journey today as a life-changing community leader began in Milwaukee, where he made a series of bad decisions that fatefully led him to where he is today.

Today, Mekha leads Nexus Community Partners, whose $50 million grant trust fund will support Black wealth building and historic Black communities in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Centering on entrepreneurship, home ownership and education, the trust fund initiative launches in the first half of 2023. Nexus will also launch a program aimed at teaching communities ways of resting in a new and unconventional way.

“Both my parents transitioned to ancestor hood when I was young. And so, my 18-year-old sister raised us. But

San Francisco committee recommends massive reparations payout for Black residents

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

Each Black inhabitant of San Francisco, including those arrested during the racist war on drugs, should receive a one-time, lump-sum payment of $5 million from the African American Reparations Advisory Committee.

Assuming the city council approves the proposal, it would be the largest payment of reparations in American history.

In a study released this week, members of the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee noted, “We have ultimately established that the repercussions of numerous programmatic and policy actions by San Francisco’s administration have been

generational and overlapping.”

Committee members asserted that most prominent period that illustrates how the city and county of San Francisco as an institution contributed to the depletion of Black wealth and the forced relocation of its Black inhabitants was the period of urban renewal.

Further, the committee concluded that “public and private entities facilitated and coddled the conditions that created nearexclusive Black communities within the city, limited political participation and representation, disinvested from academic and cultural institutions, and intentionally displaced Black communities from San Francisco through targeted, sometimes violent actions”

(San Francisco’s African American population grew rapidly between 1940 and 1963).

The San Francisco committee recommended that low-income African Americans get an annual payment equivalent to the region median for at least 250 years, on top of the $5 million payout.

To address what the San Francisco Chronicle calls “a national racial reckoning,” the Board of Supervisors established the AARAC committee in December 2020. According to the Chronicle, what happens next

“will demonstrate whether San Francisco lawmakers are serious about tackling the city’s checkered past or are merely pretending to be.”

The committee’s investigation determined

ACER seeks legislative fast track for emergency rental assistance

By Vanessa Muthama

Contributing Writer Focus on Brooklyn Park

“Call legislative leadership, fast track emergency rental assistance.” This was ACER’s statement to Minnesota residents as a result of the proposed legislation aiming at preventing housing eviction.

Unfortunately, there is no bill yet, despite the lawmakers and Minnesota Housing expressing their interest in fast-tracking emergency rental assistance. The “lawmakers must do everything to ensure no family is displaced and unhoused,

especially in the colder winter months.” However, why exactly is this organization, fighting to ensure families and individuals stay housed?

African Career, Education, & Resources Inc. (ACER) is a nongovernmental organization that offers community service in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, USA. Its main focus is the Africans in the Diaspora, specifically the West African immigrants. As their mission statement states all they want to achieve is “build power to achieve systematic change that advances racial and economic equity for our communities.”

Interestingly, the NGO focuses on other issues affecting people of color other than housing eviction which can lead to other numerous effects; homelessness, work instability, and risks to one’s health, especially when the eviction is during harsh weather conditions, among others.

The Background ACER was established back in 2008. Since this time, the staff has “looked to community members to bring concerns, ideas, and issues to the table.” Therefore, ACER is concerned with the experiences of the Africans in Brooklyn Park.

It is creating access, equity, and opportunity for groups that are underrepresented in this area.

The Work of ACER ACER addresses 4 main issues affecting hundreds of immigrants including;

Civic Engagement According to ACER “Civic Engagement mission is to help community members come together and make their voices heard.” That is why they empower the community residents to be a part of civic processes by engaging in them.

ACER 4

WASHINGTON – U.S.

Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh joined Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker today to sign a memorandum that gives the Occupational Safety and Health Administration the authority to issue certifications in support of applications for

U Nonimmigrant Status and

T Nonimmigrant Status visas.

“U Visas” and “T Visas” allow victims of specific crimes to help law enforcement detect, investigate and prosecute crimes without fear of retaliation based on their immigration status. These visas provide immigration status to noncitizen victims and allow them to remain in the U.S. to assist authorities in combatting human trafficking and other crimes.

For the first time, OSHA will be able to issue these visa certifications – during its workplace safety investigations – when the agency identifies qualifying criminal activities,

in that environment, the family males took to the streets, hustled, and did whatever we could to bring money in”, he says.

After joining the gang as a 13-year-old, Mekha was in a maximum security prison by the time he was twenty years old. He was sentenced to more than seven years. While locked up, Mekha got his GED. With encouragement from an instructor who saw his potential, he was also able to overcome what he called “imposter syndrome” and study towards a college degree. After a few classes and excelling in them, he soon discovered that his newfound love for learning was changing his perspectives on education and his life. This was also around the same time he was transferred to a medium-security prison because of the college program offered.

After earning his associate degree while in prison, he transferred again, this time to a 4-year college. This opened doors for his career, starting with a position as an academic advisor and then eventually a position at Freeport West, where he was for more than 15 years. While working at Freeport, Mekha had a series of

including manslaughter, trafficking, extortion, felonious assault, forced labor and obstruction of justice. OSHA’s new authority – effective March 30, 2023 – will strengthen its ability to protect all workers, including those whose immigration status or other social and cultural inequities discourage them from sharing information with investigators or reporting workplace safety and health issues. The authority will also provide the agency with a critical tool for protecting immigrant and migrant worker communities regardless of their lack of immigration status or temporary employment authorization.

“Expanding OSHA’s U and T visa certification authority helps the agency better fulfill its mission to make U.S. workplaces as safe and healthy as possible,”said Assistant

‘Centuries of devastation and destruction of Black lives, Black bodies, and Black communities should be met with centuries of restoration’

SAN FRAN 4

Photo by Uche Iroegbu

Repa Mekha

US Department of Labor expands OSHA’s ability to protect all workers by certifying special visa

Affirmative Action is in jeopardy

Hobb servation Point

By Chuck Hobbs

Affirmative Action, at least as we have known it since the end of the Civil Rights era, may soon vanish if the Students for Fair Admissions (S.F.F.A.), a group challenging admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina in the latest U.S. Supreme Court term, has it way.

During oral arguments last fall, the S.F.F.A. averred that these prestigious predominantly white institutions’ desire for “diversity” is “grievously wrong” and produces “crude stereotyping.”

Sigh...

To begin, today’s blog is not another swipe at those who didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016, a move that allowed President Donald Trump to appoint three conservatives, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, to tilt the court 6-3 to the ideological right. No, my purpose today is to remind that long before we ever could have imagined a Trump presidency, the seeds to eliminate race as a factor in hiring, admissions, and contracting was already well under way across the United States.

In fact, from the time that Democratic Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson first started issuing executive orders in

Mekha

the 1960’s to affirmatively remedy past discrimination against Blacks, many whites across the ideological spectrum immediately cried “foul” and introduced what I often call a legal oxymoron, “reverse discrimination against whites,” into the American English lexicon. Oxymoron, I submit, because when, in the history of ever, have Black folks had the power to prevent white folks, en masse, from attending school, obtaining bank loans, buying property, eating in a restaurant, trying on clothes, or being treated at a hospital? Black folks never had such power... Digressing, while the Kennedy, Johnson, and (Richard) Nixon administrations directed federal agencies and publicly funded institutions to initiate measures to increase minority hiring and enrollment, from the first, these efforts were called “quotas” and criticized as promoting less qualified Black candidates over whites—even when the data proved that objective measures were often identical or in many cases, higher for talented Black candidates. One of the first serious legal challenges to Affirmative Action occurred in 1978 when the United States Supreme Court rendered its decision in the Bakke vs. the University of California Board of Regents case. Allan Bakke, the petitioner, was born in 1940 and raised in segregated Miami, Florida, where he graduated from then all-white Coral Gables High School before attending the University of Minnesota.

During college, Bakke enrolled in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) and upon graduation, was commissioned and later served a tour of duty in Vietnam, where he rose to the rank of Captain.

After leaving the military in 1972, Bakke, then 32 years old, applied for admission to medical school at both the University of Southern California and Northwestern, two private schools that rejected him, in part, due to his age.

In 1973, Bakke applied to medical school at the relatively new University of CaliforniaDavis, a public school, and according to the admissions committee, submitted numerical qualifications which included a 3.44 GPA and a Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) score that placed him in the top three percent of applicants.

Despite his qualifications, Bakke was denied admission again, in part, to his age. But what was of particular consternation to Bakke was the fact that UC-Davis had a special admissions program that allowed Blacks and Hispanic applicants with allegedly lower numerical qualifications to compete for 16 seats that were set aside strictly for racial minority admission.

Bakke sued in state and later in federal court and argued that UC-Davis’ program violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The lower court held that UCDavis’ program ostensibly was a quota system that inured benefits to racial minorities, further holding that but for the

set asides, that Bakke likely would have been admitted.

On appeal, in 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the UC-Davis program was unconstitutional on the grounds that it excluded applicants on account of race. Still, while the Bakke decision eliminated exclusions based solely upon race, it left the option open for public institutions to use race as “a” factor in admissions—a status that remained in effect in California until Ward Connerly, a “Black” businessman, led the movement to pass Proposition 209 in 1996; Prop 209 eliminated the use of “race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin” in California university admissions.

While Bakke later earned a medical degree from UC-Davis in 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court has occasionally considered overturning race as even a factor for consideration ever since, most recently in the 2016 Fisher vs. University of Texas case which upheld Affirmative Action for a time.

But alas, Affirmative Action’s time may soon be up when considering the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority; Justice Clarence Thomas, an outspoken opponent of Affirmative Action for decades, dimssively derided arguments in favor of student body diversity during oral arguments last fall by stating, “I don’t have a clue what (diversity) means.” Thomas’s insouciance comes as no surprise when considering that he has candidly admitted that his own admission to Yale Law—

and appointment to the Supreme Court at the age of 43 despite having very limited judicial experience—were both due to his race more than his objective qualifications, but that his own advancement doesn’t mean that race based advancing is right!

With Thomas and fellow Justice Samuel Alito being the senior conservative votes on the court, and cognizant that junior conservative Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney-Barrett have all voted in lock-step with the pair on issues ranging from crime and punishment to abortion, it is likely that the requisite five votes to eliminate Affirmative Action are in place; just as I predicted that federal abortion rights would be eliminated this time last year, I am convinced that Affirmative Action will be eliminated when the pronouncements are given this June. On the one hand, what angers me is that with regards to prestigious public PWI’s like the University of North Carolina and the University of Florida, is knowing that those schools are funded by tax revenue derived

from ALL citizens and tourists in those states—not just white ones. Indeed, there’s something perverse by the idea that Black folks can help fund a school, but their kids and grandkids may not get accepted—unless they are a football or basketball player that helps bring in even more revenue to “State U.” On the other hand, doors closing at so-called prestigious predominantly white schools will lead to talented Black students applying to HBCU’s, schools that still produce the overwhelming majority of Black doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, and engineers even during the Affirmative Action era. Lest we forget… Hobbservation Point is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

epiphanies on his surroundings and those of the communities he was working in, which in many ways led to creation of Nexus Community Partners, where he is a CEO and has been for more than 15 years.

This decision to build an organization that centered

San Fran

From 3

From 3 that segregation, structural oppression, and racial prejudice developed from the institution of slavery had a tremendous impact on the development of

itself on community and economic development led him to a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government with a focus on community development.

In his search for the link between community building and community development, he also found himself in Kenya, Africa. Using his insights from Harvard, he went to help a community partner organization grow.

the city, even though California was never formally a slave state.

Throughout the 20th century, the Chronicle reported, “San Francisco was a Ku Klux Klan stronghold, prohibited Black people from residing in particular districts, kept them out of city employment, and bulldozed the Fillmore,” a historically Black neighborhood

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His experiences in Africa taught him the value of culture, particularly in community building. The values in cultural communities contribute to how well these communities thrive.

“Culture is a knowledge system. Culture is a set of values. It is a way of knowing, a way of being, and scribing, governing, and guiding how we live our lives. And being in Africa and having that experience at a

and commercial center.

AARAC chair Eric McDonnell told the newspaper, “Centuries of devastation and destruction of Black lives, Black bodies, and Black communities should be met with centuries of restoration.”

A tale of two cities emerges when one examines San Francisco, as one observer put it. This committee’s actions are consistent with those of other jurisdictions, where similar bodies have advocated for reparations for African Americans.

Residents must have self-identified as Black or African American on public documents for a minimum of ten years and be at least 18 years old when the committee’s plan is approved to receive the compensation.

Additionally, individuals may be required to show that they were born in San Francisco between 1940 and 1996, have been residents of the city for at least 13 years, and are either a former inmate themselves or a direct descendant of a

ACER

From 3

There are different avenues for bringing community members together for civic engagement, such as voting and education.

Notably, ACER performs voter registration and plans on doing it yearly. The next one will fall in the early summer of 2023. Apart from voter registration, ACER carries out community events; from health fairs, farmer’s markets, and holiday community parties to informational events. The purpose of engaging in community events is for the community members to know more about ACER and the services they offer. The good thing is the organization has plans of having more events for community members and giving out increased resources.

Furthermore, ACER

deep visceral level reassured me that there was something still here for me to do”, he said.

Today, Mekha serves as the CEO of Nexus Community Partners, which has for over 15 years developed a culture of restoring hope and dignity in some of the Twin Cities’ most vulnerable communities through grant-making, philanthropy, and community and economic development. Nexus accomplishments includes

former inmate who served time during the war on drugs.

The Chronicle said that “to put that in context,” the state reparations task panel believes Black Californians may be awarded $569 billion for housing discrimination alone between 1933 and 1977.

Evanston, Illinois, voted to pay $400,000 to select African Americans as part of the city’s vow to spend $10 million over a decade on reparations payments shortly after the San Francisco committee was founded. The government of St. Paul, Minnesota, has apologized for its role in institutional and structural racism and formed a committee to investigate reparations.

A report detailing the committee’s proposed financial compensation for African Americans was subsequently made public.

A reparations task committee was established by the state of California last year, and its report from that

keeps the communities updated; they get notifications on when the next event will fall.

Therefore, if you are a Brooklyn Park resident curious about their updates, why not take advantage of their flyers, and message them directly, on their website, or their social media platforms?

Economic Development

The community of color needs to experience sustainable economic development. Thankfully, ACER makes this dream a possibility by supporting small and micro-businesses and connecting them to the needed resources. Moreover, ACER offers free technical help, business consultation, and training for aspiring and present owners of startups or new businesses. Importantly, this organization does not hold back grants and scholarships meant to “relocate resources to businesses.” Additionally, they are not partial

a collaborative partnership following the killing of a Black man by a white police officer that made global news.

“After the murder of George Floyd and the uprising, as we know, large amounts of resources came into the Twin Cities area, and we were presented with an opportunity to partner with Black Visions Collective to transfer a significant amount of monies, millions, over to Nexus. And then, a core staff team developed

year detailed the incalculable harm that slavery had caused to African Americans.

After George Floyd was murdered, the District of Columbia City Council announced it would create a task team to investigate compensation.

Legislators in both Maryland and Virginia have expressed an interest in researching reparations.

Meanwhile, there has been no movement on a federal level on a bill by Texas Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to establish a committee to investigate reparations.

The San Francisco committee recommended that low-income African Americans get an annual payment equivalent to the region median for at least 250 years, on top of the $5 million payout.

As an added measure, the city would establish a public bank framework and provide citizens with extensive financial education to ensure that those without bank accounts have

when choosing the business to support and the needs to meet.

Health Equity

ACER has an interest in the health of immigrants. It achieves this “by addressing the Social Determinants of Health that result in unfairly detrimental health outcomes for BIPOC communities.”

The organization has partners and engages with members of the community to address such issues. The following are some of the ACER’s initiatives to bring Health Equity to African communities;

Health on the Go (HOTG)

This is a current health initiative that focuses on improving access to health services. It thus brings mobile clinics, testing kits, dental kits, health education, and screening services closer to the community. Therefore, HOTG creates a holistic environment

a community grant-making committee that, in six months, got about $7.1 million out into the community in a short turnaround time”, Mekha said.

To learn more about Nexus Community Partners and the work they do, and any upcoming projects, be sure to visit their website at https:// www.nexuscp.org

access to equal opportunities, including increased access to credit, loans, financing, and other means of managing their money. The committee also seeks to pay for a broad debt cancellation plan that wipes out all types of debt including student loans, personal loans, credit card debt, and payday loans.

“Given the history of financial institutions preying on underbanked communities — and especially given the vulnerability of subsets of this population such as seniors and youth — this body recommends putting legal parameters and structures in place to ensure access to funds and to mitigate speculative harm done by others,” the committee concluded. The post San Francisco Committee Recommends Massive Reparations Payout for Black Residents first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.

that allows “vulnerable individuals and households to find resources and improve their health outcomes.”

COVID Programming

ACER played a role in “building COVID-19 efforts.” Moreover, its current focus is on how the BIPODIC communities can recover from the pandemic. They achieve this through education and conducting health fairs in the communities. Notably, ACER administers a “trusted COVID-19 messenger program for the homeless community.” It works side by side with the CDC Foundation which funds it to enhance education on the COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 Test Kits

The communities can receive free rapid test kits from ACER.

The impact of social distancing, loss of employment, loss of gathering at places of worship, and dealing with illness and death are taking their toll on society.

Panchal and associates (September 22, 2022) are researchers that have studied the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people of color (POC). The impact of social distancing, loss of employment, loss of gathering at places of worship, and dealing with illness and death are taking their toll on society. Unfortunately, suicide deaths have increased faster among POC. The recent rise in deaths associated with drug overdoses, rates of mental illness, and substance use may be underdiagnosed among people of color. People of color have experienced worsening mental health during the pandemic. People of color face disproportionate barriers to accessing mental health care.

Vasquez (2022) adds that the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted POC in multiple ways that contribute to poor mental health. During the pandemic, people of color have experienced higher rates of COVID-19 infection and death and more significant financial challenges, which may negatively impact their mental health. There are several contributing factors to the increasing rate of suicides within Black American culture. The COVID-19 pandemic did not make the circumstances any better.

Blum (April 20, 2021) reports that early in the pandemic, there were worries among mental health professionals about COVID19’s impacts on people’s isolation, stress, and finances.

It was believed that Americans’ unprecedented purchases of guns would surge suicides, says

psychiatrist Dr. Nestadt. According to psychiatrist Dr. Nestadt, spikes in suicide rates were documented during the 1889 and 1918 flu pandemics and in the elderly in Hong Kong after the 2003 SARS outbreak. Nestadt conducted a study analyzing suicides among Maryland residents during the first six months of the year by race. They found that suicides among white residents decreased by 45% from early March to early May, while suicides among Black residents increased by 94% in the same time frame. Years from now, when we look at how the pandemic affected public health, not only did the virus wreak havoc throughout the world, the mental effects on suicide, particularly on people that already challenged by other environmental and social stresses. The research appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry. So, starting the new

year of 2023, how do we change the narrative about suicide in Black American culture? Open discussions about mental health and the effects of mental health on suicide attempts and suicides. Seeking professional help for mental illness is becoming more readily available. But, the statistics are alarming, and we will have to be our brother and sister’s keepers to recommend service.

Matters!

The Narrative

References: Blum, K. (April 20, 2021).Suicides Rise in Black Population During COVID-19 Pandemic. Suicides Rise in Black Population During COVID-19 Pandemic (hopkinsmedicine.org)

Fickman, L. (February

Houston (uh.edu) Norton, A. (October 15, 2019). Suicide Attempts Rising Among Black Teens. Suicide Attempts Rising Among Black Teens – Consumer Health News | HealthDay Parker, D. (July 18, 2018). Changing the Conversation About Suicide in the Black Community. Changing the Conversation About Suicide in the Black Community | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness Panchal, N., Saunders,H. and Ndugga, N. (September 22, 2022). Five Key Findings on Mental Health and Substance (wordinblack.com) Vasquez Reyes M. The Disproportional Impact of COVID-19 on African Americans. Health Hum Rights. (December 2022)22(2):299307. PMID: 33390715; PMCID:

PMC7762908. Share: Dr. Lawrence Jones Tech and Medical Blogger for The Narrative Matters

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VocalEssence, Joe Davis and The New Renaissance honor Black History Month

WITNESS: Reawakening Love, celebrating joy

Stories of struggle, resilience and celebration come to musical life through an exhilarating collaboration between VocalEssence and Minneapolisbased artist Joe Davis and The New Renaissance, an artistic production company that cultivates immersive experiences at the nexus of poetry, music and theater.

WITNESS:

Reawakening Love will be a powerful collaboration of these two artistic forces—one that will surround audiences with joy and harmony February 26 at 4 p.m. at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis and at an additional performance specifically for students.

The concert will stitch together stories from West African traditions, including the concept of Ubuntu, a West African concept that means “I am because we are.” The work will apply the philosophy of Ubuntu to the words and music the audience will hear, covering styles as wide ranging as soul, funk, jazz, gospel, hip-hop, and new choral octavos. And to further embody this sense of community, the audience will become part of the creation —each attendee receiving a piece of fabric to embellish, which will later be sewn into quilts to be unveiled at the 2024 Witness performance.

“Joe Davis is a frequent and brilliant

collaborator with VocalEssence, possessing the perfect mixture of musical sensibilities, writing and performing skills to tell a story through words, movement, and music. We are excited to see how we can incorporate different musical textures from a funk band and solo singers, to a small and full choir,” says G. Phillip Shoultz, III, associate artistic director, VocalEssence. “We were seeking another way to engage with struggles in our community, particularly the Black experience — how to first define, and then reawaken love. We all must have our own vision for what it means to be loving, and how it begins with us. This concert marks the first year of a two-year artistic foray into love— in next year’s concert we will lead with love.”

“In 1991, VocalEssence created WITNESS to celebrate the artistic contributions of African Americans to the fine arts and to our common cultural heritage,” says Philip Brunelle, VocalEssence artistic director and founder. “We proudly continue this tradition with the newest WITNESS installment, ‘Reawakening Love.’ The music calls for the revival of love, the rebirth of peace, and the emergence of a community where violence ceases.”

“There is a synergy

condition.

African Memory Loss Project ACER shows concern for immigrants who need dementia care and resources. It partners with families and the University of Minnesota’s LongTerm Care Projects (FLTC) for a better understanding of the

BikeMN ACER partners with BikeMN to offer community members an “adult learn-to-ride bicycle program.” Blacks and women mainly can look forward to this bicycle riding experience scheduled for the summer of 2023.

Housing Justice ACER’s belief is in “Empowering renters to

between the public concert and the school concert—the two are closely related,” adds Shoultz. “Joe Davis’s book of poetry is the centerpiece—the schools have been reading them, and the teaching artists will create the workshops using those poems. The aim is to help kids understand what love is and how to talk about love, through creating music and performance together.”

“I’ve worked with VocalEssence Singers of this Age in the past, and truly enjoy this group’s energy and creativity—the way each singer is so invested in creating

advocate for their right to safe and stable housing.” It organizes for residents living in apartments or townhomes to discuss the issues they face in their places of residence. Nonetheless, in matters of housing justice, ACER helps the residents take solid action till their demands are accomplished.

However, Minnesota African families are living in fear of eviction, as earlier discussed in the introductory

community,” says Joe Davis. “I’m excited to partner together, and I appreciate so much the way GPS and VocalEssence bring people into a space together to engage on difficult topics. This will be a remarkable opportunity to use our gifts to influence change together.”

WITNESS:

Reawakening Love is from 4:00-6:30 pm on February 26, 2023, at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Tickets, priced between $25 and $45, are available online now. For season tickets, details about the season, individual tickets and other information, please visit vocalessence.org.

Joe Davis, founder and director of The New

part. Some individuals struggle with payment of the cost of housing while others face different rental issues.

However, how does ACER plan to bring housing justice to people of color in Brooklyn Park? With tenants and community partners, ACER works tirelessly to “advance policies that guarantee Just Housing for all community members.”

Also, the organization says, “With a $17.5 billion

WITNESS: Reawakening Love

Renaissance, is a nationally touring artist, educator, and speaker. His work employs poetry, music, theater, and dance to shape culture. Davis is also the frontman of emerging soul funk band The Poetic Diaspora, and co-creator of JUSTmove, racial justice education through art. He has keynoted, facilitated conversations, and served as a teaching artist at hundreds of high schools and universities across the country including most recently as Artist-inResidence at Luther Seminary where he earned a Master’s degree in Theology of the Arts.

VocalEssence, the choral organization Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones says “sings magnificently,” provides

surplus, we have the resources to prevent eviction and keep families stably house.” How heartwarming this is, knowing there is a community organization giving immigrants a voice. Nonetheless, ACER offers some housing resources such as water and energy for free to the communities.

The Whole Idea ACER is a community organization giving the

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opportunities that draw upon the power of singing together to nurture community, inspire creativity, affirm the value of all persons, and expand the impact of choral music. VocalEssence was founded in 1969 and through its performance series has debuted more than 300 commissions and world premieres. VocalEssence Learning & Engagement programs help people of all ages bridge, create, and learn across cultures by connecting them with renowned choral experts to provide exceptional role models, grow community self-esteem, self-expression, and engagement. For more information, visit www. vocalessence.org.

communities of color in Minnesota a voice. It partners with different projects and programs to ensure the measures in place benefit the immigrants. Notably, as much as the issues ACER is currently working on (economic development, health equity, civic engagement, and housing justice) will revolve with time, they are confident that how they work will not change.

“The type of issues ACER works on will evolve, but the way ACER works will not.”

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I Think I Like My Natural Hair

Sharing Our Stories

By: W.D. Foster-Graham Book

Editor

Review

I THINK I LIKE MY NATURAL HAIR

Stephanie Shider

By

Growing up and well into my adult years, I heard the references made by African Americans about having “good hair” (long and straight) vs. “bad hair” (natural). The older I got, the more I viewed this attitude as a product of internalized racism.

Stephanie Shider’s book I Think

I Like My Natural Hair gives us a deeper insight into what this mindset represents, especially for Black women.

As a darkcomplexioned Black woman, Shider was exposed to the belief that beauty adhered to Eurocentric standards during her childhood; anything else was less than. Her sense of “pretty” wasn’t a big deal to her—until was challenged by her classmates in a cruel way.

Sadly, this belief that light skin and long straight hair as the ideal persists today, bolstered by the images presented through the various media avenues. Shider takes this ongoing issue regarding a Black woman’s natural hair back to its history in slavery, when the slave masters did everything they

Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker.

“Workers in the U.S. need to feel empowered and able to trust

could to disenfranchise us of our African heritage and ancestors, creating an environment of oppression, division, identity crises, self-hate, and low selfesteem. She reminds us of the importance of having a strong family narrative, of knowing where we came from. When we as elders continually share our stories of family history,

OSHA and the U.S. Department of Labor enough to voice their concerns about workplace safety regardless of their immigration status and fears of retaliation.”

“By enabling OSHA to issue U and T visa certifications, we will be empowering some of our economy’s most vulnerable workers to tell us

it empowers our children and instills a confidence in who they are, and whose they are. The incidence of Black men who are incarcerated carrying this loss of identity cannot be overstated. Shider states the imperative of loving ourselves for who we are, for only then can we see our beauty within and love and affirm others.

During her spiritual

if their jobs are jeopardizing their safety and health, and that of their co-workers, and to support our enforcement efforts,” Parker added. The initiative announced today aligns with the department’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility plan and the

journey, the deeper issues of character vs. the shallow, worldly issues of looks deepened her knowledge, wisdom and self-esteem as she sought out what God called her to be. She illustrates well the examples of conformity (the Pharisees) vs. transformation (Jesus) as it relates to where we are in the present day. At the end of the day, it is God the Creator

Biden-Harris administration’s effort to advance racial equity and support

who knows us and loves us for who we are, and we can stop comparing ourselves to others or to a limited standard of beauty.

I Think I Like My Natural Hair is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the Minnesota Black Authors Expo website.

Thank you, Stephanie, for sharing the bigger picture and the powerful way you

encourage us to love ourselves and embrace all of who we are. After all, God doesn’t make mistakes. And yes, as a brotha of a certain age, I like what’s left of my natural hair.

“The kind of beauty that I want the most is the hardto-get kind that comes from within—strength, courage, dignity.” (Ruby Davis)