WINNER: 2020 T YPOGRAPHY & DESIGN, 1ST PLACE, PHOTOGRAPHY (PORTRAIT & PERSONALIT Y), 1ST PLACE, WEBSITE, 3RD PLACE
Insight News
November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021
Vol. 48 No. 44• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Ray Carson/University of Florida Photographic Services, 1996. Used with permission of University of Florida, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Irma McClaurin, Ph.D., insight Culture and Education Editor, created The Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive (BFA) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
INTERVIEW
Preserving Black women’s stories as a labor of love By Eshe Lewis, Ph.D. Cultural Anthropologist, Public Anthropology Fellow at SAPIENS An interview with anthropologist Irma McClaurin dives into the process and meaning behind
creating an archival home for Black feminist work. Stories about the lives of Black women often do not get preserved in the historical record. Anthropologist Irma McClaurin knows this all too well. Around two decades ago, McClaurin started
digging into the archives for a research project on Zora Neale Hurston, an acclaimed writer, poet, and playwright active during the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston’s career as a trailblazing anthropologist is less documented than her literary persona—likely because her fieldwork centered
on her own community in Eatonville, Florida, and other Afro-descendant peoples and traditions throughout the Americas at a time when these issues were largely disapproved of in academic spaces. In researching and writing about Hurston over the years, McClaurin found huge gaps in
the archival record—but the documents that were preserved gave her invaluable insights into Hurston’s life and career that other scholars had missed. That experience— along with others throughout her long career as an activist scholar, Black feminist speaker, poet, award-winning columnist,
Mississippi author examines politics, race, family, body, shame and place Master Creator Kiese Laymon presents “Save and Destroy Tomorrow: A Recitation of Faith” in Twin Cities7-8pm this Friday, Nov. 5 at the Mahmoud El-Kati Distinguished Lectureship in American Studies, at Hill Ballroom, Kagin Commons, Macalester College Campus, St. Paul, MN. The event is also available on Zoom – register at bit.ly/ElKati-Lectureship2021. A book signing follows the lecture. Laymon is a literary phenomenon. He is a reflection and representative of the genius of Black culture, perception and analysis. He sings. His command of the Word, divine. Below are excerpts taken from his website, www.kieselaymon.com, that accompany introductions of several of his ground-breaking literary works. Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the author of the genrebending novel, Long Division and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2018 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental
Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
Dr. Travis Dixon
Our voices, our truth, our narratives
Image: www.kieselaymon.com
Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. Laymon is at work on several new projects, including the long poem, Good God, the horror comedy, And So On, the children’s book, City Summer, Country Summer and the film Heavy: An American
Memoir. He is the founder of “The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative,” a program aimed at getting Mississippi kids and their parents more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing. Kiese Laymon is one of the most unique, stirring, and powerful new voices in American writing. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others
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The 2021 Sankofa Series explores the impact of media on the Black community. It examines the role of Black media in countering the false narrative of who Black people are and looks at the role of Black media in the shaping of an authentic image of African Americans. Dr. Travis L. Dixon, Professor of Communication and the Communication Alumni Professorial Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign delivers the 2021 Sankofa Series Lecture 5:45 -8:30 pm, Friday, November 12 at Wilder Center, 451 Lexington Parkway North, Saint Paul, The Sankofa Series is a community gathering and conversation on the theme Our voices, Our truth, Our narratives in Black and White Media. Dr. Travis L. Dixon is
a media effects scholar dedicated to investigating the prevalence of stereotypes in the mass media and the impact of stereotypical imagery on audience members. Dixon serves on the editorial boards of Communication Research, Howard Journal of Communications, Media Psychology, and the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Much of his work has focused on racial stereotyping in television news. His more recent investigations examine the content and effects of stereotypes and counter-stereotypes in major news events, online news, and musical contexts. The Sankofa Series is organized by In Black Ink. This event is free and open to the public. To register, contact: Ambreasha Frazier, Sankofa
and consultant—compelled McClaurin to eventually start her own archive in 2016. The Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive (BFA) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries is a growing repository of materials that reflect Black women’s
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Series Coordinator, In Black Ink, In Black Ink,(IBI) is a non-profit organization that creates spaces where the intergenerational stories about Minnesotans of African heritage can be shared, documented, and archived. IBI is a publishing arts initiative that provides support and opportunities in this field to communities that have been disenfranchised historically, and continue to be presently. Following is the interview with Dr. Dixon from 2020.
Is it possible to overcome our biases in the face of conflict? Interview By Craig Chamberlain
The images in the media have been strong and often disturbing in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. We process them through our biases, both conscious and unconscious. That’s the domain of Travis Dixon, who studies media stereotypes and their impact as a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He spoke with News Bureau social sciences editor Craig Chamberlain. What comes to mind as you observe recent events?
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Page 2 •November November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021 • Insight News
McClaurin From 1 intellectual contributions from across the African diaspora. SAPIENS fellow and anthropologist Eshe Lewis spoke to McClaurin by Zoom in August. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Why were you drawn to archival work? I began very early on to save things. My mother saved the poetry books that I started writing when I was 8 years old. I understood that the drafts of my poems were as important as the finished product. It was important for me to see where I started and not just where I ended up. I would keep poems, correspondence with people, cards—so I was already beginning in some ways to curate my life. You’ve spent a lot of time in the archives researching Zora Neale Hurston. What did you learn through that process? In 2000, I received a fellowship to conduct research in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, where one of the largest collections of Zora’s papers is held. (The other major collection is at the University of Florida—but it was almost lost. There are horror stories of Zora’s papers almost being burned and someone snatching them out of the fire.) At Yale, I was in search of Zora’s anthropology journals and fieldnotes. And they don’t exist. I contend that probably
Zora put things in storage, and then she would run out of funding and wouldn’t be able to retrieve them. I did discover and write about a series of letters between her and poet Langston Hughes (with whom she had a notoriously complicated friendship) where she describes her fieldwork. When you read Zora’s letters, you can see the germination of her ideas about Black life and culture. Those letters are only in the Beinecke Library because a man named Carl van Vechten, who knew the head librarian at Yale, asked Zora and Langston to contribute their papers. Zora sent the original manuscript of her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God to the Yale library to preserve. She also made greeting cards and wrote poems, and included those things as a way of telling her story. When people do scholarly analysis of figures like Zora and Langston, they often miss these things— but these documents, these personal items—are available today because someone asked them, in a sense, to archive themselves. I think it always stood out in the back of my mind, such that I would ask myself, “What’s going to happen to my stuff?” What have you learned about power and legacy in this process of building an archive? I don’t come from great wealth. I don’t come from a very long tradition of people going to college. I am very aware that I walk with privilege now, but that is not
part of my history. So, I’m very attuned to how we preserve the things of those who don’t have the access or the privilege of working at a university. All of that has driven me to want to build a legacy, to leave something tangible behind. Naming the archive after myself is very deliberate—because so often, if we’re not famous, we get lost. So, I wanted it to be the “Irma McClaurin” Black Feminist Archive. And let’s face it: We live in a culture that values writing and papers. We can preserve a level of oral tradition, but it is the words, the papers, and the photographs that matter most right now. Most importantly, in being my own curator and archiving my own work, I get to shape the narrative of my life. That is true empowerment. What distinguishes your archive from other projects like it? What makes the BFA different is that it’s a collaboration between myself and the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and with the W.E.B. Du Bois Center. They provide the technical expertise, but the vision is mine. When I invite people to be part of the archive, I stress that they have agency. The contributors should be the ones actively telling the stories and formulating the descriptions in the archives, as opposed to having some outside person decide and impose what they think is going on. In this moment— after the killings of George
insightnews.com Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others to name— institutions are rushing to collect Black “stuff.” But my work is not just responding to the current moment. It’s about creating a permanent safe space—a “home” for Black women. What message does this project convey to Black women and their communities—and to society and academia? I want to let Black women know that our lives, our ideas, our work as community activists deserve to be preserved. When I first began, I did a presentation at a conference for Black women law professors. I ended my talk by asking, “How many of you have thought about archiving your work?” In a room of 124 Black women, one raised her hand—and that was only because the librarian at her university had come to her and suggested it. Not one of the others thought what they were doing was worth archiving. Partly this is due to the belief that you have to be a celebrity to have your work archived, and in many respects, that’s what the field of archiving has said to us. Eightthree percent of all archivists are white. Only about 4 percent are African American. You recently received two grants from the WennerGren Foundation—which is also SAPIENS’ publisher— to continue developing your archive, specifically to preserve the work of Black feminists who have played a significant role in the field of anthropology. What does that
mean for the archive? I have reached out to everyone who contributed to my edited book Black Feminist Anthropology and asked them to contribute. Distinguished African specialist Carolyn Martin Shaw’s papers are already in the collection. Former American Anthropological Association President Yolanda Moses has said she’ll put her papers in there. I have materials that relate to former Spelman College and Bennett College President Johnnetta Cole. The latest Global Initiatives Grant I received will allow me to collaborate with the Association of Black Anthropologists to do workshops on Black self-preservation through archives for Black graduate students and junior faculty. The grant will also allow me to focus on identifying Black female anthropologists who work outside academia. Not everyone presents as trained anthropologists and not everyone is affiliated with an institution. Some people are out in their communities doing cultural preservation. In my article “Visible and Heard,” I talk about Miss Archie Jones, a Black woman who conducted anthropological research about her community. She’s now 97 years old. You’re not going to find her papers in Google Scholar and JSTOR because at the time she was doing her research, they weren’t publishing a whole lot of Black folks, particularly Black women. In deciding who to invite into the BFA, I’m
Vote for me to represent the 3rd Ward on the City Council
Paid for by Rainville Volunteer Committee, Aileen Johnson Treasurer
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OP/ED Voters must decide
Affordable housing; Not rent control By Khayree Duckett St Paul Safe, affordable homes are the building blocks for strong families and communities. And how do we create more homes that are affordable for more families? That’s the question voters in Minneapolis & Saint Paul have as they consider rent control measures on the ballot next week. Rent control might well be the answer to that question if there were already enough places to call home. If every family already had a decent house or apartment, stabilizing rents for workers earning minimum wage, seniors on fixed incomes, and neighbors saving for homeownership could make sense. But we know there aren’t enough homes in the Twin Cities. According to the Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP), a housing nonprofit committed to reducing economic and racial disparities, more than 200,000 households in Ramsey and Hennepin Counties pay more than 30 percent of their incomes toward housing costs, putting them at risk of being unable to afford other basic needs like food and medicine. And we know that these neighbors will only find affordable housing if we build more homes. More public housing, more apartments, more luxury condos, and more detached houses. We need all of them if we’re going to house everyone who already lives in the Twin Cities. Yet, every community that has enacted rent control ends up needing more homes, not fewer. According to research rent control advocates cite the most, a 2021 study by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), rent control leads “to an overall reduction in rental units.” Why? Because landlords “responded to rent regulation by removing units from the rental market via condominium conversion, demolition, or other means.” Such consequences would exacerbate the nation’s worst housing shortage and make it harder for our poorest neighbors to find homes. Rent control “increases housing stability for tenants who live in regulated units,” but pulls up the ladder of affordability for the 200,000 families in the Twin Cities already struggling to find a decent place to live. In other words, rent control policies hurt the very people proponents are trying to help. So, how do we create more homes that are affordable for more families? By expanding access to section 8 housing choice vouchers to bridge the gap between incomes and housing costs. By increasing investments in housing trust funds to expand and preserve the supply of rental homes. And by providing emergency rental assistance to households in crisis. These policies, all supported by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, will provide Minnesotans with affordable places to call home. Rent control? Vote No on November 2.
insightnews.com
Insight News • November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021 • Page 3 WINNER: 2020 T YPOGRAPHY & DESIGN, 1ST PLACE, PHOTOGRAPHY (PORTRAIT & PERSONALIT Y), 1ST PLACE, WEBSITE, 3RD PLACE
Insight News November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021
Vol. 48 No. 44• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
We Endorse
Insight endorses the following candidates for the November 2 General Election: Minneapolis City Council
political and community savvy to complex yet addressable community interests. Jeremiah Ellison – Ward 5
Robin Wonsley – Ward 2
Zea-Aida embodies business development and community organizing as companion assets that can deliver genuine access and inclusion for all Ward 7 residents.
viable stewards for transformation of public safety and economic development. Flowers delivers a special attraction because of his work with mobilizing, giving voice to young people.
Why we must vote
Alicia Gibson – Ward 10
Voting is one of the most important options we have to secure the policy changes that will make it possible for the truth to come out in all its ugliness and gore regarding the true history of this country and its treatment of our stolen and enslaved ancestors. Shirlynn LaChapelle As we come out of the dark clouds of a deadly pandemic where three-quarters of a million Americans have perished, and witness a divided country that showed its true colors on January 6, take the time to look at the disparities that persist. It is paradoxical that a state that ranks among the very best in overall quality of life at the same time ranks among the very worse in racial and ethnic disparities. It’s a tale of two Minnesotas, one white and one Black. Egregious racial disparities statistics were unveiled in a report entitled, The Twin Cities Economic Inclusion Plan, researched and prepared by the Twin Cities NAACP, in 2020. It revealed the cycle of complacency and inaction that have left racial inequality unchecked. The facts: The Black poverty
Andrea Jenkins Ward 8
Wonsley bring fresh energetic perspectives and fearless advocacy for social and civic change. Michael Rainville – Ward 3
Rainville bridges legacy leadership and a balanced seasoned approach to problem solving. LaTrisha Vetaw – Ward 4
Ellison is succeeding in identifying the economy as the number one game-changer for Jenkins is vested North Minneapolis. in providing accountable, accessible Abdirisak Bihi – representation for Ward Ward 6 8 and for the city. Alfred AJ Flowers, Jr. – Ward 9
Bihi brings broad and deep knowledge of Ward 6 residents’ challenges and opportunities. He promotes collaborative solutions.
A human rights lawyer, Gibson is right to propose Truth and Reconciliation hearings in each of the city’s wards. Minneapolis Park and Recreation Commissioner at Large Alicia Smith
Mickey Moore – Ward 9
MGENI 7
Michael Rainville
Michael Rainville: Embracing the richness of diversity
Experience matters is where George Floyd was murdered. Jenkins is about the people and that’s what many of her constituents love about her. She shows up even when there’s not a crisis. She responds to calls and e-mails as quickly as possible. She listens and she doesn’t hesitate to try and find solutions. “Residents deserve an opportunity to weigh in on the dramatic shift in how we approach public safety, govern and regulate rent increases, and be clear on who is responsible for where the last stop of leadership is decided.” Jenkins says our people are victims of an 18th century police department seeking to function in the 21st century”. Most who complain,
rate in the Twin Cities was 25.5% - five times higher than the rate for white residents. In 2017 the median household income for whites living in the Twin Cities was $82,371, compared to $39,851 for African American households, just 48% of white household income. Among children under the age of 18, the child poverty rate was 33.1%, 8.5 times higher for Black children in the Twin Cities than the 3.9% for the city’s young white residents African American students accounted for 76% of suspensions despite only being 36% of the student body population in 2017. White students comprise 34% of the student body but only 7% of the district’s suspension.
Michael Rainville
Insight recognizes AJ Flowers, Jr. and businessman Mickey Moore as
JENKINS:
“Everyone needs to prosper, says Andrea Jenkins, City Council Vice President and the incumbent candidate vying for re-election in Ward 8. But first, we’ve got to wade through the complexities of the current times and understand the enormous amount of work ahead of us. In this case, experience really does matter. There is a huge desire and demand for justice, righteousness, and opportunities for communities of color.” South Central Minneapolis was one of the first Black communities where Black home ownership established the mindset of possibilities despite the obvious redlining. Many Black-owned businesses grew in the area. And yes, it
Yusef Mgeni
Smith is an accomplished thinker, activist, and leader who would strengthen Park Board capability to expand diversity and inclusion.
Teqen Zea-Aida – Ward 7
Vetaw bring astute
By Brenda Lyle-Gray and Yusef Mgeni
Andrea Jenkins she says, are Black and Brown people. “We don’t want them beating our heads in. We don’t want them stopping us for no
I2H
An infectious disease expert explains new federal rules on ‘mix-and-match’ vaccine booster shots
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reason. We don’t want them shooting our kids,” Jenkins said.
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“I haven’t walked in a Black person’s shoes,” says Michael Rainville, candidate for the 3rd Ward city council,” but I can certainly listen and learn. Our current state-of-affairs can no longer be a Black and white issue shaded in racist ideology, inequities, and inaction. It must be about the future of all residents in all wards embracing the richness of our many diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, and genders. This upcoming municipal election will determine whether our citizens decide the way we used to think and separate ourselves in silos is still okay and safe for their families, or if they realize if we don’t start thinking about a reckoning that will bring about unification, economic and racial justice, training and good paying jobs so people can afford a decent place to live, quality education and health care, then we’re heading down a dangerous path and a destructive outcome.” Former mayor Sharon Sayles Belton who has endorsed
Rainville, describes Rainville as sincere in seeking to lead and serve the 45,000 diverse constituency that is Ward 3. “I am proud of having grown up and worked all my life in the Third Ward. My family is a legacy family whose heritage in business and politics has benefitted many Minnesotans. We continue the work and maintain our commitment to our community and to the city because that’s how the Rainvilles have been raised from generation to generation. Our forebearers would always say, whatever we did in life, we were to do a little bit extra for the place where we lived,” Rainville said in a Conversations with Al McFarlane facebookLive podcast. Rainville says the current city council is far from honest and transparent. “They have their own ideas and could care less about what their constituents think or need. That’s wrong,” he says. “What
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Poem
Are We So Different?
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Page 4 •November November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021 • Insight News
Laymon From 1 in America is a collection of his essays, touching on subjects ranging from family, race, violence, and celebrity to music, writing, and coming of age in Mississippi. In this collection, Laymon deals in depth with his own personal story, which is filled with trials and reflections that illuminate under-appreciated aspects of contemporary American life. Laymon’s writing is steeped in controversial issues both private and public. This collection introduces Laymon as a writer who balances volatile concepts on a razor’s edge and chops up much-discussed and oftenmisunderstood topics with his scathing humor and fresh, unexpected takes on the ongoing absurdities, frivolities, and calamities of American life. Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, LA Times Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, Barnes and Noble Discover Award, and Audible’s Audiobook of the Year, HEAVY was also named one of the Best Books of 2018 by the The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, NPR, Broadly, Library Journal , The Washington Post , Southern Living , Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times Critics. In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent
Dixon From 1 These issues of police violence and brutality have been a perpetual problem in our society largely because people hold on to negative stereotypes of African Americans, many of
a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation, and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. A personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood—and continues through twenty-five years of haunting implosions and long reverberations. Written in a voice that’s alternately humorous, lacerating, and wise, Long Division features two interwoven stories. In the first, it’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised quiz contest, fourteenyear-old Citoyen “City” Coldson becomes an overnight YouTube celebrity. The next day, he’s sent to stay with his grandmother in the small coastal community of Melahatchie, where a young girl named Baize Shephard has recently disappeared. Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called Long Division. He learns that one of the book’s main characters is also named City Coldson—but Long Division is set in 1985. This 1985-version of City, along with his friend and love interest, Shalaya Crump, discovers a way to travel into the future, and steals a laptop and cellphone from an orphaned teenage rapper called...Baize Shephard. They ultimately take these items with them all the way back to 1964, to help another timetraveler they meet to protect his family from the Ku Klux Klan. City’s two stories ultimately converge in the work shed behind his grandmother’s house, where he discovers the key to Baize’s disappearance. Brilliantly “skewering the disingenuous masquerade of institutional racism” (Publishers Weekly), this dreamlike “smart, funny, and sharp” (Jesmyn
which come through the media. Therefore, the public often thinks Black people might be deserving of the treatment they receive from law enforcement, even if it is brutal. What are the stereotypes that matter in this context? Research has found that the media tend to portray African Americans as
INSIGHT NEWS www.insightnews.com
Insight News is published weekly, every Monday by McFarlane Media Interests. Editor-In-Chief Al McFarlane Publisher Batala-Ra McFarlane Associate Editor & Associate Publisher B.P. Ford Culture and Education Editor Dr. Irma McClaurin, PhD. Associate Editor Afrodescendientes Carmen Robles Associate Editor Nigeria & West Africa Chief Folarin Ero-Phillips Columnist Brenda Lyle-Gray Book Review Editor W.D. Foster-Graham Director of Content & Production Patricia Weaver Content & Production Manager Sunny Thongthi Yang Distribution/Facilities Manager Jamal Mohamed Receptionist Lue B. Lampley
Intern Kelvin Kuria Contributing Writers Maya Beecham Nadvia Davis Fred Easter Abeni Hill Inell Rosario Latisha Townsend Artika Tyner Toki Wright
Ward), novel shows the work that young Black Americans must do, while living under the shadow of a history “that they only gropingly understand and must try to fill in for themselves” (The Wall Street Journal). “Heavy by Kiese Laymon brings awareness that the work of liberation done in Jackson, Mississippi long before young Laymon’s birth, was ultimately not done, or was not done well enough. Or was perhaps impossible to do. Which I sometimes felt was true. The suffering of his childhood! Seven years we spent dreaming a childhood for him, for all black children (and ultimately white ones too, in that state) that would have a foundation not just in a first rate education but in an intimacy with joy. Didn’t happen, as this harshly honest memoir attests. And what of his mother? Caught between the needs of creativity, love, mothering, pushing the race forward, and surviving in a land where not one of us was safe; and her desperation, fear of falling backward, dread that her only son might become another Emmett Till. Did we fail you, Beautiful Son, because we did not fight long enough, there where you were born? Did not love strongly enough? Did not die from bullets and bombs, broken hearts, depression and soul wounds sufficiently violent, felonious criminals. In addition, Black families tend to be overrepresented as poor, unstable and welfaredependent. The media also exaggerates problems in the Black community – such as fatherlessness. At the same time, it portrays police officers as brave, white and likable. Research has documented that the effects of exposure to these stereotypes is to assume that most criminal activity is committed by unredeemable Black people. Meanwhile, officers are assumed to be white and well-liked. This sets up a dynamic where the wider society can easily become more accepting of police violence against Black people. How do those biases undermine trust in interactions with police? Well, officers remain as susceptible as anyone else to bias based on cultural context, socialization or upbringing. Media might be a source of vicarious information for both officers and citizens, which encourages
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enough? But you have come through, anyway. So did we fail completely? In you I see the soul of black folk. As DuBois thought we might. Now that your inner mirror is clear, I know you see this too. There is a purpose to all this suffering. In fact, as an elder, I can begin to see suffering as a birth. A birth of soul. A growth of it. Now the old hymns and spirituals begin to make sense, though most need liberating from a context they have outgrown. Thank you for HEAVY.” -Alice Walker More accolades? Here are a few: “Heavy by Kiese Laymon brings awareness that the work of liberation done in Jackson, Mississippi long before young Laymon’s birth, was ultimately not done, or was not done well enough. Or was perhaps impossible to do. Which I sometimes felt was true. The suffering of his childhood! Seven years we spent dreaming a childhood for him, for all black children (and ultimately white ones too, in that state) that would have a foundation not just in a first rate education but in an intimacy with joy. Didn’t happen, as this harshly honest memoir attests. And what of his mother? Caught between the needs of creativity, love, mothering, pushing the race forward, and surviving in a land where not one of us was negative intergroup dynamics and promotes stereotyping. For example, traditional entertainment media consistently portrays officers as highly successful at clearing cases, yet as also hypermasculine and overly aggressive. Resulting biases can lead to over-policing and police brutality by influencing officer decision-making – for example, in overreacting to someone reaching for a wallet during a traffic stop, thinking it’s a gun. In addition, racial bias may lead to over-policing of Black drivers through more and lengthier stops, and more vehicle and passenger searches, compared with white drivers. These routine over-policing traffic stops, along with the more high-profile killings of African American civilians, destroys the trust between the African American community and the police. That’s why we see these massive protests. Given these circumstances, what changes should police departments consider? Police departments
safe; and her desperation, fear of falling backward, dread that her only son might become another Emmett Till. Did we fail you, Beautiful Son, because we did not fight long enough, there where you were born? Did not love strongly enough? Did not die from bullets and bombs, broken hearts, depression and soul wounds sufficiently enough? But you have come through, anyway. So did we fail completely? In you I see the soul of black folk. As DuBois thought we might. Now that your inner mirror is clear, I know you see this too. There is a purpose to all this suffering. In fact, as an elder, I can begin to see suffering as a birth. A birth of soul. A growth of it. Now the old hymns and spirituals begin to make sense, though most need liberating from a context they have outgrown. Thank you for HEAVY.” -Alice Walker “We are in a time of hollow platitudes, scratched on white posterboards. Things such as “Love Wins” pepper the sky during protests, but few ask when love alone has won anything that has felt like prolonged justice. What resonates most sharply in Heavy is how Laymon’s love does not resolve itself. The book ends with Laymon apologizing to his mother for all he’s written, and all he’s brought to light. “I wanted to write a lie. You wanted to read a lie,” is a sentiment expressed both at the start of the book and start of the final paragraph. There’s an underlying argument here: that we’ve arrived at the point we have as a country in part because of lies we’ve told ourselves about what America means. People have allowed the symbols of love to steer them away from honesty. In Heavy, the story begins messy, and ends messy, and in between we learn why the mess was worth fighting through, and fighting for. That love, by itself, often loses. It is the love that edges to its antithesis, weighed down by secrets, lies, complexities, bitterness, rage that can save us, even if a reader, a writer,
or a nation is ashamed to admit that truth. The love that requires one to peel back its worst layers and still see the person—or the polis—waiting underneath is the one that echoes.”- Hanif Abdurraqib, 4Columns “Heavy provokes fear, wanting, love, and humor. It’s Mary J. Blige on the car radio and a cool, grainy glass of Tang, telling lies with your friends, having sex and mistaking it for love. Laymon subtitled his book, “An American Memoir,” and that’s more than a grandiose proclamation. He is a son of this nation whose soil is stained with the blood and sweat of his ancestors. In a country both deserving of his love and hate, Laymon is distinctly American. Like the woman who raised him and the woman who raised her, he carries that weight, finding uplift from sorrow and shelter from the storms that batter black bodies.” -Renée Graham, Boston Globe “Dear white people, please read this memoir. Dear America, please read this book. Kiese Laymon is a star in the American literary firmament, with a voice that is courageous, honest, loving, and singularly beautiful. Heavy is at once a paean to the Deep South, a condemnation of our fataverse culture, and a brilliantly rendered memoir of growing up black, and bookish, and entangled in a family that is as challenging as it is grounding.” –Martha Anne Toll, NPR “Heavy is one of the most important and intense books of the year because of the unyielding, profoundly original and utterly heartbreaking way it addresses and undermines expectations for what exactly it’s like to possess and make use of a male black body in America… the book thunders as an indictment of hope, a condemnation of anyone ever looking forward.” –Nathan Deuel, Los Angeles Times “He’s simply one of the most talented writers in America.” –Anna DeVries, New York
must recognize and alter their institutional cultures and incentives that can decrease trust in policing institutions. President Obama’s Police Task Force and the International Association of Chiefs of Police have laid out guidance on evidencebased reforms. In addition, departments and officers can also begin to heal the wounds of mistrust by focusing on the nature of the routine traffic stop. Furthermore, officers need to work at breaking the cognitive associations between social groups and traits. For years, scholars have advised regular contact with multiple outgroup members – in noncompetitive, nonhierarchical settings. They have also encouraged the practice of mindfulness, which encourages moving judgments from a belowconscious to conscious level, greatly diminishing the influence of stereotypes. It is the process of making distinctions among and between outgroup members. Finally, liability reform for police should also be advanced. This would involve putting officers personally
on the hook for misconduct via their personal insurance, similar to doctors, rather than having municipalities and departments foot the bill for police brutality lawsuits. Relatedly, officers fired for misconduct should be banned from holding a position in law enforcement at another department. It should also go without saying that officers who display explicit racial bias, racism or prejudice against any group should never serve as officers.
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CHARLES DICKENS adapted by LAVINA JADHWANI directed by JOSEPH HAJ by
What’s a reasonable starting point for citizens seeking to improve the situation? We have such a long way to go, but we should not despair and think that no progress has been made. Everyone needs to remember that these biases exist in all of us and that we must continuously work to limit their influence. This involves being as reflective as possible about our thoughts regarding outgroups, educating ourselves about their experiences and recognizing everyone’s humanity. It is similar to regular hygiene such as bathing. Society, including the media, keeps teaching us to degrade one another through stereotypes – just like going outside and engaging in physical activity can make us dirty. We must continuously “bathe” ourselves in positive intergroup contact, diverse experiences and mindfulness to make us cleaner.
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Insight News • November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021 • Page 5
Controlling state park deer populations through special hunts By Deborah Locke, MN Department of Natural Resource Information Officer Tavis Westbrook is a Parks and Trails program coordinator in natural resource management at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He answered questions recently about the special hunts held at state parks and recreation areas. Why does the DNR division of Parks and Trails hold these hunts? How could they benefit deer? If the deer population gets too high in a state park or a state recreation area, then the Parks and Trails staff -- along with the division of wildlife staff -- decide that a special hunt is needed. These special hunts have been held for many decades. As an example, St. Croix State Park had hunts in the 1940s. but current practices have been around since the 1970s. The DNR staff decide on the timing of the hunt, whether it will be early, at mid-season, or late in the season. Those decisions all get back to the goals of the hunt. They could be to reduce
Rainville From 3 happened to being a trustworthy leader, willing to be concerned about neighborhoods they have been elected to serve?” “I might be an old guy,” Rainville said, “but I’ve
Jenkins From 3 She supports eliminating the police department as it has been known and forming an Office
the deer population numbers because of overbrowsing (eating plants and vegetation, especially young tree branches and leaves) Or they may agree to a hunt in a certain area to reduce deer/car collisions, or the hunt maybe scheduled to reduce damage to adjacent agricultural crops on private land. In about 90 percent of the cases, the deer put undue pressure on a natural resource – trees – and that prohibits tree regeneration. The hunt brings balance back and allows things to grow. How can a deer damage a tree? They eat the top of saplings and seedlings, which is sometimes fatal to certain trees, so a sapling will never grow to be large. In the northern forests, deer target white pine and white cedar, the trees we’re trying to promote. In the southern part of the state, we are trying to encourage the growth of oak and other hardwoods. Deer are also hard on trillium, some orchid species, and some spring wildflowers.
Yes, they have been around forever but the deer population is higher today than prior to European settlement. We have an altered landscape throughout Minnesota, even in state park settings. Someone I knew who worked for years in wildlife said that humans created state parks -- which became a perfect place for deer to enjoy. Parks have a grassy turf, plantings like hostas, clover: exactly what deer prefer to eat. They find all of that and more in campground areas, picnic areas, the places where visitors congregate. During European colonization, the state had a better balance of plants, animals and predators like wolves, bears and mountain lions. We still have that balance in northern Minnesota, but not to the degree that it existed hundreds of years ago. Additionally climate change is reducing the number of severe winters, which is one of the primary factors affecting deer populations in northern states.
Locally, park staff observe the deer behavior like browsing on trees and see the way it impacts vegetation. All of this factors into a decision to schedule a special hunt. How do you determine a target yield? That’s complicated. We factor in how to safely put the safest number of people on land for the shortest amount of time to harvest the most deer. Safety is the biggest factor in state parks. We know that typically, about one-third of hunters will shoot a deer. Some special hunts just allow the harvest of one deer, either sex, buck or doe. However, in places with really high deer populations, special hunts may allow you to harvest more than one deer as long as the hunter secures additional tags. It all depends on the circumstances of that particular unit and the special hunt goals. Some special hunts allow 10 hunters, others allow 500. Year in and year out about a third of all hunters get a deer.
In this photo, a dad and daughter participate in a special youth hunt held at a Minnesota state park. Special hunts are held every year throughout Minnesota to control the deer populations. Remember to always wear the bright blaze orange colors when you hunt. population goals were met, there will not be a hunt. The youth hunts start early, mid to late October, but the majority of adult hunts start Nov. 6 this year, and continue into December. As far as equipment, there are a couple of different seasons: rifle season first, and then muzzle loader season in late fall and winter.
participate in a special hunt? Just purchase a license. Most hunts have a limit on the number of people who hunt, so it gets competitive. Information on special hunts and how to apply is usually available in late August. To access a copy of the DNR hunting and fishing regulations in a variety of different languages, see: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ regulations/hunting/index.html
But haven’t deer been eating young trees, and almost every plant in sight, for hundreds of years?
How do you measure deer overpopulation? The DNR’s wildlife division collects harvest rates and does population modeling using computer software.
Are the special hunts held each year and when are they? Some are wellestablished and happen every year. In other places where the
got a lot of miles left. My decades of experience and my energy can help turn our city around.” “If elected, I want to meet individually with each member, get to know them, and learn about their intentions and what they see would be a new beginning for a new council. I want to stand side by side with Rev. McAfee and
Bishop Howell; with Chief Arradondo and Inspector Charlie Adams. That’s where the leadership will come from. Listening, researching, planning, and action! Our young men and women in our neighborhoods should be sought out and encouraged to look into occupations of service such as firefighters, police officers, and teachers. Sadly, we don’t have
enough officers and investigators to follow up on serious crimes, and the gang leaders know it.” Rainville says there’s been no evidence that there is any understanding or compassion for the impact the surge in violent crimes has had on everyday lives as long as it’s not affecting individual’s immediate families, friends, colleagues, or themselves. Downtown will
remain an empty hole,” he says. “There will be little tax revenue. So whether you’re a renter or a homeowner, we’re all going to have to start paying a whole lot more in taxes due to the inactions of a dysfunctional city and governing council.” “People are hurting, and I intend to bring my skills, work ethic, positive community relationships, and the vision of
positive changes we can achieve together with a St. Paul-like political structure to help ease the pain and begin the healing of deserving residents who love this city as I do. We must realize and care that the country will be watching Minneapolis is going to do in this election. I hope and pray the city and people do the right thing,” Rainville said.
of Public Safety where police officers would work with the public works and regulatory services. The issues are really complex and are no easy solutions, she says. “There are many reasons I am seeking re-election. Our work is just beginning and
I want to be part of the public safety conversations. I want to see George Floyd Square become the international landmark it deserves to be. I want to see the city heal, and then help us move forward,” Jenkins said. Jenkins says the last
two years have been challenging for the Minneapolis City Council. “It’s difficult to lead in a climate of uncertainty, insecurities, and health worries especially for African Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) front line workers, who have job security and mental health
issues. Did we do everything right? Of course not! Could we have done better? Yes, we could. Should we stop the incessant lawsuits, finger pointing, and name calling? Most definitely. But understand, the people who campaign hard and are elected to these positions do so because
they care about people. And these people have to care and educate themselves about the issues while using their voices and the power of their votes.
Unite to Fuel Change We live in a world where divisions and poverty affect everyone but when we unite as changemakers we can create a community where all people thrive.
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Page 6 •November November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021 • Insight News
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Insight 2 Health
An infectious disease expert explains new federal rules on ‘mix-and-match’ vaccine booster shots By Glenn J. Rapsinski Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellow, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Many Americans now have the green light to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster – and the flexibility to receive a different brand than the original vaccine they received. On the heels of the Food and Drug Administration’s Sept. 22, 2021, emergency use authorization of a third dose – or “booster shot” – of the PfizerBioNtech vaccine for certain Americans, on Oct. 20, the agency also gave emergency authorization to a third Moderna shot and a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. On Oct. 21, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommended these vaccinations in light of the FDA’s authorization. The CDC’s signoff will make the Moderna booster shot available to people 65 and older, younger adults at higher risk of severe COVID-19 due to medical conditions and those who are at increased risk due to their workplace environment. People are now eligible for the Moderna booster six months after completion of their original series – as is already the case for the third Pfizer shot. The authorization made all Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients eligible for a second shot two months after the initial dose. Notably, the FDA and CDC also authorized a “mix-and-match” strategy, enabling eligible Americans to get a booster shot from a brand different from their original vaccine. As an infectious disease expert, I have closely
followed the development of the COVID-19 vaccines and the research on how immunity and vaccine efficacy shift over time. With the swirling mass of news around how effective the COVID-19 vaccines are and who needs booster shots and when, it can be challenging and confusing to make sense of it all. But understanding how the immune system works can help bring clarity to the reasons some people could benefit from the authorized shots. How vaccine efficacy evolves The discussion and perceived urgency around booster shots has partially been driven by the occurrence of “breakthrough” COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated people. The term breakthrough misleadingly implies that the vaccines failed, but this is not the case. The intention of the vaccine is to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, a goal that the COVID-19 vaccines continue to meet. While the Pfizer mRNA vaccine shows decreasing efficacy against asymptomatic and mild infections over the first six months after vaccination, studies show that it continues to be highly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths, including against the delta variant, in the first six months. A clinical study of the Moderna vaccine showed that antibody levels remain strong after six months as well. But studies after the six-month mark have been mixed, with reports of waning antibody levels leaving some researchers concerned that a booster shot strategy is essential. However, the limited data left too many questions for the FDA and CDC to approve a booster shot for all Americans, at least at this time.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images
Frank Mallone, 71, receives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot in Washington, D.C. Still, the overwhelming majority of intensive care admissions and deaths from COVID-19 continue to be in unvaccinated people. The rare deaths from COVID-19 in vaccinated people are mostly in people with immune systems weakened either by age or underlying conditions, which is why booster shots have been authorized for these groups. While boosters clearly help the individual, it is just as important for everyone to get fully vaccinated to protect vulnerable people by reducing the overall number of cases in the community. Vaccines rev up the immune system All three of the authorized vaccines in the U.S. work by giving the body instructions for making the spike protein from the SARSCoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The spike protein,
which resembles a stem with three buds on the end, is what enables the actual virus to invade cells and cause infection. The mRNA vaccines by PfizerBioNTech and Moderna provide the blueprint for the spike protein in the form of mRNA in a drug-delivery system called a lipid nanoparticle. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine gives DNA instructions inside the coat of a different virus, called a viral vector. The immune system quickly recognizes that these foreign proteins do not belong, and it generates an immune response to fight them off. These newfound defenses gear the body up to protect against the real virus. During this primary immune response, immune cells encounter spike proteins and, as a defense, they produce antibodies, “memory” cells and T-cells that can kill infected cells to prevent the virus from multiplying. Some of these
antibodies and T-cells from the primary immune response persist over time, though they decrease during the first month after vaccination, while memory cells last much longer. Then, when someone gets an additional dose of vaccine, the immune system goes through a secondary immune response. Thanks to the memory cells, the secondary immune response activates more rapidly, triggering lots of antibody production and T-cell activation. More mature antibodies are produced as well, and they are even better at trapping the spike proteins. And T-cells proliferate, helping to stop the intruder in its tracks. This type of secondary immune response can be activated again and again when repeat exposures to a vaccine – or booster doses – occur. Each time, the immune response mounts a stronger and more effective defense.
Mix-and-match vaccine boosters Multiple studies, including preliminary research from the National Institutes of Health that is not yet peer-reviewed, have shown that the mix-and-match strategy is safe and effective at providing a significant immune boost. Additionally, mixing vaccine types may be most beneficial in those who initially received a non-mRNA vaccine. The NIH data suggests that people who got the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine had a bigger increase and achieved a higher antibody concentration after receiving an mRNA booster than if they received the Johnson & Johnson booster. For people who first received one of the mRNA vaccines, Pfizer or Moderna, followed by a third shot with Johnson & Johnson, the antibody response was similar to that seen in those who got a third, or homologous, mRNA dose. Studies exploring why the mix-and-match strategy is more effective with some initial vaccines and not others are underway. Understanding this and the effectiveness of different vaccine combinations, including using vaccines that are authorized in other countries, will help improve vaccination strategies all over the world. Interchanging vaccine types may have greater advantages in some people than in others, which will become clearer as more data is gathered. But the good news is that the immune response seems to get a solid boost from booster shots, regardless of which vaccine combination is used. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
when buying a
there’s more to consider than
or
When it comes to selecting a turkey for your holiday table, there’s more to turkey than “fresh vs. frozen.” ndale This season, Kowalski’s is proud to partner with Ferndale biotic-free Market of Cannon Falls to offer free-range and antibiotic-free ing turkeys, now under Kowalski’s own label. It’s only fi ing that Kowalski’s would have its first private-label turkey key partnership with Ferndale, a company that shares our ur deep connections to Minnesota as well as sustainable, e, humane farming and strong community values.
Red Hot Django Peppers
Kenne Thomas K-Tet
sĈƩƇɫġĈōĈŸÝƇĭŕō IƪŴžƪ dÝƳƳ
ńùƍŋ ĈńĈÝžĈ
NOV 4
NOV 9
Matthew Whitaker
Joe Louis Walker
ÐŕƍōġĈžƇ QÝŋŋŕōā ʮ ÐÝŋÝĩÝ 1ōāŕŸžĈā ĭÝōĭžƇ
“Powerful, soul-stirring, Ƽ ĈŸûĈ Ýōā ġŸĭƇƇƪɚɴ ɪ s qƍžĭû
NOV 15
NOV 16
Quinteto Astor Piazzolla
Chris Botti
"ĈńĈùŸÝƇĭōġ ƇĩĈ ĭƇÝō ŕğ sƍĈƣŕ Ýōġŕ
Nearly 70 years ago, Dale Peterson se led in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, to do what he knew best: raise turkeys. In the early years, he shared a residence with incubators, and the sound of dayold turkeys routinely filled his home. Dale’s wife, Fern, had grown up raising turkeys, too. Fern was an avid advocate for the environment and believed that everybody had a role to play in preserving our earth. Through the years, the legacy of Fern and Dalee has guided this family farm’s mission, and Ferndale Market is named in their honor. The Ferndale tradition has continued for three generations, rations, with Dale’s grandson John and John’s wife, Erica, running nning the business alongside Dale and Fern’s son Dick and his wife, Martha. They continue to treat customers as family and care deeply for both the land and their turkeys.
NOV 17
NOV 18–21
A Night of Classic Rock
Windham Hill’s Winter Solstice
Ƥɠ ¤Ƈɚ Ýƍń ĈƇĈŸžŕō ʮ "ńÝžžĭû ŋĈŸĭûÝō ŕûŀĈŸž SOUTHDALE YMCA FUNDRAISING EVENT
ɁɃƇĩ ōōĭƣĈŸžÝŸƪ ŕğ ƇĩĈ qƍńƇĭɫŴńÝƇĭōƍŋ ńùƍŋž
NOV 23
NOV 28
Leo Kottke & Dave King
AT THE STATE THEATRE
ō UōƇĭŋÝƇĈ ĈžĭāĈōûƪ
kowalskis.com
Béla Fleck—My Bluegrass Heart Ƥɠ ¤Ýŋ ƍžĩɕ dĈŸŸƪ (ŕƍġńÝžɕ ¤ƇƍÝŸƇ (ƍōûÝōɕ 1āġÝŸ qĈƪĈŸ ʮ ŸƪÝō ¤ƍƇƇŕō
Find Kowalski’s Free Range Turkey in the Meat Department or preorder online at shop.kowalskis.com for pickup at your local market.
11 Twin Cities Locations
UōƇĈŸōÝƇĭŕōÝń dÝƳƳ ¤ƍŴĈŸžƇÝŸ
NOV 29–DEC 1
NOV 30
Andy McKee Ƥɠ žŴĈûĭÝń ġƍĈžƇ ŸĈƣŕŸ IŕŸāŕō QÝńń
The Beautiful Day: Kurt Elling Sings Christmas
DEC 6
DEC 10
612.332.5299 dakotacooks.com
1010 Nicollet Mall Minneapolis, MN
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Mgeni From 3 About 22% of African American residents in the Twin Cities own their homes compared to 76.8% of whites. How long will these inequalities be okay? When will citizens of Minnesota, especially in the American Descendant of Slavery (ADOS) communities, recognize that if we don’t vote, there will be no progress and another generation will be lost? Will we deny ourselves the inalienable right to a share of America’s treasury of resources and opportunities? Why is voting in the November 2nd municipal elections so important and more critical than ever before, following the globally televised George Floyd execution? We have a responsibility to our families, to ourselves, and to the future generations of our children and community. Our forbearers laid down their lives and made immeasurable sacrifices to guarantee our right to vote. We must honor their legacy and their investment in us and in our future. Apathy is interpreted as acceptance. If you don’t vote—you don’t matter! Your vote is your voice. Be informed and use it proudly. By voting, we contribute to the public dialogue, political possibilities, and help identify who will write the laws and determine public policy. If we don’t vote, our future will be defined for us by men and women who may not have our best interests at heart. We should vote because it is our right, because it is our duty, and our power. We should vote for what we are for rather than simply for what we are against. “If we don’t vote in numbers the likes of which we’ve never seen before, we are headed on a course of serious
Insight News • November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021 • Page 7 destruction,” says Martin Luther King III. “I’m going to do all I can to encourage, promote, and mobilize voters. What is at stake is the future of our nation, our planet, and our children.” Voting Rights and Suppression: The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 is legislation that has been proposed in the House of Representatives that would restore and strengthen parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, certain portions of which were struck down by two United States Supreme Court decisions of Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee. This past week, a vote was taken in the U.S. Senate on whether or not to even have a ‘discussion’ on voting rights. Not a single Republican U.S. Senator voted in favor of having the discussion; blocking the idea, mind you, of considering any proposed voting rights legislation at all. Why is this important? According to a new tally by the Brennan Center for Justice, lawmakers in all but three states have introduced 498 proposed bills aimed at restricting ballot access. Minnesota is not one of those states because Gov. Tim Walz has threatened to veto any such legislation which comes across his desk. This may very well not be the case for future administrations in Minnesota or if the composition of the State Legislature should change significantly. Senator Angus King, (Independent, Maine) said he believes, “voter suppression in the United States is the greatest threat to democracy in our country since 1860, and we could begin to feel the impact as early as next year.” Many say they believe conservatives have stolen the last two Supreme Court seats – resulting in conservative justices now enjoying a 6-3 majority. Two recent books spell out the 30 year plan by conservatives to regain ultimate control of the political process in our country. “Democracy in
Chains” by Nancy MacLean, is an expose of the Right’s campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, and change the Constitution. “Dark Money” by Jane Mayer reveals the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right. African Americans cannot afford not to vote, and we must cast our ballots for representatives who have our communities’ best interests at heart and with intentionality of breaking the historic racist oppression and corruption. Every fight will not be won, but if we don’t make the effort, our people will most certainly lose. With deliberate acts of voter suppression and virulent disinformation initiatives afoot, democracy is dangerously at risk. Full voter participation is a necessity. It’s like Dr. King always preached, “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that really matter.” We have a right to vote. The results will be determined by those of us who show up. What matters is that you are alive to read “Insight News”. What matters is that we are breathing normally and not hooked up to a ventilator in a scary hospital room somewhere. Just a side note - By the mid-1980s, seven vaccines were available: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, and polio. Because six of these vaccines were combined into two shots (DTP and MMR), and one, the polio vaccine, was given by mouth, children received five shots by the time they were 2 years old, and not more than one shot at a single visit. Our parents did not distrust medical science. And we are living seventy plus years later free of those pandemic borne illnesses. That many of the diseases were eradicated in time is a testament to the efficacy of science based vaccine deployment and adoption by a government and a people working together for the common good.
The Continuing Challenge of Race for the Cuban Revolution
What do the July 11 protests in Cuba reveal about the struggle against racial discrimination? Black and Mulatto/Mestizo Cubans were disproportionately participants in the July 11 antigovernment protests in Cuba, much hyped by US news media and politicians. US covert operations have long targeted such populations and especially disaffected youth in general. What is the Revolution’s record in responding to such challenges, and Cuba’s legacy of slavery and racial discrimination? Hear the frank opinion of supporters of the revolution and join us for a discussion. x Video-taped message from Esteban Morales, Cuban activist, scholar, and author of Race in Cuba x Ofunshi Oba Koso – Cuban immigrant, Babalawo (Afro-Cuban Shaman), DD HH x August Nimtz, Minnesota Cuba Committee, U of M professor, co-editor of Race in Cuba
Wednesday, November 10, 7:00pm Hanson Hall, Rm 1-104, 1924 S. 4th St., University of Minnesota West Bank Sponsored by the Minnesota Cuba Committee, MNCuba@gmail.com 612-367-6134
Page 8 •November November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021 • Insight News
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Are We So Different? A poetanthropologist of the African diaspora responds to anti-Black racism and the question of race.
Culture and Education Editor
By Irma McClaurin, PhD When the end comes our minute genetic differences will be obliterated. We will be reduced to bones, shriveled skin, and, eventually, dust, or the ashes of cremation. And our simple DNA material (our genes) will be tested and processed to determine who we really were. And what will your DNA say about you? Will it show whether you lived a life of acceptance and inclusiveness; will it be able to pinpoint if you spent your short or long life hating? Will it tell a story of someone so enraged by racial myths that they would murder nine innocent people in a Charleston church, and after praying alongside them? The definition of a species is that we can reproduce together; slavery and the institutionalized rape of young Black girls and women for lust and profit prove we are of the same human species; we definitely reproduced. And, please, do not portray Sally Hemings as Thomas Jefferson’s “mistress.” She was his slave, his property, and he could do with her as he pleased: and it did not “please” him to free her, though she persuaded him to eventually free the children she bore carrying his genes. No more denials or prettifying of history. The rape of Black enslaved women is evidence that the idea of “pure races” is a myth, an urban legend, like the boogie man. Today I look into the blue eyes and kinky blond hair of a Black man and know that somewhere deep in his gene pool there is whiteness inside his Blackness. I need only be in a room full of Black people and marvel at the phenotypic heterogeneity. Blackness is America’s rainbow. I also think of the almost white Black people (passe blanc), and know there is Blackness inside America’s whiteness, of which it is sometimes unaware. And still these surfaces, skin deep characteristics, tell us virtually nothing about our genetic composition. Or how we navigate our lives
across ideological spheres (fears) of white supremacy, white privilege, enslavement, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, heterosexism, ageism that plague our united history despite our common origins out of Africa. Are We so Different if we both bleed when you cut me; if Ebola or Tika, and now COVID, can infect us regardless of our race? Disease and viruses know no borders; They have no respect for mythic racial classifications— they are making us all sick and killing us, too, across racial boundaries. Are WE SO Different? If we both share in karma—mine a legacy of enslavement, living and resisting oppression and generational inequality; yours of being descended from my oppressors and the beneficiary of living (and sometimes resisting) generational (white) privilege, white power, white entitlement?
ARE WE SO Different? If we both suffer? Yours a suffering of utter denial of racism and lack of accountability about the implicit biases and microaggressions you act out daily with non-white people you encounter; mine a suffering of the daily stress of living while Black, and wanting just a brief respite from having to negotiate your power and privilege. Mine is an exhausting dance of humiliation, frustration, anger, resistance, and triumph— knowing that the cycle is still unbroken, and the same events of exclusion will start again when I awaken tomorrow brings on a fibromyalgia-like fatigue. I ache everywhere sometimes. ARE WE SO DIFFERENT if we both seek solutions to how to break the cycle of inequality, of racial gaps, of social disparities? Solutions to how you can step outside your personal privilege & power and institutional and structures of racism that undergird your power and privilege (your P&P) to embrace me for who I am? And after centuries of trying to “move on” and a pathology of forgiveness, can I stop seeing an oppressor in the eyes, gestures, insults, microaggressions, disdain, and neglect of every white person? Even those who claim to be my ally,
Courtesy of the American Anthropological Association
but whose behavior suggests otherwise?
to abuse power and privilege.
The answers are quite simple: Racism and inequality function on two levels: the individual/personal and the institutional/ structural.
And what is my place and purpose as a Black woman, a descendant of formerly enslaved people in this landscape of surging whiteness and privilege?
Stop being offended at the very personal level— “get over” being accused of being racist. Then, check yourself to see how often you manifest unconscious bias and display microaggressiveness. Focus on challenging yourself and structural inequality— for example, if all the leaders are white and/or male, if the majority of teachers are white women, and half the students are non-white, we have a structural problem. When the people of color have more experience than those who supervise them, and there is support for white incompetency because whites who fail are rotated out and placed on “special projects” or made “special assistants to … the whatever,” where staff of color are dismissed for “not being a good fit,” when the metrics used to measure success focus only on cultural differences in hair, speech, body language, body type, clothes, and the comfort level of white colleagues, Dallas, we have a huge structural problem: racism. Case in point: If former President Obama had taken just one of the actions of the 45th president, talked about alternate “truths,” engaged in the irreverent, personalized tweeting attacks, shared national security info with Russia, a known enemy of our nation-state, attacked the media as “fake news,” there would have been an irreversible tide from all (white) sides of the political spectrum demanding his impeachment.
It is to know I am a “Native-born” daughter, with no “immigration” card or country to “go back to.” It is NOT to see myself as victim only, despite the best efforts to make me so. My place and my purpose is to brand myself always as a champion, defender of myself, my people, and any other groups and individuals who face oppression and exclusion. My Place is to remain ever vigilant and fight social injustice wherever it rears its ugly head. My Place is to make This Place, this United States, which too often is far from united, to make This Place a better place for all, and not to be overlooked and dismissed because I am a “Native-born, authentic, Black American,” a descendant of the enslaved Black people whose labor and whose love for this country, have been the foundation of America’s hope and possibilities, even when it denies the same to us. ARE WE SO VERY DIFFERENT? I think not. We are simply two sides of the same coin, unfortunately entangled in both historic and present-day webs of history, and the evidence of the seen and unseen legacy of racism and a people’s struggle for liberation. We are two possibilities in America’s dilemma. We can choose to enmesh ourselves in prejudices and racism, or choose to be humane, thereby coming to terms with our fate of the very same human mutuality.
In this regard, the consequences of a racialized system of inequality, says, yes, we are very different. VERY DIFFERENT.
IRMA MCCLAURIN is the founder of the Black Feminist Archive at the University of Massachusetts and holds a Ph.D. in anthropology and an MFA in English.
Whiteness and maleness carry a universal credit card of unmitigated freedom
In this article, white is styled lowercase throughout, contrary to SAPIENS’ house style, at the request of the author.
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McClaurin From 2 being very flexible. I feel strongly that if someone has completed an undergraduate degree in anthropology, or has informal experience with ethnographic research, then they should be included. The history of anthropology has often included white men who were archaeologists, though they were never formally trained. I want my archive to be inclusive—to not use a lack of education as a criterion for exclusion. What do you want to leave behind? What would you like to see in an archive honoring you and your work? I would say the
Insight News • November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021 • Page 9 breadth of the kind of writing I do. I began as a poet, then became an academic. My poetry has been published in over 16 magazines, including Essence, and in anthologies. Then there are my academic books. More recently, I have published 100-plus articles in Insight News. After Trayvon Martin’s death in 2014, I wrote a column titled “A Black Mother Weeps for America—Stop Killing Our Black Sons!” The National Newspaper Publishers Association, the professional organization for the Black Press of America, selected it the “Best in the Nation for Column Writing” in 2015. And then there’s my leadership career: I was the president of Shaw University, a program officer at the Ford Foundation, the chief
diversity officer at Teach for America, and more. Now I’m a consultant. The American Anthropological Association honored me with the 2021 Engaged Anthropology Award for my work with organizations and museums. I’ve done some amazing thngs. So, I want people to see my versatility— how I perform my activism as a leader and reach different audiences in multiple ways as a writer. How can the public interact with the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive? The BFA is developing. Some of the collection is already online. The library digitized 379 of my black-and-white photographs taken between 1974 and 1990—pictures taken in
intimate, social settings. There are photos of writer James Baldwin’s birthday party, for example. In a lot of photos in the public record, he looks tense—like he’s trying to hold off attacks or address questions around white innocence, where people act like racism doesn’t exist. In my photos, Baldwin is smiling and at ease. I also took pictures of writer and activist Toni Cade Bambara. We are in the process of building a platform on the UMass Amherst site to access the archive, but in the meantime, people can learn
The
about it on my website. Why does a project like this matter? Historians and documentarians like Ken Burns do not just go and get stuff off the streets; they go to archives. If we’re not in those archives, then we will continue to get overlooked. I hope at some point the BFA will grow into the largest of its kind in the world— an archive specifically devoted to identifying, curating, and preserving the contributions and stories of Black women
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who are activists, artists, academics, or just ordinary folk. People are here today and gone tomorrow. Their lives and work need to be preserved. This archive is both my passion and my legacy. I have been given an opportunity to see it through, and that’s what I plan to do: build a huge archival home specifically devoted to people who look like me—to Black women. In this article, white is styled lowercase throughout, contrary to SAPIENS’ house style, at the request of the author.
Series
Inspiring change through engaging discussion and reflection
Our voices, Our truth, Our narratives in Black and White Media. Our 2021 theme explores what is the impact of media on the Black community? What role has the Black media played in countering the false narrative of who Black people are? What role does the Black media play in the shaping of an authentic image of African Americans? Can African people control their image and story?
Friday, November 12, 2021 5:45 pm – 8:30 pm
Wilder Center 451 Lexington Pkwy. N. Saint Paul, MN 55104 This event will also be live streamed via Facebook.
Tabletop discussions facilitated by our youth and young people on this topic will follow the keynote. Also this gathering is to inspire ideas for writers in the preparation and development of an anthology publication from local scholars, activists and media professionals on the topic Our voices, Our truth, Our narratives in Black and White Media. The release date will be Fall 2022. Keynote Speaker Dr. Travis L. Dixon Professor of Communication and the Communication Alumni Professorial Scholar University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Entertainment by Jamela Pettiford • Hors d'oeuvres provided. Registration Link: www.eventbrite.com/e/our-voices-our-truth-our-narratives-in-black-andwhite-media-sankofa-tickets-175582852037
This event is free & open to the public. Each inperson participant must rsvp. Space is limited. For more Information: SankofaSeries@InBlackInk.org
Organized by In Black Ink, a non-profit organization that creates spaces where the intergenerational stories about Minnesotans of African heritage can be shared, documented, and archived. IBI is a publishing arts initiative that provides support and opportunities in this field to communities that have been disenfranchised historically, and continue to be presently.
Conversations on Aging Well November 16 on Zoom
50over50mn.org/events
Page 10 •November November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021 • Insight News
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