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Insight News

September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020

Vol. 47 No. 39• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

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Page 2 • September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020 • Insight News

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Insight News • September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020 • Page 3 WINNER: 2020 T YPOGRAPHY & DESIGN, 1ST PLACE, PHOTOGRAPHY (PORTRAIT & PERSONALIT Y), 1ST PLACE, WEBSITE, 3RD PLACE

Insight News September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020

Vol. 47 No. 39• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

Community values are foundation for UROC research initiatives

By Davion Moore, Staff Writer “The mission of UROC is to address the critical issues in the urban core, using the land grant mission and the research mission of the University of Minnesota,” says Makeda ZuluGillespie, executive director of UROC,(Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center on Plymouth Avenue in North Minneapolis. “The way we do that is by transforming how communities and universities work together.”

Gillespie-Zulu, last week was a guest on

Makeda Zulu-Gillespie, executive director of UROC

UROC 7

Ten Things about Black Women Suffragists through Dr. Bravada Garrett-Akinsanya, says COVID-19 can kill; wearing a mask won’t a Black Feminist Lens Dr. Bravada Garrett-Akinsanya

Davion Moore Staff Writer Dr. Bravada Garrett-Akinsanya was a guest on “Conversations With Al McFarlane,” where she discussed COVID-19 and the African American Child Wellness Institute’s new project that focuses on crisis intervention in the COVID-19 environment.

“It is very important that we be very involved in making sure that we remain healthy or get healthy,” Garrett-Akinsanya said.

“There is already a pre-loading in our community due to overexposure to stressors and limited buffers and resources to address the stress. So first of all, being healthy helps us.”

Garrett-Akinsanya said adopting strong and

consistent behavioral patterns will help us be well.

“The behavioral health of African Americans is really linked to our mental wellness. We say to ourselves things like, ‘what won’t kill you will make you stronger.’ If we substitute ‘what won’t kill you will make you stronger” with “If COVID doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger…

If violence doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger.... If racial discrimination doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger...” one the one hand, we are affirming our resillience.

Our people tend to take negative events and reconstruct them into a positive outcome.”

Dr Garrett-Akinsany said while this is good because of our resilience and understanding of difficulties, there is a problem.

“Unfortunately, COVID-19 may not make you stronger. It could just kill you. Or make us sicker,” Garrett-Akinsanya said.

Garrett-Akinsanya said that we need to use the African value of Kujichagulia (selfdetermination) and take control of our own health, our own bodies, and our own decisions (what we eat, where we eat, and so on) to improve our overall health. She also emphasized the importance of wearing a mask.

“COVID-19 can kill you; but wearing a mask won’t,” GarrettAkinsanya said, transposing the cultural catechism into useful instruction for today’s pandemic environment.

“If Black lives matter, then we need to save our own

by first using a mask, washing our hands, social distancing, and doing all the things we are reminded to do,” she said.

In the Black community, people experience a higher number of cases and experience one of the highest death rates from COVID-19.

Garrett-Akinsanya went back to the principle of kujichagulia and using common sense.

“We need to use our common sense, our kujichagulia, to determine how we’re going to engage.”

The African American Child Wellness Institute program provides support systems such as individual counseling and family discussion about COVID-19 and how to keep safe, and how to deal with family member loss.

DR. BRAVADA 4

Pure Cruelty: Deporting COVID-19 victims Sagirah Shahid Contributing Writer A group of Somali Americans face deportation according to the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIRMN). Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN-5) says at least one detainee has tested positive for COVID-19 and others show symptoms of the disease.

Early Tuesday evening CAIR-MN president Jaylani Hussein held a press conference where he made urgent pleas for both local communities, and the Somali government, to halt the Trump administration’s deportation plans. He said the majority of the group scheduled to be deported are individuals who came to the United States as children.

“Let’s be clear: deporting people who have COVID-19 is pure cruelty— not just for the individuals themselves, but for the countless who could contract the illness.

And we know that ICE has done this before,” Omar said in a statement released today.

She said the entire country of Somalia has 15 ICU beds and is currently facing a drought, instability and a humanitarian crisis.

On September 10 the congresswoman sent a letter to ICE interim director Tony Pham, requesting the agency detail their plans to curb the potential harm and rippled consequences deporting individuals with COVID-19 could have on Somalia. According to the congresswoman deporting people who haven’t recently tested negative for COVID-19 is a violation of ICE’s agreement with the Somali government.

A deportation flight is scheduled for this week and carries dozens of Somali Americans, many of whom are from Minnesota according to a recent Roll Call article. In the article an ICE spokesperson revealed ICE screens individuals scheduled to be deported for elevated temperatures and has been doing so since March.

They did not note screening procedures for asymptomatic people.

Mustafa Jumale, cofounder of the Black Immigrant Collective, also spoke at CAIRMN’s press confrence Tuesday “Our government, which is supposed to provide refuge for those people who are at risk, is now actually facilitating the deportation of our community members to an active conflict zone,” Jumale

Culture and Education Editor

By Dr. Irma McClaurin Irma McClaurin is a Black feminist anthropologist and consultant who conducts research on the social construction of inequality and its impact on African diaspora communities through an intersectional lens. She is founder of the “Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive” at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was co-chair of the 2018 Seneca Falls Revisited Conference and keynote speaker for the 199th Susan B. Anthony Birthday Luncheon in 2019.

In August, we celebrated the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 and the success of the women’s suffrage movement in gaining women the right to vote at an unprecedented moment; the COVID-19 pandemic and the

national and global uprisings over the police killings of Black men like George Floyd and Black women like Breonna Taylor and so many others, remind us of how pervasive and rampant racial inequality and anti-Blackness still are in the United States.

The symbols, histories, and interpretations of the suffrage movement and women’s activism to gain the right to vote are highly racialized and contain the very kinds of partial truths, contradictions, symbols, and social tensions that cultural anthropologists like to study. We should feel compelled to follow Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s guidance when she responded to the question, “What can I do?”; like her, we must “tell the world the facts.”

White women such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are routinely foregrounded as the “notable” figures of the suffrage movement and hailed as heroines. However, in the midst of advocating for the freedom to votes, many white

FEMINIST 9

Historically speaking ...

Fannie C. Williams: educator, activist

By Brenda Lyle-Gray Columnist On September 10 the Rep. Ilhan Omar sent a letter to ICE interim director Tony Pham, requesting the agency detail their plans to curb the potential harm and rippled consequences deporting individuals with COVID-19 could have on Somalia. said.

“I think it’s a disgrace and an affront to what we stand for as Americans,” said Northsider Raymond Camper in response to news of the deportations. He’s an Iraqi war veteran who is now against the war. Camper works as a case manager for a Minneapolis non-profit and said this is just another one of Trump’s attacks on innocent people. “They don’t deserve this kind of treatment

News

House kicks off series of hearings on racial justice issues

PAGE 5

Jaylani Hussein, president, Council of American Ismalic Relations-Minnesota from this administration. This is an affront to what I believe, and what I support, and what I fought for as a veteran.”

“Most of the people who have to go back will be seen as outsiders, because your whole experience is different,” said one 32-year-old Somali American woman from Minneapolis who asked to remain anonymous.

“I left Somalia when I was two-years-old. if I had to go back I would not know what to do,” the woman said.

“My family escaped Somalia from civil war and we are here now, and there’s still

CRUELTY 6

At 96, Fannie C. Williams (1882-1980) could look back over her “well-lived” life, smile, and whisper “thank you”.

Although her body was indeed frail from age, her mind was keen. She read daily periodicals up to the very end.

Her accomplishments in pioneering African American education and community activism would never be emulated.

Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, Miss Williams completed both the College Preparatory and Normal Straight College Departments’ requirements (now Dillard in New Orleans) in 1904. In 1920, she received two baccalaureate degrees from Michigan State Normal College at Ypsilanti (now Eastern Michigan University) in pedagogy, and a Master of Arts degree

Louisiana digital library

Legends-Fannie C. Williams (right) and Mary Mcleod Bethune from Michigan University at Ann Arbor in 1938. Later she pursued further study at Ohio State and Columbia

LYLE-GRAY 7

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Before you vote: Five things you should know about the future of ACA

PAGE 6

Page 4 • September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020 • Insight News

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Candidates must address concerns of 50-plus voters AARP recently released a series of battleground state polls of likely voters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“This election hinges on battleground states and these results show either candidate can win,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP EVP and Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer. “Most importantly, people are casting their ballots earlier than ever.

The window is closing, so candidates need to address concerns of 50-plus voters now.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in five states: Colorado (50% to 40%), Maine (54% to 40%), Michigan (50% to 43%), Pennsylvania (49% to 46%) and Wisconsin (50% to 45%). Trump leads Biden in one state: Montana (50% to 43%).

In five states, Biden and Trump are tied or within the margin of error: Arizona (48% to 47%), Florida (48% to 46%), Georgia (47% to 46%), Iowa (45% to 47%) and North Carolina (48% to 48%).

The polls also surveyed key U.S. Senate races, which found: In Arizona, Democrat Mark Kelly (48%) leads incumbent Republican Sen. Martha McSally (45%).

In Colorado, Democratic former Governor John Hickenlooper (51%) leads incumbent Republican Sen.

Dr. Bravada From 3 “We are establishing a new voice and a new narrative around mental health and health awareness,’’ she said. “The way we begin is by changing

Cory Gardner (46%).

In Georgia, Democrat Jon Ossoff (48%) leads incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue (47%).

In Georgia’s special election, Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler (24%) leads Republican Congressman Doug Collins (20%), Democrat Raphael Warnock (19%), Democrat Matt Lieberman (10%), Democrat Ed Tarver (7%) and 19% of voters are undecided.

In Iowa, incumbent Republican Senator Joni Ernst (50%) leads Democrat Theresa Greenfield (45%).

In Maine, Democrat Sara Gideon (44%) and incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins (43%) within the margin of error and Independent Lisa Savage with 6%.

Due to Maine’s Ranked Choice voting, undecided voters and those who support Lisa Savage, an independent candidate, were asked a follow up about their next choice. The results found Gideon (48%) and Collins (47%) within the margin of error.

In Michigan, incumbent Democrat Sen. Gary Peters (45%) leads Republican John James (41%).

In Montana, Senator Steve Daines (50%) leads Democratic former Governor Steve Bullock (47%).

In North Carolina, Democrat Cal Cunningham

(42%) leads incumbent Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (39%).

The bipartisan team of Benenson Strategy Group and GS Strategy Group conducted the surveys in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin between August 30 and September 8, 2020. The bipartisan team of Fabrizio Ward and Hart Research

conducted the polls in Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine and Montana between August 30 and September 5, 2020.

In August, AARP launched “Protect Voters 50+,” a comprehensive voter engagement campaign to support and protect Americans 50-plus as they vote in the 2020 elections. The campaign will help Americans over 50 vote safely, whether at home or in person. The “Protect Voters

50+” campaign will provide people with the information they need about this year’s elections, including video voters’ guides, issue briefings, direct mail, text messaging, social media and paid media.

AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence and nearly 38 million members,

AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation’s largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin.

To learn more, visit http://www. aarp.org or follow @AARP and @AARPadvocates on social media.

our minds. Psychologists have this construct called cognitive reframing. It’s like the person who sees the glass half-empty, but another person sees it as half full. So having a positive attitude about one’s ability to change is critically important.”

Garrett-Akinsanya . hopes community perspective on the pandemic goes from one of

being victims to being survivors and people who are thriving.

She said we have to take a new perspective on seeking help regarding mental health.

“If you had a toothache, you would go to a dentist. If you need a loan, you go to a banker. If you have mental or emotional challenges, you go to someone

who specializes in that area.

You can find your way on your own; you can pull your tooth out on your own, but it makes a lot more sense to find somebody who has expertise so you can do it faster, better, and in a more long-lasting way,” she said.

In the African American community, GarrettAkinsanya said, there is a

stigma surrounding mental health. “We learn it, and we learn it from our environment.

Part of the way of moving from those stigmatizations is to claim your wellness. And part of it is a legacy of slavery. When we were enslaved, what they taught us was that we didn’t own our bodies. We could be sold. We could be killed. We could be

whipped at the whim of a master.

“Because we didn’t learn to own our bodies, we’re psychologically in the process of overturning the trauma of being objectified,” added Garret-Akinsanya.

Garrett-Akinsanya said we must own our bodies and our health, and in doing so, we will win.

photo/NNPA.org

In August, AARP launched “Protect Voters 50+,” a comprehensive voter engagement campaign to support and protect Americans 50plus as they vote in the 2020 elections. The campaign will help Americans over 50 vote safely, whether at home or in person. The “Protect Voters 50+” campaign will provide people with the information they need about this year’s elections, including video voters’ guides, issue briefings, direct mail, text messaging, social media and paid media.

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Commentary by By StatePoint Hazel Josh Cobb Tricethe Edney Special from Ricki Fairley

By Pam Kragen By Kevin Punsky Dr. LaVonne Moore Twin Cities Association Minnesota Department The Cincinnati Herald Reprinted courtesy ofon the Originally published Mayo Clinic of Black Journalists/ Health BlacksInTechnology.net San Diego Union-Tribune Insight News Intern March 9, 2017

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent @ StacyBrownMedia

NOURISHING BLACK COMMUNITY “The Penumbra Center for Racial Healing will be a beacon for all of us as we move through these uncertain times.”

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LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR NEXT LIFE CYCLE AS A CENTER FOR RACIAL HEALING Imagine a brave space where individuals can learn, rejuvenate, and stand up in support of racial equity. Together, we can make truly transformational change. Share your thoughts, dreams, and hopes for the center at penumbratheatre.org.

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Insight News • September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020 • Page 5

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The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, and the American Public Health Association have all recognized that racism is a social determinant for health, with a profound impact across an individual’s lifespan, along with other long-standing, unaddressed disparities and socioeconomic inequities as a result of systemic racism.

House kicks off series of hearings on racial justice issues

By Mike Cook Session Daily Especially in the areas of education, health, housing and public safety, a common refrain during legislative hearings is that Minnesota has some of the worst — if not the worst — racial disparities in the country.

A 13-member bipartisan group began Tuesday to delve deeper into the how and why of such inequality as part of the new House Select Committee on Racial Justice.

No action was taken and the select committee is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. the next four Tuesdays and likely develop suggestions for action.

The Oct. 13 hearing is to be dedicated to the public sharing personal experiences and recommendations. “Earlier this year we passed a House resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis ‌ We will ďŹ nally have a forum where we can deep dive into the impacts on Black, Indigenous and people of color,â€?

Rep. Rena Moran (DFL-St. Paul) said while previewing the ďŹ rst hearing. “The work we are about to embark upon is

personal to me as a mother and a grandmother, but more importantly as a Black mother and grandmother,�

Moran continued. “I’ve experienced and witnessed the roadblocks that Black Minnesotans face in accessing quality health care, a great education, public safety that recognizes human and civil rights, ďŹ nding a place to call home, and the ability to achieve economic prosperity.â€?

Rep. Ruth Richardson (DFL-Mendota Heights), sponsored the racism resolution and co-chairs the select committee. “While we know we cannot undo over 400 years of systemic racism in a single committee, this committee is an important ďŹ rst step forward,â€? she said. â€œâ€Ś We must have diďŹƒcult conversations and recognize the conversations are diďŹƒcult because something is deeply wrong. We must also engage with the community, including engaging with Black, Indigenous and people of color who are closet to the pain of these complex issues.â€? “Working in a collaborative and bipartisan way will move our state forward to beneďŹ t all Minnesotans. ‌ Minnesota has moved to a

national spotlight, and I believe now is the time for us to lead with positive and sustainable solutions,� added Rep. Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring).

Racism 101 The ďŹ rst of ďŹ ve meetings focused, in part, on a simple question: What is racism?

Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, whose background includes being a family physician, past president of the American Public Health Association and assistant professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, said racism is “a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks that: unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities; unfairly advantages other individuals and communities; and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources.�

Using examples of where these historically occurred and take place today as institutionalized, personally mediated or internalized racism — including housing, police brutality, teacher

Help is just a phone call away...

photo/Twitter

On Feb. 18 Rep. Rena Moran (DFL-65A) introduced a bill in the Minnesota House mandating working mothers receive 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave after 90 days of employment. Bill HF3073 improves upon the parameters of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). devaluation, self-devaluation and hopelessness — Jones provided a call for action, especially in a state reeling by the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in police custody. “If we just say a thing, six months from now we may forget why we said that thing,â€? she said. â€œâ€Ś If we start acting we will not forget why we are acting.â€?

Maternal-child health mortality and morbidity was

Rep. Ruth Richardson (DFL-Mendota Heights)

Rachel Hardeman

also discussed, with Rachel Hardeman noting Black mothers are three to four times more likely to die of a pregnancyrelated cause than white mothers and in 2016 the non-Hispanic Black infant mortality was 2.3 times higher than white babies. “Here in Minnesota, we’re certainly grappling with racial disparities in infant mortality where we see that Black and indigenous babies are twice as likely to die in that ďŹ rst year of life,â€? said Hardeman, an associate professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health.

Hardeman is concerned COVID-19 will further aect the disproportionate maternal health

equity. “A lot of clinics and providers have opened their doors again, but there are those who still remain fearful of exposure and aren’t using the clinic or using clinics that are only doing tele-health visits,â€? she said. â€œâ€Ś Relationships and building relationships under care is incredibly important for birthing people of color.

It’s really diďŹƒcult to do that in a virtual space. We also know there’s higher levels of mistrust of the health care system due to structural racism.â€?

Yet, Hardeman sees hope.

She acknowledges a lot of work needs to be done, but she has never seen this much motivation to address the issue.

This article appeared originally on The Session Daily.

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Page 6 • September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020 • Insight News

Insight 2 Health

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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.

Before you vote: Five things you should know about the future of ACA The week after the November 3 election, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments about the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Before you cast your ballot, here are a few things you should know about your health insurance and what is at stake.

Al Tompkins, senior faculty with the Poynter Institute, offered the following as a part of his daily COVID-19 briefing for journalists, “The main issue is the constitutionality of the

Cruelty From 3 this element of not fully being accepted --not being safe,” said Selma Hussein, an educator with an assist principalship at a school in Minneapolis. She said she’s worried about the impact the deportations could have on Somali American families who remained in America. “I feel like this is being done intentionally

act after Congress eliminated the tax penalty for skipping health insurance. The Trump administration joined a coalition of states that said the entire act should be repealed.”

These seven voting points were compiled from various sources, including Tompkins’ daily briefing, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and reporting from established news organizations.

ability to work around the ruling The Court generally rules on fall cases in the spring or summer of the following year Two important things to consider: If the ACA is repealed, then there is the possibility of millions of Americans losing their health care, and the current administration has not presented a plan to replace it. And, there is a possibility that the November election will be challenged,

which presents an additional challenge of how and when to replace Justice Ginsburg.

Three days after the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Trump administration has already alerted the public to a plan to replace her, which is backed by Mitch McConnell.

The points The constitutionality

of the ACA Will the Court preserve Obamacare and get rid of the individual mandate that penalizes taxpayers for refusing to purchase health insurance?

With the recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, there is the possibility of a 4-4 split on the case If Democrats win the presidency and the Senate, Congress has the ability to pass legislation that negates any ruling by the Court to abolish the ACA - they will have an

to break up families and to create fear in the immigrant communities.”

Jumale said that though Somalia has been rebuilding and has made a lot of gains in the last 30 years, the country is not ready to repatriate foreign nationals back to Somalia. He said it is still dangerous and the planned deportations contradict the U.S. Government’s own action.

“DHS, or the Department of Homeland

Security, themselves, said that because of the risk that Somali civilians in Somalia face that they’ve decided to extend what is called the Temporary Protected Status for Somalis, and this is the same government in the same breath, that is now deciding to deport these folks back to Somalia.”

Temporary Protection Status (TPS) is a humanitarian relief effort created by congress 30 years ago, it gives a special immigration status that protects

people fleeing situations like natural disasters and ongoing conflicts or war. In January of this year the Trump administration extended TPS for Somalia for 18 months.

TPS attracted national attention earlier this week when a ruling made by a federal appeals court panel rejected a lawsuit filed by the U.S.-born children of TPS some holders who alleged Trump’s effort to terminate the TPS status of El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan were

motivated by racism. The court’s decision allows the opportunity for the Trump administration to deport 400,000 immigrants across the United States from those countries.

The Somali Americans who are set to be deported this week were not TPS recipients according to congresswoman Omar.

However, the recent efforts by the Trump administration to threat TPS designations during a global pandemic, ring alarm bells for many.

From the allegation of a Georgia nurse who says ICE is conducting mass hysterectomies on detained women held in detention

The resources The Kaiser Family Foundation outlines the impact of ACA going before the courts Politico: “Ginsburg’s death leaves Obamacare in

Electricians From 1 Members of Electrical Workers Minority Caucus (EWMC), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 292 conducted a weekend of service culminating with refreshing the mural wall and electrical infrastructure of the Johnnie Baker Post 291 on West. Broadway.

Jacory Shipp, president of the EWMC said the union workers do an annual service project to support community in general and Veterans in particular. This year’s project was to refresh and restore all electrical infrastructure at the American Legion Post in North Minneapolis. The service project, conducted last Sunday, included painting the east wall of the building in preparation for a new mural. The day before, the union members hosted an outdoor picnic free food and entertainment event for southside residents.

Members of EWMC include: Jacory Shipp, president, Silvia Gonzales, vice-president, Antonio Hanso, secretary,and Derrick Givens, treasurer, and members Grace Weik, Kirk Marthaler, Max Orman, Elizabeth Wilson, Ryan Hanson, Jamal McNutt,

greater danger than ever” Here is a chart of how justices have sided on previous cases involving the Affordable Care Act (provided by Al Tompkins, Poynter Institute) Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Minnesotans (Ballotpedia) The Supreme Court is set to hear other cases apart from ACA such as climate change, abortion, and immigration. The immigration case could repeal the Dream Act.

centers, to the federal appeals court TPS ruling—the ongoing threats of both COVID-19 and police brutality—and now these possible deportations, this has been a long month for many intersecting communities.

“Anti-Blackness is at the root of so many of Trump’s actions. Trump repeatedly tries to target and stigmatize our communities – whether it is by encouraging police violence or deporting African immigrants,” Omar told Insight News, “We must recognize that our destinies are linked. Our struggles are connected. And we must stand up to his racist policies wherever we find them.”

Lester Lewis, Chris Kern, Alex Peterson and Everett Pettiford, president emeritus.

The electricians were presented certificates of gratitude from Johnnie Baker Post 291 Commander, Dale H. Lyons, and past Commander, Andrew Rose.

See full interview with EWMC leaders next week.

Dale H. Lyons, Commander, Johnnie Baker Post 291

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UROC From 3 Conversations With Al McFarlane Facebook Live Vidoecast. She discussed the Center’s work and what they’re going to be doing in the future.

“When the university

Insight News • September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020 • Page 7 came and talked about the different ideas that it had for the community, they were very honest and authentic. That speaks to the vision of then ViceChancellor, Robert J. Jones, who now serves as Chancellor at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Jones said ‘these are the things that we think we want to bring to be a resource to the community,’”

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 Associate Editor Afrodescendientes Carmen Robles Associate Editor Nigeria & West Africa Chief Folarin Ero-Phillips Director of Content & Production Patricia Weaver Content & Production Coordinator Sunny Thongthi Yang Distribution/Facilities Manager Jamal Mohamed Receptionist Lue B. Lampley

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Zulu-Gillespie recounted, “’but what do you all want?”’

Initially, the university was met with skepticism.

“There were protests with picket signs. But I think the reason why we’ve been able to build trust over the years is when the university said originally that they were going to bring 40 new jobs to the community, I believed that, but there were other community members who were a little more keen and said, ‘Now are those 40 university jobs?’… people from on campus who were just going to move over here or 40 new jobs. ZuluGillespie said.

A community elder asked how many jobs they were going to have, and Dr. Irma McClaurin, UROC’s first executive director, was honest.

“Dr. McLaurin was honest and said, “Right now, the way it looks, one at the most.”

Zulu-Gillespie said, “I had told her in my humble opion, she should just always be honest, if you don’t know, you don’t know. If the answer is rough, at least people know that you’ll tell them the truth. Cpmmunity elders then asked, ‘Well, what about some other contracts?”

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Intern Kelvin Kuria

Lyle-Gray From 3 Universities.

Within the city of New Orleans, Fannie C. Williams was an organizer, charter member, and first President for the Board of Management for the African American branch of the New Orleans Y.W.C.A. She served on Boards of the New Orleans Neighborhood Center Family Service Society, Girl Scouts, the American Red Cross, the Community Chest, the Home Development Center, and the Flint Goodridge Hospital After returning from Michigan in 1921, she was appointed principal of Jones School where she guided staff and students for more than three decades. There were 2,800 students in attendance with more than 50 teachers in the classroom. She earned $225 per year to supervise the elementary and Normal schools. These schools certified Negro teachers beginning in 1870, but were

And that lead to a series of development and support services contracts being awared to community businessesl” Usually, this is not how the university does its business. It is usually handled by facilities management, but by involving community members, it established a bond between the university and community, Sulu-Gillespie said.

“I love that residents and artists, got together with the architect, Alicia Belton and Chuck Lavigne and artist, Brother Seitu Jones, all sitting in a room with residents asking, ‘Okay, so what is this building really going to look like? What do we want it to say?’ And so folks were saying, first of all, we need to recognize the assets of North Minneapolis, that people don’t often recognize.”

UROC also does its research differently, as the researchers who do their work out of UROC or affiliated with UROC have a community partner. This creates a mutually beneficial partnership where both sides are heard, she said.

“Sometimes, that means that they are together deciding the research question

from the beginning, and then deciding how they’re going to get that message out,” ZuluGillespie said.

“They participate in determining methods that they’re going to use to gather the information and then actually coding the information, and then how do they get that information back out to the community?

And then what happens next?

So some people work together through all those steps.”

UROC has done research on the mortgage foreclosure impact, otrauma recovery project, and currently is working in partnership with the Northside Job Creation Team, and the Northside Healing Space.

The Northside Healing Space began as Lauren Martin and Pastor Alika Galloway looked at people who were trading sex in North Minneapolis. The people trading sex had stories and solutions on how to make it better. From that came resource facility on 21st and Emerson, where people who were trading sex can have respite.

The North Side Job Creation team stems from North

Minneapolis having the highest unemployment rate in the city.

Their goal was to have 1500 more jobs in North Minneapolis by 2017, and they did, now the program continues their work.

In the days ahead, UROC is focusing on three areas of research and engagement: community healing and wholeness, dismantling systemic racism, and individual, family, and community financial wellbeing.

“In the spring of 2019 we held meetings with community members, including folks from nonprofit organizations, residents, staff, students, and faculty members, asking what they thought would be the direction that UROC should go.” Zulu-Gillespie said.

The community wanted to focus on these three areas. And as a result, UROC will fund three projects (around $15,000 each) to pay for a research assistant to help make the work happen. The awardees will be announced in January.

For further information about research grant applications, call 612-626-9829.

discontinued when the State required a four-year college degree.

She served on the adversary committee for the Department of Public Welfare She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha (a Black sorority founded in 1908) She was a 50year member of Central Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ serving for many years as the superintendent of the church school and as a deaconess She was a life member of the National Education Association for the Study of Education, the YWCA, and the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) She served as President of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools (later the American Teachers Association), until it merged with the National Education Association.

She participated in three White House conferences: President Herbert Hoover sought her input on the conference on Child Health and Protection;

President Franklin Roosevelt solicited her assistance on his conference on Housing; and the Mid-Century conference initiated by President Harry S. Truman had Miss Fannie C. Williams in attendance.

She served as trustee of Straight College (later Dillard University) - (1936-1960) She was a representative of the American Missionary Association She encouraged professional growth in her staff.

Those with only certification went on to work toward their degrees, with many completing advanced degrees. Teachers who had worked under Miss Fannie’s guidance became principals, supervisors, consultants, and school librarians in the New Orleans Public Schools.

During her 33-year tenure at Valena C. Jones Elementary School (Baton Rouge), Alabama State College, West Virginia Institute, and Alcorn A&M (Mississippi), she was always in demand as a consultant.

She was responsible for starting a health care program that culminated with

Child Health Care Day on May 1st of each calendar year.

She opened a nursery school and kindergarten classes at Jones School before they were provided at other Negro schools in the city.

In 1946, Fannie C. Williams Hall, a girls’ dormitory on Dillard’s campus. was dedicated In 1977, she was the recipient of awards from the American Teachers Association and the National Teachers Association In 1987 through 1989, a 120,000 square foot facility – the Fannie C. Williams Charter School – was constructed with funds from FEMA. PROMPT – POLITE – PRODUCTIVE – PREPARED When all is said and done, and we move beyond the virus and into a more positive and peaceful democratic society, America will need many Fannie C. Williams - like educators and warrior parents in the trenches committed to closing the academic, social, and emotional gaps suffered by many of our youth today. We can and we will overcome.

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Page 8 • September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020 • Insight News

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg helped shape the modern era of women’s rights – even before she went on the Supreme Court

By Jonathan Entin, Professor Emeritus of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, the Supreme Court announced.

Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement that “Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature.”

Even before her appointment, she had reshaped American law. When he nominated Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, President Bill Clinton compared her legal work on behalf of women to the epochal work of Thurgood Marshall on behalf of AfricanAmericans.

The comparison was entirely appropriate: As Marshall oversaw the legal strategy that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that outlawed segregated schools, Ginsburg coordinated a similar effort against sex discrimination.

Decades before she joined the court, Ginsburg’s work as an attorney in the 1970s fundamentally changed the Supreme Court’s approach to women’s rights, and the modern skepticism about sex-based policies stems in no small way from her lawyering. Ginsburg’s work helped to change the way we all think about women – and men, for that matter.

I’m a legal scholar who studies social reform movements and I served as a law clerk to Ginsburg when she was an appeals court judge. In my opinion – as remarkable as Marshall’s work on behalf of African-Americans was – in some ways Ginsburg faced more daunting prospects when she started.

Starting at zero When Marshall began challenging segregation in the 1930s, the Supreme Court had

rejected some forms of racial discrimination even though it had upheld segregation.

When Ginsburg started her work in the 1960s, the Supreme Court had never invalidated any type of sexbased rule. Worse, it had rejected every challenge to laws that treated women worse than men.

For instance, in 1873, the court allowed Illinois authorities to ban Myra Bradwell from becoming a lawyer because she was a woman. Justice Joseph P. Bradley, widely viewed as a progressive, wrote that women were too fragile to be lawyers: “The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator.”

And in 1908, the court upheld an Oregon law that limited the number of hours that women – but not men – could work. The opinion relied heavily on a famous brief submitted

by Louis Brandeis to support the notion that women needed protection to avoid harming their reproductive function.

As late as 1961, the court upheld a Florida law that for all practical purposes kept women from serving on juries because they were “the center of the home and family life” and therefore need not incur the burden of jury service.

Challenging paternalistic notions Ginsburg followed Marshall’s approach to promote women’s rights – despite some important differences between segregation and gender discrimination.

Segregation rested on the racist notion that Black people were less than fully human and deserved to be treated like animals. Gender discrimination reflected paternalistic notions of female frailty. Those notions placed women on a pedestal – but also denied them opportunities.

photo/ AP_Marcy Nighswander

Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg paying a courtesy call on Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., left, and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., in June 1993, before her confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. qualify for housing, medical and dental benefits.

If Joseph Frontiero had been the soldier, the couple would have automatically qualified for those benefits.

Ginsburg argued that sex-based classifications such as the one Sharron Frontiero challenged should be treated the same as the now-discredited race-based policies.

By an 8–1 vote, the court in Frontiero v. Richardson agreed that this sex-based rule was unconstitutional. But the justices could not agree on the legal test to use for evaluating the constitutionality of sexbased policies.

Either way, though, Black Americans and women got the short end of the stick.

Ginsburg started with a seemingly inconsequential case. Reed v. Reed challenged an Idaho law requiring probate courts to appoint men to administer estates, even if there were a qualified woman who could perform that task.

Sally and Cecil Reed, the long-divorced parents of a teenage son who committed suicide while in his father’s custody, both applied to administer the boy’s tiny estate.

The probate judge appointed the father as required by state law. Sally Reed appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Ginsburg did not argue the case, but wrote the brief that persuaded a unanimous court in 1971 to invalidate the state’s preference for males.

As the court’s decision stated, that preference was “the very kind of arbitrary legislative choice forbidden by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.”

Two years later, Ginsburg won in her first appearance before the Supreme Court. She appeared on behalf of Air Force Lt. Sharron Frontiero.

Frontiero was required by federal law to prove that her husband, Joseph, was dependent on her for at least half his economic support in order to

Strategy: Represent men In 1974, Ginsburg suffered her only loss in the Supreme Court, in a case that she entered at the last minute.

Mel Kahn, a Florida widower, asked for the property tax exemption that state law allowed only to widows. The Florida courts ruled against him.

Ginsburg, working with the national ACLU, stepped in after the local affiliate brought the case to the Supreme Court. But a closely divided court upheld the exemption as compensation for women who had suffered economic discrimination over the years.

Despite the unfavorable result, the Kahn case showed an important aspect of Ginsburg’s approach: her willingness to work on behalf

of men challenging gender discrimination. She reasoned that rigid attitudes about sex roles could harm everyone and that the all-male Supreme Court might more easily get the point in cases involving male plaintiffs.

She turned out to be correct, just not in the Kahn case.

Ginsburg represented widower Stephen Wiesenfeld in challenging a Social Security Act provision that provided parental benefits only to widows with minor children.

Wiesenfeld’s wife had died in childbirth, so he was denied benefits even though he faced all of the challenges of single parenthood that a mother would have faced.

The Supreme Court gave Wiesenfeld and Ginsburg a win in 1975, unanimously ruling that sex-based distinction unconstitutional.

And two years later, Ginsburg successfully represented Leon Goldfarb in his challenge to another sex-based provision of the Social Security Act: Widows automatically received survivor’s benefits on the death of their husbands. But widowers could receive such benefits only if the men could prove that they were financially dependent on their wives’ earnings.

Ginsburg also wrote an influential brief in Craig v. Boren, the 1976 case that established the current standard for evaluating the constitutionality of sex-based laws.

Like Wiesenfeld and Goldfarb, the challengers in the Craig case were men. Their claim seemed trivial: They objected to an Oklahoma law that allowed women to buy low-alcohol beer at age 18 but required men to be 21 to buy the same product.

But this deceptively simple case illustrated the vices of sex stereotypes: Aggressive men (and boys) drink and

drive, women (and girls) are demure passengers. And those stereotypes affected everyone’s behavior, including the enforcement decisions of police officers.

Under the standard delineated by the justices in the Boren case, such a law can be justified only if it is substantially related to an important governmental interest.

Among the few laws that satisfied this test was a California law that punished sex with an underage female but not with an underage male as a way to reduce the risk of teen pregnancy.

These are only some of the Supreme Court cases in which Ginsburg played a prominent part as a lawyer. She handled many lower-court cases as well. She had plenty of help along the way, but everyone recognized her as the key strategist.

In the century before Ginsburg won the Reed case, the Supreme Court never met a gender classification that it didn’t like. Since then, sexbased policies usually have been struck down.

I believe President Clinton was absolutely right in comparing Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s efforts to those of Thurgood Marshall, and in appointing her to the Supreme Court.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Jonathan Entin taught Constitutional Law; Administrative Law; Courts, Public Policy, and Social Change; the Law and Social Science Seminar; Law, Legislation, and Regulation; Mass Media Law; Property; and the Supreme Court Seminar during more than three decades on the faculty. He also served for nearly eight years as the law school’s associate dean for academic affairs.

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Insight News • September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020 • Page 9

Feminist From 3 women suffragists upheld racial segregation and eugenics policies of their time, even asking Black women to march behind white women—a request met with defiance by some Black women suffragists such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who refused to be segregated in the parade, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, who confronted white women with whom she had worked alongside in the 1866 National Women’s Rights Convention. Her words resonate with critiques today of many white women’s lack of solidarity with Black women’s struggles: “You white women here speak of rights. I speak of wrongs.”

Susan B. Anthony was a notable exception to these racial practices of exclusion; with an abolitionist brother who supported John Brown, Anthony sometimes hosted Black women suffragists like Ida B. WellsBarnett in her home, and is known to have fired a white secretary who refused to type Wells-Barnett’s speech.

Black women suffragists well understood “intersectional” approaches to their struggle decades before the concept, as we use it today, was invented. They vigorously supported the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) that gave Black men the right to vote, but excluded them, and aggressively championed the Nineteenth Amendment, despite being treated as outsiders by some white women suffragists, and being at greater risk because of both their race and gender.

They lived under the weight of double discrimination and possibly triple discrimination, especially if we considered the opposition some of them may have encountered for any nonconforming sexual orientation. Given the gender beliefs of the time, Black women’s social station in life was even more subordinate than that of white women, leaving them vulnerable to unjustified acts of physical violation, lynching,

and rape solely based on race, and with no legal recourse.

Today, all women, but especially Black women, Black queer women, and Black trans women still walk in the trailblazing shoes of those Black women suffragists who sometimes faced insurmountable odds, yet pressed forward to support what they deemed a righteous struggle.

Black women are “hidden figures” in the history of the suffrage movement in the United States and sometimes presented as an absent presence.

In fact, they almost missed being represented in the most significant monument of “real women,” celebrating 100 years of women’s rights, which was unveiled in New York City’s Central Park on August 26, 2020.

After formidable pushback, the monument was redesigned to include Sojourner Truth, whose role in the suffragist efforts is often misrepresented by the lens of white women retelling a white “Mistress” historical narrative of the origins of the women’s equality movement.

Indeed, Sojourner Truth was an abolitionist and public advocate of women’s rights and women’s equality, well before Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It is said that in 1843, five years before the Seneca Falls Convention where Stanton delivered her “Declaration of Sentiments, that Sojourner “…had a revelation and began to travel the country spreading her gospel of equality between the races and sexes.”

However, the traditional (white) histories of the suffragist movement describe Truth as “one of the only black women of the time who spoke for women’s rights” (my emphasis).

That simply is not true! Not only was Sojourner Truth a foremother, albeit a black one, of the suffragist movement in the United States, but she was not alone in supporting equality for all women. Numerous Black women declared themselves suffragists and participated in rallies and other forms of activism to achieve the right for all women to vote, despite battling “an ugly mix of racism and sexism.” While they voiced

Charlotte Hollands

Irma McClaurin criticism of white-only women’s organizations, Black women were proactive in their fight for political power and the ballot, and formed some of the most historic clubs and organizations for themselves, or worked through their sororities. Many of these Black women’s groups, organizations, and sororities are still operational today. As Martha S. Jones asserts in the promotion for her forthcoming book, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, “this overwhelmingly white women’s [suffragist] movement did not win the vote for most Black women. Securing their right required a movement of their own.” And Black women suffragists are not the only ones rendered invisible. Native/ Indigenous women and Asian women are rarely mentioned as well.

In the wake of postReconstruction and the 1865 Black Codes of some southern

states, the voting rights of Black men were constrained. As whites attempted to regulate the newlyfound freedom, segregationist beliefs and discrimination became enshrined in the South and shaped Jim Crow laws and informal practices of everyday life. These practices made Black women’s right to vote a very short-lived victory, as both Black women and Black men lost the right to vote through overt and subtle voter suppression practices, including literacy tests and poll taxes. As a result, full voting rights for Black men and women would not be restored until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

In 2020, exactly 56 years later, and over 150 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1866, there are still deliberate assaults on democracy in the United States as Black voting rights are once again under attack through modern-day tactics of voter suppression not unlike those of the past.

As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States that legalized women’s voting rights, we must lift up Black women suffragists like Mary Church Terrell, Harriet Tubman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Sojourner Truth, and many others who defied racism and sexism to win the right to vote. Their stories have not always been documented or recorded in mainstream histories about the women’s suffrage movement, even those written by white women historians and feminists. Though Black women suffragists are now memorialized by the National Park Service, this was not always the case. We as anthropologists have a responsibility to reach beyond the dominant cultural narratives and lift up the veil of social inequality and exclusion.

Our discipline must commit to making visible hidden cultural truths, practices, and dynamics of power and resistance navigated by Black womenfolk and Black women political actors, past and present, who fight for equality, social justice, and voting rights for us all.

Without question, there is an inextricable link between Black women suffragists’ historic activism and determination and the political activism of Black women today. It is reflected in the late Shirley Chisholm’s election in 1968 as the first Black women in Congress and campaign in 1972 as the first woman and first Black candidate to run for the Democratic presidential nomination; in Michelle Obama’s historic role as the only Black FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) for two terms; in the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement founded by three Black women radical organizers, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi; to the #SayHerName campaign launched by intersectionist and critical race theorist and law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, co-founder of the African American Policy Forum, to draw attention to

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Spur more than $150 billion in additional public-private venture capital and non-profit lending programs to minority-owned small businesses.

Reform Opportunity Zones to Fulfill Their Promise.

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Black women also killed by police; and to the monumental and historic selection of Kamala Harris as the first African American and South Asian American to be selected as the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2020. And there are so many more who remain unnamed.

Black women, as public figures and as ordinary citizens, share a common experience of social invisibility in a white supremacist world and a cultural worldview shaped by anti-Blackness, implicit bias, and strongly-held beliefs in racial hierarchies.

They connect through a legacy of Black women’s powerful self-determination and a political praxis of Black women’s activism in the face of seemingly insurmountable barriers that can be traced back to the moment the first enslaved woman rebelled and was punished, the miraculous escapes of Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth’s successful litigation, and continue through the efforts of the many Black women suffragists named above, as well as those who remain unnamed. Because of them, we can… VOTE for Black women as elected officials at every conceivable level, including vice president of the United States.

Who knows what the future holds? Whatever it is, Black women today, like their Black suffragist sisters of yesterday, are prepared.

Contact Irma McClaurin at irmamcclaurin. com. Hear her speak about Black women suffragists on WAYO Radio show, “Up Close and Cultural,” hosted by arts and social justice activist, Rachel Y. DeGuzman.

McClaurin, Irma.

2020. “Ten Things about Black Women Suffragists through a Black Feminist Lens.”

Anthropology News website, September 14, 2020.

Reproduced by permission of the American Anthropological Association from Anthropology News, Volume 61, Issue 4, pp. 7–9, 2020. Not for sale or further reproduction.

Page 10 • September 28, 2020 - October 4, 2020 • Insight News

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