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THE VOICE OF BLACK MINNESOTA SINCE 1934
November 25 - December 1, 2021
By R.B. King Contributing Writer
Vol. 88
www.spokesman-recorder.com www.spokesman-record
No. 17
CORPORATIONS FAIL TO HONOR PLEDGES TO BLACK MEDIA
The Center for Economic Inclusion held a Zoom meeting earlier this month with local leaders of Black-owned media to discuss whether or not pledges some large corporations made in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to invest in Black-owned media have materialized. Among corporations that made pledges are Target, General Mills, Nestle and DoorDash. The panel was hosted by Tawanna A. Black, founder and CEO of the Center for Economic Inclusion, and co-moderated by Jonathan Johnson, who works as the Center’s business development and strategy lead. According to the Center, top corporations only spend .3-.5% of their advertising budgets in Black-owned media. And despite the pledge 20 corporations made to raise this to two percent, the panelists universally agreed that this had not been implemented. “Nobody has received any of the ad buys that they promised after George Floyd died,” said Sheletta Brundidge, founder and CEO of Shelettamakesmelaugh.com. “They put out the news releases. They said they were going to do it, and then nothing happened. “And then our local media turned around
and said, ‘Where are the receipts? Where’s the money?’ When they put out the news release saying they were going to do two percent of their ad buys, they could have said where their money was going. “They didn’t say anything because they hadn’t planned on doing anything. And then when someone finally asked the question, they said, well, they don’t know. They don’t care enough about our community to be honest about it, and they know that nobody’s going to call them out on it.” Brundidge mentioned a specific effort she made to talk with an organization that had invested in a Whiteowned media outlet to get them to talk about diversity and inclusion. She asked for the meeting to see if the company would be interested in partnering with Black-owned media. No one from the company ever showed up, only emailing Brundidge after the fact to say they had been double booked. “[The companies] will tell me they ■ See MEDIA on page 5
“Where’s the money?”
“Where are the receipts?”
Workers push back against unfair conditions, poor pay ‘Striketober’ strike wave reflects growing unrest
By Mel Reeves Community Editor “We’ve never had the deck stacked in our advantage the way it is now,” said Chris Laursen, a worker at a John Deere plant in Ottumwa, Iowa in an interview with the Waterloo Times. And workers, whether BIPOC, White, male or female, have begun to take advantage of that opening in a show of unity not seen in decades in opposition to poor wages, benefits and working conditions. “We were essential,” said Leslie Glazar, recording secretary of the local union representing workers at Heaven Hill spirits bottling plant near Louisville, in a recent New York Times interview. “They kept preaching, ‘You get us through that, we’ll make it worth your
time.’ But we went from heroes to zero.” “The murder of George Floyd has emboldened Black workers as well as their White counterparts,” said Peter Rachleff, retired Macalester College history and labor professor and coexecutive director of the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul. “When White workers see Black people standing up and fighting back it can be a source of inspiration. “Happy people are not racists,” Rachleff continued. “Racists are unhappy and have been taught to aim their unhappiness at Blacks and People of Color, rather than aiming their unhappiness at their bosses. “The job of progressives is to provide those who are unhappy with an alternative analysis of the cause of their
October tens of thousands of workers unhappiness. When workers are in the year. Dubbed by the internet and social across the U.S. went on strike against a movement they are more conscious.” And that may explain one of the media as #Striketober, in ■ See UNIONS on page 5 largest strike waves in the U.S. in 50 years. Mike Elk of paydayreport.com has counted over 1,650 walkouts of some kind since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The website has reported labor actions and protests in practically every industry in the U.S. including retail stores, fast food chains, factories, restaurants, schools, hospitals, airports, and even the gig economy. There have also been dozens of labor protests complaining about working conditions and other issues associated with the job. Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations ILR Labor Action Tracker, which tracks strikes and worker protests, Workers walk the picket line near a Kellogg plant during “Striketober.” has recorded 307 since the beginning of Courtesy of BCTGM
Ward 6 sends advocate for renters and immigrants to council
Jamal Osman
Courtesy City of Mpls.
The Minneapolis City Council will have a majority of BIPOC members starting when the newly elected members take their seats in January. Over the next few weeks the MSR will give our readers an opportunity to get to know them and their thoughts on the pressing issues in the city, especially as these relate to Communities of Color. This week we talk with Ward 6 newcomer Jamal Osman.
By Abdi Mohamed Contributing Writer
ers and refugees, and I live in a ward with over 90% renters that is one of the centers of the refugees and immigrants in Minnesota. Since being electMSR: Tell our readers who you ed, I have also grown to appreciate are, where you come from, and the responsibility I have in representwhat makes you tick as a person. ing the heart of the Native American Jamal Osman: I’m a Minnesotan movement on Franklin Avenue. There and a Somali. I moved to St. Paul when I was a teenager as a refugee from is an incredible diversity in this ward, MSR: What makes you a good and I am excited to keep advocating Somalia. After college, I started working on behalf of renters as an advocate council member for your ward? on behalf of every resident. Osman: I’m an advocate for rentwith their landlords. That’s the experi■ See OSMAN on page 5 ence that really carries me in this work on the council. I saw people in Minneapolis who needed someone to fight for them, to carry their voice, and work for the things that can make their lives better. I’m a happy dad, a lucky husband, and the best FIFA player on the council.
St. Paul ‘in a holding pattern’ over rent stabilization What does it mean? How will it work? Confusion reigns.
By Feven Gerezgiher Contributing Writer On Election Day, St. Paul residents voted in favor of a rent stabilization ordinance. The next day, with developers calling the City to place projects on hold, Mayor Melvin Carter asked the city council to exempt new construction from the terms of the ordinance. Margaret Kaplan, president of the Housing Justice Center and part of the coalition that drafted the ordinance, called the reaction “a disaster narrative. The corporations and industries who fought against rent stabilization are still campaigning against it, but in a different way,” said Kaplan at a Nov. 17 Housing Equity Now Saint Paul (HENS) webinar.
3% of monthly rent. The cap includes newly constructed buildings, which opponents say threatens the viability of building new housing in the city. Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies said they pulled applications for three buildings as they try to navigate the yet-to-be-determined implementation process of the ordinance. This includes the highly anticipated Ford site redevelopment—3,800 units of market-rate and affordable housing. “The rent control policy threatens the funding sources for market-rate projects and therefore the overall finance plan for the development,” said Tony St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter MSR file photo Barranco, North Region president of Ryan Companies, in a statement. Kaplan said that without an impleSt. Paul’s rent stabilization ordinance caps annual rent increases to mentation process in place yet, many
developer concerns are speculative. “Is there a real issue that is based on facts, data and information? And if there is a real issue, what is the way we can work to address real problems?” she asked. At time of publication, Barranco was not available to elaborate on what threatened funding sources. The Minnesota Multi Housing Coalition, strong opponents to the ordinance prior to elections, said they are not doing interviews at this time. The St. Paul Office of Planning and Economic Development also did not have data on how many housing projects are still continuing. Early in September the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) released a rent stabilization report for Minneapolis that found little evidence that rent control policies negatively
impact new construction. It said construction rates were instead “highly dependent on localized economic cycles and credit markets.” HENS Campaign Manager Tram Hoang noted that with St. Paul’s most racially and economically diverse wards voting yes on the ordinance, any changes to the plan would require community engagement. “It’s…inherently racist for folks to be saying that the people didn’t know what they voted for. That voters are too dumb to understand housing policy.” An issue of process Without much precedent before them, St. Paul City officials are still trying to figure out what a rent control ■See ST. PAUL on page 5