THE VOICE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY SINCE 1934
July 23-29 2020 Vol. 86 No. 51
85Anniversary
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Many see new opportunity amidst the rubble of uprising Business association steps up Lake Street Council, a business association that spans the Lake Street corridor, has been at the center of some of the organizing. “We've had a lot of conversations around what our role is,” said Lake Street Council Board Member Lorena Pinto. “Right now, it's about us stepping up as a business organization to help the businesses that have been impacted by the looting and the destruction and, ultimately, the communities that need to heal due to the murder of George Floyd.” As of Wednesday, the Lake Street Council has raised about $8.8 million from more than 65,000 people. The organization has created a Recovery Fund Oversight Committee, comprised of local business and community leaders, to help disburse the funds. The organization is offering the funding application in Somali, Spanish and English. So Shop owners and bystanders survey the damage at Midtown Global Market after Lake Street far, more than 300 applications rioting in May. MSR file photo. have been received. The Lake Street Council webcago Ave. in South Minneapolis. and nonprofits, hundreds of milBy J.D. Duggan The area near the Minneapolis lions of dollars could be allocated site has become a hub for all Contributing writer Police Department’s Third Pre- toward relief efforts in the Twin kinds of relevant information— ooting and fires broke cinct, at Lake Street and Minne- Cities. Some stakeholders said listing out organizations taking out in late May follow- haha Avenue, was among those the efforts have spurred strong donations and business owner collaboration and have opened resources, among other assising the police killing of hit the hardest. tance. The team has also linked Between government entities new doors for opportunity. George Floyd at 38th St. and Chi-
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■See OPPORTUNITY on page 6
Strike for Black Lives launched nationwide
Local healthcare workers strike for more respect—and sick pay
By MSR News service As part of a national effort to bring attention to the plight of Black workers, unions and activists across the nation on Monday, July 20, organized what they called “a Strike for Black Lives.” Actions took place in several U.S. cities including Minneapolis and St. Paul. In St. Paul, healthcare workers employed by Cerenity Humboldt Care Center voted to authorize a 24-hour Unfair Labor Practice strike, which they carried out on Monday, after rejecting their employer’s contract proposal. SEIU Healthcare Minnesota represents 85 healthcare workers who work as cooks, housekeepers, janitors, nursing assistants, laundry aides, dietary aides, and restorative aides. According to SEIU, the two sides are divided on a few issues including: a demand for a 5.25% pay increase (workers currently start under $15 per hour), main-
taining current sick pay considering that healthcare workers are on the front line of the COVID pandemic (employer proposes to roll back sick pay), and employer’s proposal to restrict leaves of absences. “We’ve been bargaining for six months and management just doesn’t seem to want to ne-
gotiate,” said Rhonda Little, who has worked at Cerenity for over five years and is a member of the union’s negotiating team. “During this pandemic we’ve kept COVID away from our patients, and it is time our facility steps up to respect our work. “We only can put up with so much,” said Little. “We have lost
so many employees because of turnover, but they don’t want to give us a fair raise and they are talking about taking away paid sick time.” Patricia Nott, vice president of people development, said the company “can’t give what it doesn’t have.” Cerenity is a nonprofit that, according to Nott,
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“AS IT WAS SPOKEN ... LET US RECORD.”
MSR News Briefs Asheville, North Carolina Council resolution redresses reparations, harm done to Blacks
Ashville, NC City Council
The city council of Asheville last week agreed in principle to provide reparations to its African American residents. Within the next year, the city council commits to convening a commission to examine how to create equity among the city's Black residents on issues including education, public transportation and home ownership. By a vote of 7-0 the council passed a resolution seeking to redress harm done to Black residents as a result of the city’s participation in slavery. The resolution also seeks to redress current injustices. It says Black people "have been unjustly targeted by law enforcement and criminal justice procedures,
Workers on a one-day strike picket Cerenity Humbolt Care Center in St. Paul. Photos (l) courtesy of SEIU Healthcare (r) by King Demetrius Pendleton ■See STRIKE on page 6
Community members urged not to take it lightly
Thornton. According to a nearly 400page unpublished White By Charles Hallman House Coronavirus Task Force Contributing writer state-by-state report that the Some believe the COV- nonprofit, nonpartisan Center ID-19 pandemic isn’t being taken seriously enough by people of all ages, especially among Blacks. “We are still learning about COVID-19,” said Children’s Minnesota for Public Integrity obtained Infection Prevention Nurse and published last week, Minnesota is in the “yellow zone” Adriene Thornton. Black Minnesotans make with three countries—Henneup at least 21 percent of CO- pin, Ramsey and Dakota—acVID cases, the highest of any counting for 47% of new COethnic group. Nationwide, VID cases in the state. Thornton, a regular panelist Blacks are disproportionately dying of the disease at on the African American Leadhigher rates than others as ership Forum’s (AALF) biwell. “It is not a hoax,” said weekly series on the disease’s
impact on the Black community, said last week, “We don’t know the long-term impact of COVID-19. We are still learning how to treat it. “It is not [just] older people”
“Too many people still think this is just like the flu.” even though this group is among the most vulnerable to contract the coronavirus. People of all ages can get infected, she said. “How did we get exposed? I don’t have the answer,” admitted Charles Johnson-Nixon, whose entire family became infected with the virus. He noted that before he got tested, ■See COVID on page 6
Courtesy City of Ashville
incarcerated at disproportionate rates and subsequently excluded from full participation in the benefits of citizenship that include voting, employment, housing and health care." Rob Thomas of the Racial Justice Coalition, which led the push for reparations, has said that the reparations will not be just monetary but would also require the city to make financial investments in a number of programs. The resolution is "asking you to look at the facts, and saying, yeah, this happened… This many people died. This much money was taken out of the Black community and it would equal this much today," Thomas said.
Portland, Oregon Trump’s federal agents brutalize peaceful protestors
U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered federal agents into a few cities, and in Portland they have been caught on video brutalizing peaceful protestors. In a video that has been
COVID-19 is ‘a nasty, relentless disease’
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viewed over 12 million times, federal agents beat with batons and maced a 58-year-old Navy veteran who was merely standing in front of them. ■See NEWS BRIEFS on page 6
COVID testing and the Floyd memorial By Charles Hallman Contributing writer Since George Floyd’s death, the area surrounding 38th Street and Chicago Avenue South has become what some are describing as a “mini-Disneyland.” Jaana Hull, who grew up in the area, said, “People fly in from all over the world to take pictures” of the mural and other artwork and the tributes placed in honor of Floyd, who was killed by police at that South Minneapolis corner on Memorial Day. Hull observed, “[People] set up tents and they sell products, and they take that money with them. The media comes in and get their take on it, and they leave the community. The memorial has become the numberone tourist area.” She is concerned that with the daily influx of people to
the now-famous (or infamous) corner, “the 16 blocks around the George Floyd memorial is a high level of exposure for COVID. Minneapolis is the biggest hot spot. It is one of the biggest hot zones right now.” Hull now lives in California and works for a Los Angelesbased company that does COVID-19 testing. She comes back to town at least three days a week to test first responders. Because of the nature of their jobs, first responders are most susceptible to contracting the virus, Hull explained. She and her group perform two types of COVID testing: diagnostic and antibody. “The diagnostic testing is looking for the COVID,” she explained about the test regularly given to first responders. “[It is] for somebody who has symptoms or who has been exposed to someone that has been diag■See TESTING on page 6