Race: Conversations around race and racial justice

Here are the latest on the fight against racism, voices calling for racial justice and in-depth stories on communities of color and other racial issues from MPR News.

Voices of Minnesota Calls for change across the state

Protests and pain The killing of George Floyd

Call To Mind Spotlight on black trauma and policing

Amplifying voices Share your experiences and hopes for the future

July 27, 2022 7:01 AM

Pope in headdress stirs deep emotions in Indian Country

It was a stunning image: Pope Francis briefly wearing a full Indigenous headdress, after he apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s “disastrous” residential school system for Indigenous children. But some Indigenous people took to social media to express unhappiness with an iconic gesture they found incongruous with the Catholic Church history of abuse.

by The Associated Press

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July 27, 2022 4:00 AM

A new dictionary will document the lexicon of African American English

A new research collaboration between Harvard University and Oxford University Press aims to compile the first fully-formed dictionary of African American English.

by Jeevika Verma

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July 25, 2022 11:18 AM

Pope apologizes for 'devastating' school abuses in Canada

Pope Francis has apologized for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” policy of Indigenous residential schools. The pontiff says the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed their families and marginalized generations in ways still being felt today.

by The Associated Press

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July 22, 2022 2:43 PM

City of Minneapolis and state's human rights dept. talking again about MPD reforms

After a delay, the city of Minneapolis and the state department of human rights have agreed to continue working together towards an agreement to address systemic issues within the Minneapolis Police Department.

by Jon Collins

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July 22, 2022 5:00 AM

Gary Hines and Sounds of Blackness stay on mission for more than 50 years

Sounds of Blackness is more than a band, it's a cultural institution. That, says the group's longtime director Gary Hines, was the mission given to them by a mentor at Macalester College in St. Paul, where the group was founded more than 50 years ago.

by Lee Hawkins

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July 21, 2022 4:00 AM

‘Where do I belong?’ Native roots, hard realities surface in woman’s search for her past

In her quest to find the birth mother she'd never known, Peggy Mandel confronted stories of government boarding schools, generational trauma and the loss of Indigenous culture and identity. She couldn’t change the past, but could she alter the future?

by Dan Gunderson

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July 20, 2022 5:53 PM

ToolKit: How housing can shrink the racial wealth gap

Income inequality is deepening in America. Economic gains in recent decades have been unevenly dispersed, with the vast majority of the wealth going to those already on top. Part of that discrepancy is rooted in the inability to buy property.

by Sam Stroozas

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July 20, 2022 12:19 PM

Black-owned Strive Bookstore opens in downtown Minneapolis

Mary Taris couldn’t find enough books for her children featuring Black characters, so she founded her own publishing company – Strive Community Publishing. “We’re really striving to connect across cultures,” Taris says.

by Noor Adwan

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July 20, 2022 4:00 AM

U.S. death toll from drug overdoses is rising fast among Black and Indigenous people

Drug overdoses are killing more people than ever in the U.S., and a new CDC report finds growing racial disparities among those who have died — with the largest increase among Black Americans.

by Rhitu Chatterjee

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July 20, 2022 4:00 AM

Minnesota Chippewa Tribe members voting on whether to continue blood quantum

A vote being counted Wednesday will guide discussions on whether to keep the controversial requirement known as “blood quantum” — that individuals must have 25 percent of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe blood to be eligible for tribal membership.

by Dan Kraker

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