Posted on 03/19/2016 1:42:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
First-time caucus-goers meeting at Neighborhoods Organizing for Change headquarters before introducing the reparations resolution at their precincts.
Some Minnesota voters hope to make reparations -- the idea of compensating African Americans for the legacy of slavery -- a main agenda item for the DFL.
It didn't get much attention at the time, but voters throughout the state voted at the state's March 2 DFL caucuses to pass a reparations resolution, a proposal brought forth by members of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC).
Passed resolutions don't necessarily make it into official party platforms, but NOC organizers said they're hoping to start a serious discussion on a topic they say is more viable than people may think.
"There's always been this myth that reparations is unpopular... we really proved that that's just not true," said NOC organizer Wintana Melekin. "Thousands of people voted to start a conversation on reparations."
NOC leaders put the resolution together -- which can be read in full here -- with input from community members, Melekin said. Out of the ten resolutions community members listed as a priority, reparations was one of the most popular.
Minneapolis resident Faith Bickner said the reparations resolution she introduced to her Phillips neighborhood precinct on Tuesday passed without a single objection. She said she sees reparations as a guide for taxpayers and policy makers to funnel money away from institutions that have been mainly benefiting the status quo, and putting that money toward programs and establishments that actively work towards racial equity.
"A pretty easy example is charter schools," Bickner said. "Spending all this money on charter schools has, in a way, been better for white Minnesotan kids than it has been for black Minnesotan kids."
Bickner said starting the conversation is the first step, and that she trusts organizations like NOC and Black Lives Matter Minneapolis to lead that conversation in a constructive way, she said.
Black Lives Matter organizer Lena Gardner agreed, saying if Minnesota policy makers kept reparations in mind while making their decisions, they might put more of the state's funding into things that directly benefit the black community, like early childhood education or criminal justice reform.
"When it comes to the education crisis in Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools there is no money, there is no funding, nobody can come up with any solutions," she said. "But then on less than two months' notice [Minneapolis] can magically find $600,000 to fortify the Fourth Precinct [police station]."
Melekin said too many people think it means just cutting a check for descendants of slavery. Rather, she said, people should see that the issue is far more nuanced. "It can also be investing in educational programs, it can also be investing in community infrastructure, it can be anything," she said. "We just want to make sure the conversation is being had and that reparations is not being pushed off the table as some wacky ideology."
If they were to give the USA an enema, Minnesota is where they need to put the tube!
“When it comes to the education crisis in Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools there is no money, there is no funding, nobody can come up with any solutions,” she said. “But then on less than two months’ notice [Minneapolis] can magically find $600,000 to fortify the Fourth Precinct [police station].”
Probably because it’s not drawn from the same part of the budget. Sheesh!
Minnesota, as a former slave holding state and member of the Confederate States of America, should do this for all of the descendants of those held in slavery within the state boundaries before the Emancipation Proclamation.
My family fought to free the slaves and one of them was wounded. If anyone deserves reparations, it is those who served to free everyone.
1. It wasn’t white folks rounding them up, back in the day, and putting them on boats bound for Europe and America.
2. The issue has been settled; Lincoln saw to that; with the lives of hundreds of thousands, on both sides.
3. If the do-gooders are still feeling some degree of guilt (thanks to fedgov’s public education, in no small part), then I suggest they all get together, pass the hat, and divvy up the collection.
And, most importantly...
4. I and my ancestors had NOTHING to do with it. Count me out. I don’t feel the least smidgen of guilt about any of this. Get over it. Take some personal responsibility, and suck it up, Bucky!
Somalis are black. They, the race of black, need reparations.
The girl in back dressed mooselimish. Mooselims suffer discrimination. They, the mooselim race, need reparations.
Quick! Give them reparations!
“Minnesota, as a former slave holding state and member of the Confederate States of America, should do this for all of the descendants of those held in slavery within the state boundaries before the Emancipation Proclamation.”
Uh...
Probably because it’s not drawn from the same part of the budget. Sheesh!
The concept of budgeting, and different budgets for different purposes, is beyond the comprehension of most liberals.
Many of these liberals think that, #1, any governmental tax income should be spent on their priorities first, and #2, that the amount of money available to be spent on their priorities is limitless.
Melekin said too many people think it means just cutting a check for descendants of slavery. Rather, she said, people should see that the issue is far more nuanced. “It can also be investing in educational programs, it can also be investing in community infrastructure, it can be anything,” she said. “We just want to make sure the conversation is being had and that reparations is not being pushed off the table as some wacky ideology.”
But many of our troubled big city school systems already spend more per capita on education than the national average. So we need to “invest” more in education in places which already spend more than most on education???
We have also invested plenty in community infrastructure over the decades. Much such funding was spent on public housing projects. When many such public housing projects were built, they were hailed by liberals as a great improvement over the slum housing they replaced.
Unfortunately too many residents of those places behave like animals and vandalized their own communities.
I would love to have some good debates with the liberals on some of these issues. The notion that we haven’t “invested” enough or “spent” enough, or devoted enough “resources” to troubled poverty stricken communities, or devoted enough to ghetto schools, is absurd on the face of it. Yet the liberals view that we don’t do enough seems to be prevalent.
Pictured: More victims of Multi-Generational Rectal Defilade Syndrome...
So far...No cure in sight...
Just put them on a bus and drive them over to Ft. Snelling and tell them “here’s your reparations”.
“...they might put more of the state’s funding into things that directly benefit the black community, like early childhood education or criminal justice reform.”
Two things not needed (except for maybe on the reservations up north) back before Minnesota had a black community.
Obviously you are being sarcastic, but Dred Scott was held as a slave within the present-day boundaries of Minnesota for a time. He lost his lawsuit but gained his freedom before the Civil War began.
The history of mankind is a history of slavery.
I will be happy to share any reparations I get from the Russians and Chinese and Italians.
but he was brought in from another state and was ‘legal’ only after the decision named after him. Slavery was not legal under the Northwest Ordinance, for parts of Minnesota were from the old Northwest Territory and the Missouri compromise. And Minnesota did not become a state until 1858.
And, they named a softball complex after him in Bloomington!
Actually, I think reparations in Minnesota might just be in order. My great uncle, a Norwegian immigrant who couldn’t even speak English was drafted into the Minnesota militia and sent off to fight the Civil War at age 19. He was killed in action. Our family didn’t even get all of his belongings back. With interest, we should be due a tidy sum by now.
Actually, Flint Michigan has the honor right now.
The Dred Scott decision left Dred a slave but his freedom was purchased not long afterwards.
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