• Advertise
  • Donate
  • Subscribe
    • Become a print subscriber
    • Sign up for e-Newsletter
    • e-Editions
Friday, September 29, 2023
No Result
View All Result
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
  • News & Features
    • National
    • Local
    • Special Editions
      • MLK Legacy
      • Black History Month
      • The MSR Celebrates Women’s History Month
  • All Sections
    • Opinion
      • Mellaneous by Mel Reeves
      • Word on the Street
      • Reaching Out From Within
    • Health + Wellness
      • Women’s Wellness
      • Parenting Today
      • Minnesota Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Gaps Project
    • Sports
      • Timberwolves/NBA
      • Lynx/WNBA
        • 20 in 20
      • Twins/MLB
      • MN Wild/NHL
      • Vikings/NFL
    • Business
      • Small Business Month Celebration
      • Black Business Spotlight
      • Finances FYI
    • Arts + Culture
    • Photo Galleries
      • Photo of the Week
    • MSR Forefront Digital Roundtable Series
      • MSR Forefront Highlights
    • Go Green
    • Education
    • Bulletin
    • Jobs & Notices
      • Legals
      • Announcements
  • Events
    • Submit an event!
  • Obits
  • Sister Spokesman
  • e-Editions
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
  • News & Features
    • National
    • Local
    • Special Editions
      • MLK Legacy
      • Black History Month
      • The MSR Celebrates Women’s History Month
  • All Sections
    • Opinion
      • Mellaneous by Mel Reeves
      • Word on the Street
      • Reaching Out From Within
    • Health + Wellness
      • Women’s Wellness
      • Parenting Today
      • Minnesota Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Gaps Project
    • Sports
      • Timberwolves/NBA
      • Lynx/WNBA
        • 20 in 20
      • Twins/MLB
      • MN Wild/NHL
      • Vikings/NFL
    • Business
      • Small Business Month Celebration
      • Black Business Spotlight
      • Finances FYI
    • Arts + Culture
    • Photo Galleries
      • Photo of the Week
    • MSR Forefront Digital Roundtable Series
      • MSR Forefront Highlights
    • Go Green
    • Education
    • Bulletin
    • Jobs & Notices
      • Legals
      • Announcements
  • Events
    • Submit an event!
  • Obits
  • Sister Spokesman
  • e-Editions
No Result
View All Result
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
No Result
View All Result

Rybak’s ‘Pothole Confidential’ plays it safe

by Dwight Hobbes
November 2, 2017
10
SHARES
197
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on LinkedIn
Courtesy of University of Minnesota Press

T. Rybak’s Pothole Confidential: My Life as Mayor of Minneapolis(University of Minnesota Press) isn’t exactly a bill of goods but it does bear taking with several grains of salt.

As concerns a political memoir, Pothole Confidential generally passes muster — innocuous, fairly interesting and often entertaining. The writing style is fluid, personably engaging and without benefit of an editor, since there’s no such credit.

The neatly crafted narrative, from charming remembrance of his youth, conversationally seguing into and through his terms in office, up to the warmly wrapped-up afterword, makes for fine reading. Not to mention lively chatter over wine and cheese at dinner parties among the left-wing or right.

But those who were around for his tenure, particularly Black readers, will have difficulty reconciling a few things here with the reality of that day.

Point in case, the overall tone regarding Minneapolis minorities is: “Communities of color, especially African Americans, complained about inequity in policing, a concern I shared and still believe has a lot of merit… ”

- ADVERTISEMENT -

To hear the author tell it in several chapters, he had then, has now, and presumably will always have an abiding concern for the well-being of underdog, inner-city African Americans.

This would fly a lot better save some key considerations. He brought on board his administration Kinshasha Kambui, highly regarded throughout the Black Twin Cities — pointedly North Minneapolis, where City Hall’s and the MPD’s most profound disconnect with this community was a glaring issue — as community liaison.

Kambui’s tireless work with We Win Institute provided unassailable credibility, as did her political pedigree as the daughter of revered career activist Matt Little.

But Kambui apparently was a cosmetic appointment prevailed upon more as window dressing than to help effect any real social progress at the downtown seat of power. This iconic figure possessed of proven commitment to empower her people — particularly the imperiled young who routinely wound up on the wrong end of law enforcement’s attitude — unceremoniously quit at the start of Rybak’s second term.

In chapter after chapter, Rybak readily drops mainstream-popular names like Don Samuels, Keith Ellison and, of course, former President Barack Obama, sharing in detail where, how, and when he rubbed shoulders. But neither Kambui nor Little’s legacies are so much as mentioned.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Minneapolis Police Department Officer Melissa J. Schmidt was murdered by Martha Donald in 2002 in a tragedy that engulfed the media and, for that matter, all of Minneapolis to the extent that it did for one reason: Schmidt was White and Donald was Black. So was City Council Member Natalie Johnson Lee who caught pure public hell for daring to sympathize with the senseless loss suffered by both families.

The Police Officers Federation, blatantly showing its true color, demanded Lee’s resignation and were self-righteously indignant that the memory and service in the line of duty of their slain sister was supposedly dishonored.

Rybak paints an admirably sober picture of himself in mourning for the officer, touching philosophically on the general tension between police and the Black public, ostensibly empathizing with both sides.  He does not say a word about Lee, doesn’t acknowledge in the least the courage and integrity it took for her to take this as a chance at healing by recognizing a common humanity. Just as he did at that time, he plays it safe. And noble.

“As the youth crime wave surged,” he writes, “there tragically were more Tyesha Edwardses and Brian Coles,” teenaged bystanders gunned down by gang violence. “The grief deepened when I came to terms with the fact that [they] died on my watch.”

He never did, though, come to terms with a responsibility to do something concrete about what everyone knew. Community activists had, in fact, warned the MPD and the city decades before that the drug trade, expanding from Chicago, Detroit and Gary, Indiana, fueled gang violence and in the process, increased the rate of Black incarceration, women and girls into dead-end lives of prostitution and otherwise destroying Black lives, law-abiding and criminal alike.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

He applauds his administration for enacting do-good social work to reduce juvenile crime in Minneapolis, while blithely glossing over any accountability to get at the root of the problem and keep drugs off the blighted urban streets the same exact way it’s kept off the manicured lanes and corners of suburbia. This, by diligent law enforcement that selectively protects and serves.

At length, Pothole Confidential is pretty much what you’d expect of a politician — R. T. Rybak doesn’t lie about who he is, he just puts a nice politically correct spin on it.

 

Go to www.upress.umn.edu for more information about Pothole Confidential: My Life as Mayor of Minneapolis.

 

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Dwight Hobbes welcomes readers’ responses to P.O. Box 50357, Minneapolis, MN 55403

 

 

 

Support Black local news

Help amplify Black voices by donating to the MSR. Your contribution enables critical coverage of issues affecting the community and empowers authentic storytelling.

Donate Now!

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Concerned about Park Board election

Next Post

Rabies still present a danger to animals and humans

Dwight Hobbes

Dwight Hobbes is a contributing writer at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. He can be reached at dhobbes@spokesman-recorder.com.

You Might Also Like

Concerns mount over ‘extreme’ school board candidates in Minnesota
Local

Concerns mount over ‘extreme’ school board candidates in Minnesota

Don’t forget to check your blood pressure
Health & Wellness

Don’t forget to check your blood pressure

Wanted: Younger workforce ready to learn about climate jobs
Go Green

Wanted: Younger workforce ready to learn about climate jobs

Gopher tennis coach rebuilds a competitive team
Sports

Gopher tennis coach rebuilds a competitive team

College athletes need help negotiating NIL deals
Sports

College athletes need help negotiating NIL deals

Southside group attempts to rebuild trust in police
Local

Southside group attempts to rebuild trust in police

Next Post
Rabies still present a danger to animals and humans

Rabies still present a danger to animals and humans

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
ADVERTISEMENT

Upcoming Events

Sep 12
September 12 @ 6:30 pm-December 18 @ 9:30 pm Recurring

Vic Volare Presents MUSIC FOR MARTINIS ft: Vic’s Fabulous Nightclub Academy

Sep 29
7:30 pm-9:30 pm Recurring

Ayodele Casel Rooted

Sep 30
9:00 am-1:00 pm Recurring

Cars and Caves

Sep 30
10:00 am-12:00 pm

dem Blessings for Parents: A Morning of Creative Nourishment with Sharon Bridgforth

View Calendar
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Read our latest e-Edition!

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Subscribe

  • Home/Office Delivery
  • Weekly e-newsletter
  • e-Editions

Support

  • Donate
  • Subscribe
  • MSR Newsstand Locations

Connect

  • About
    • MSR Staff
  • Contact
  • Send a news tip
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms

© 2023 Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

No Result
View All Result
  • News & Features
    • Local
    • National
  • All Sections
    • Arts & Culture
    • Health & Wellness
      • Women’s Wellness
      • Parenting Today
      • MN Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Gaps Project
    • Business
      • Black Business Spotlight
      • Finances FYI
      • Small Business Month Celebration
    • Opinion
    • Sports
  • Events
  • Obits
  • Sister Spokesman
  • Donate
  • Subscribe

© 2023 Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: