If words count, then the Star Tribune headline, ‘At North High lessons include reading, writing and resilience,’ and its accompanying article sent more than a few messages in one.
Mel Reeves
Mel Reeves was the community editor at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder until he passed away on January 6, 2022. He had a long and storied history working at the MSR.
Find more about Reeve’s life and legacy here: spokesman-recorder.com/category/remembering-mel-reeves.
Posted inMLK Legacy Section, Opinion
What would King think of today’s America?
If he were alive, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be wholly disgusted with the American experiment.
Posted inOpinion
When a wrestler’s haircut is really about a race
Peace, goodwill, and good tidings this holiday season were interrupted by the outrageous violation and public humiliation of a Black New Jersey high school wrestler.
Posted inOpinion
U.S. response to Saudi crisis reveals greed, hypocrisy
Despite what willing recipients of U.S. propaganda and indoctrination have led folks to believe, morality is not a consideration in U.S. foreign policy. Nor, for that matter, is it a consideration in domestic policy…
Posted inOpinion
Could indifference to police brutality be a reflection of poor home training?
Bob Kroll, on Facebook, tried to detract from Blevins’ killing by saying people should be more concerned about Black people killed by citizens. Why can’t we be concerned about both? This is not a new tactic, but a particularly heinous one considering that Blevins has not even been buried yet.
Posted inOpinion
Roseanne Barr ape slur far from harmless, it has a profoundly racist history
The history of Blacks as apes or monkeys owes its start not to poor, unlettered, backwoods rednecks, but rather refined, wealthy and highly educated White people who invented so-called scientific racism in which Europeans sought to prove the inferiority of Blacks, ostensibly to justify their enslavement of Africans.
Posted inOpinion
News Analysis: Taking a knee unlikely at this game
News Analysis The Super Bowl is a reflection of the reality of race, class, and status in America. Coaches used to be fond of saying that sports don’t build character, it’s a reflection of character. Sports is also a reflection of society. The Take a Knee movement inspired by Colin Kaepernick has exposed a very […]
Posted inOpinion
Last year could be a foretaste of what is to come
Last year wrought disasters of Biblical proportion. The disasters weren’t limited to natural disasters, but social, economic and political calamities as well. These events gave us a peek into our future and revealed that failure of this society to change course will ultimately result in catastrophe. But like actors in a horror movie, we ignore […]
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: Police Federation attack on Melvin Carter III dispels myth of cop neutrality
Scary stuff in St. Paul The recent attack on St. Paul mayoral candidate Melvin Carter III by the St. Paul Police Federation can be categorized as police violence in another form: slander, intimidation, and bullying. The police in this instance smeared and attacked a candidate because they disagree with his platform on police reform. Operating […]
Posted inOpinion
I am Mogadishu! And so are you….
Over 300 people were killed and hundreds more were injured by a truck bomb terror attack in Mogadishu on Saturday, October 14. It was one of the worst terror events in recent times, yet there was little mention of it in the western press. Are the western so-called developed nations and their populations trying to […]
Posted inOpinion
Protests build as more athletes are ‘taking a knee’
Caution, read at your own risk it, as may make you “feel some kind of way.” Vice President Pence; Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones; ESPN; President Trump; the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell; corporate America; and the one percent are all ganging up on a handful of Black professional athletes and a sports personality. Why? Because […]
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: The slow U.S. response to Puerto Rico’s crisis is inexcusable
Most thinking people know, either consciously or subconsciously, why the U.S. has been slow to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands brought on by Hurricane Maria. It is because the islanders aren’t considered Americans (despite their U.S. citizenship); they aren’t White and they are broke! According to reports coming […]
Posted inOpinion
Charlottesville racists: amateurs compared to U.S. government
Despite all the noise coming from the Charlottesville assortment of racist lunatics, it is important to recognize that they do not have the real power. We should pay even more attention to the people with the real power; the power structure that forced President Donald Trump to do something he didn’t want to do — […]
Posted inOpinion
Were Pride Parade organizers bullied?
Pride Parade officials reversing the decision to limit cops from the parade shows how “Blacks have no rights [the SYSTEM] is bound to respect” The reversal of Pride Parade leadership from its earlier decision to “limit” (not exclude) the participation of local cops in this year’s Pride Parade and Festival, makes it clear that disrespect for […]
Posted inOpinion
Jeronimo Yanez shot Philando Castile because he was a Black man with a gun
On July 6, 2016, St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez radioed to his partner that he thinks he spotted a suspect in a recent armed robbery. His only identifier: “‘Cause he has a wide-set nose.” After shooting Philando Castile, he told the supervisor on the scene, “I don’t know where it was” in reference to […]
Posted inOpinion
Legislature has gone a bus/train too far: Take a stand before it’s too late
The Minnesota legislature’s attempt to defund public transportation is a much bigger deal than people allow themselves to believe; it is a giant step backward. If this effort is not vigorously resisted it will open the door for more budget cuts and more backwardness like the preemptive movement and the attempt to cut funding for […]
Posted inBulletin
Rally at State Capitol to demand funding for Metro Transit
The Minnesota State Legislature has been trying to push through a budget that does not include enough money for mass transit. That means, if sufficient money is not allocated to Metro Transit, which operates the bus and Light Rail, the Twin Cities will be forced to increase bus and light rail fares by as much […]
Posted inOpinion
Republicans’ efforts to cut Twin Cities mass transit seems mean-spirited
For those who may have been unaware, the Minnesota legislature is presently proposing drastic cuts to the funding of transit that will, if it stands, send shock waves through the Twin Cities Metro Transit and cause undue hardship to many who rely on public transportation. Upon close examination, there appears to be no justifiable or […]
Posted inOpinion
Ellison forced to the back of DNC bus
As the saying goes, “When someone, or something, shows you who they are, believe them.” The rejection of U.S. Representative Keith Ellison’s bid to head the Democratic National Committee (DNC) reveals that the DNC is what they have always been, the other branch of a two-branch tree (Democrats and Republicans) that exist to represent the […]
Posted inOpinion
We’re winning: Neighborly concern, human kindness is shining through Trumpism
When Adele honored and symbolically gave to Beyoncé what she richly deserved, the album of the year at the Grammy awards, she broke ranks with the music industry, which can’t get past its racial programming, its racial preference and its racial provincialism. Similarly, if we stop whining and complaining about Trump and Trumpism for a […]