I feel so energized when connecting with Main Street Alliance and organizing ‘Paid Family and Medical Leave.’
Opinion
The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (MSR) welcomes thoughtful commentary and feedback from the community. All articles in this section are edited for clarity and space; the views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the MSR. MSR does not provide payment for commentary. To submit an opinion piece, please send inquiries and submissions to submissions@spokesman-recorder.com.
Posted inOpinion
Beyond thoughts and prayers
Why does our nation continue to allow weapons of war that have no business in civilian hands to be manufactured, marketed, and mass distributed as fun-to-shoot, convenient ways of killing our children?
Posted inOpinion
The African Diaspora gives meaning to vice president’s historic trip
Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic Africa trip to Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia may be over, but the economic and cultural legacy will be felt for years to come.
Posted inOpinion
End Minnesota’s felony murder law
‘I am one of many men inside here who have gained maturity from experience.’
Posted inOpinion
20 years after the invasion of Iraq, will the media’s complicity be ignored?
There’s been virtually no accountability or sustained reporting in mainstream news media to remind us of their own decisive role in selling the Iraq war.
Posted inOpinion
Women’s rights are under renewed attack
Women constitute half the world’s population, but still have not realized half of the world’s potential, received half of the world’s resources, or exercised half of the world’s power.Â
Posted inOpinion
It shouldn’t take a fiery crash and toxic spill to improve railroad safety
We know those trains don’t run through posh suburbs.
Posted inOpinion
Academic curriculum is a racial battlefield
Right-wing policy institutes, media outlets and politicians are conniving to stifle antiracist educational projects.
Posted inOpinion
Community group protests over-policing at East Lake Library
‘The policy, which allows staff to ban patrons from entering the library from a day to a year, it appears to disproportionately affect BIPOC patrons.’
Posted inOpinion
Support juvenile sentencing reform
We can advocate for victims, work to prevent juvenile crime and still acknowledge the differences between young people who commit criminal offenses and adults.Â
Posted inOpinion
Blackness and the Super Bowl
The NFL is a cartel of 32 corporations owned by non-Black billionaires. The billionaire owners employ super-talented football players, about 70 percent of whom are Black.
Posted inOpinion
WORD ON THE STREET| How do you celebrate Black History Month?
The MSR took to the streets to ask community members if and how they celebrate Black History Month.
Posted inOpinion
U.S. racism as public health crisis
America seems to have a fascination with Black culture, a fear of Black bodies, and a disregard for Black lives.
Posted inOpinion
‘Bathroom bills’ are about control of public spaces
They want the people with whom they disagree to disappear completely from public life, relegated to the shadows until they need to scare their base again.
Posted inOpinion
There are no safe places in the US
Will we continue to stand alone in accepting our pervasive culture of gun violence and the insane proliferation of guns?
Posted inOpinion
The hate that killed Tyre Nichols
I believe the five Black police officers who murdered Tyre Nichols were acting according to the societal norm of racism and anti-Black hate.Â
Posted inOpinion
Shakopee women offenders subjected to crowded, unlawful conditions
While the men’s prisons are working hard to ‘single cell’ all of the men, promoting positive mental health, privacy, and calm, MN DOC and MCF-Shakopee are heinously attacking the women offenders by trying to do the opposite.
Posted inOpinion
How safe can we really be?
‘They aren’t safe at all—they’re just swimming in the chaos, clinging to a belief that their guns make them safe.’
Posted inMLK Legacy Section, Opinion, Special Editions
WORD ON THE STREET | Beyond MLK Day, how are you keeping King’s dream alive?
We asked community members: How are you keeping King’s dream alive? See their answers below.
Posted inMLK Legacy Section, Opinion, Special Editions
Some never tire of abusing Dr. King’s legacy
Reading Dr. King and reviewing his speeches will give anyone a rounded picture of him that can allow us to truly cast our comments about him in the light of truth and of what he would likely approve.