When we think about free speech, we usually think about our right to share our thoughts, ideas and beliefs, as long as we are respectful and not unfairly stopped by the government. Free speech is a basic human right protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. However, this protection is not unlimited. It […]
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
Time to pass the Black leadership torch
The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.” To describe the truth about our Black experience and history as “corrosive ideology” is not only an insult but highlights the possible long-term damage that this administration can cause. Some of […]
Posted inOpinion
Black women mayors are democracy’s brightest hopes
Election Night 2025 didn’t just make headlines, it made history. In Detroit, voters shattered a 324-year barrier by electing Mary Sheffield as the city’s first woman and Black woman mayor. Her victory is more than symbolic; it reflects the transformative power of Black women’s leadership and adds to the growing sisterhood of Black women mayors […]
Posted inOpinion
Black artistry will persevere, as it always has
In September, visitors who walked through Lincoln Center’s new exhibition, “Syncopated Stages: Black Disruptions to the Great White Way,” encountered more than theatrical memorabilia; they witnessed proof of an unbroken artistic resistance spanning two centuries. From the African Grove Theater, founded in 1821 by William Alexander Brown in New York City, to today’s Broadway, Black […]
Posted inOpinion
Compassion is out, cruelty in
As Americans worry whether they’ll get their next paycheck, keep the lights on, or afford dinner tonight, an internal email dated October 31, 2025, from the halls of the U.S. Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense) lands addressed to “Policy Colleagues,” wishing them a “Happy Halloween” and announcing that the 59-minute early-departure rule […]
Posted inOpinion
Both Frey and Fateh support privatization of Mpls public housing
Both Mayor Jacob Frey and State Senator Omar Fateh say they disagree on housing, yet their housing platforms are the same. Both oppose preserving and expanding Section 9 public housing. Frey lobbied HUD to approve the privatization and demolition of Section 9 housing through Section 18 and RAD programs, a historic public land grab for […]
Posted inOpinion
The ongoing abuse of strip searches in Minnesota prisons
Forced strip searches in Minnesota prisons continue despite zero tolerance claims. Advocates and survivors say the degrading practice must end and call for body scanners and accountability.
Posted inOpinion
The right to vote is on trial. Again.
Ever since I was five years old, walking to the polls with my mother, I wanted to vote. I remember watching her proudly cast her ballot, knowing it was both a right and a responsibility hard-won by generations before us. So I proudly applied for my voter card as soon as I turned 18, and […]
Posted inOpinion
What Black women want and what Virginia needs
All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk. This admonishment came from novelist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most prolific Black literary figures of the 20th century. Tracy Chiles McGhee, a Zora Neale Hurston biographer, shares context, noting this reference is loosely drawn from Hurston’s 1942 autobiography, “Dust Tracks on a Road.” Zora unapologetically leaned into […]
Posted inOpinion
End using MN public funds for genocide
Why is Minnesota still doing business with a country whose soldiers shot a five-year-old girl 335 times? Her name was Hind Rajab. For nearly two years, Minnesota Labor for Palestine has joined workers around the world in demanding an end to what is being called history’s first live-streamed genocide. Yet the Minnesota State Board of […]
Posted inOpinion
I posted an ICE tip line in anger. I’ll regret it forever.
Dear Chicago, You were my second home for nearly 15 years. I still love you deeply. And today, watching ICE raids tear through your neighborhoods, I feel nothing but heartbreak and shame. I’m writing to apologize for something I did in 2016, right after Trump’s first election win. In anger over what I saw in […]
Posted inOpinion
We still have power until we give it away
Thirty years after the Million Man March, the fight for democracy and self-determination continues. The No King’s Movement revives that spirit of collective power — a reminder that unity remains our greatest defense against tyranny.
Posted inOpinion
When Trump’s troops come, it won’t be to help Black people
I’ve lived long enough to know that when power feels cornered, it looks for a mirror to break. The Insurrection Act is that mirror, a 19th-century law revived whenever those in charge want to project fear instead of face truth. Written in 1807, the Act allows the president to deploy the military on U.S. soil, […]
Posted inOpinion
Lifeline for Black student parents at risk
Last month, Senator Tammy Duckworth and Representative Katherine Clark reintroduced the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) Reauthorization Act to keep the program running through 2031 and increase its funding to $500 million annually. CCAMPIS is designed to help low-income student parents cover the cost of child care. It can fund on-campus or […]
Posted inOpinion
Shutdowns: what they do and who they sacrifice
Tell the truth about who suffers when the government disappears, and about who profits from the disappearance.
Posted inOpinion
Since O.J.’s trial, the rule of law has taken a beating
If we lose it, we’re lost Thirty years ago, when the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial was announced on Oct. 3, half the nation exhaled in relief and the other half gasped in disbelief. I was there, a member of the defense team many dubbed the “Dream Team.” I remember vividly the polarized emotions […]
Posted inOpinion
The unseen cost of our beauty obsession
Our culture’s obsession with Eurocentric beauty standards fuels a “beauty sickness” that devalues natural Black hair, skin, and bodies. This op-ed names the harm and makes the case for authenticity, self-love, and rejecting manufactured ideals.
Posted inOpinion
We must accept our horrendous American past
As the Trump administration pressures the National Park Service to remove references to slavery and other injustices, this commentary argues that erasing the record won’t heal the nation. The iconic image of Gordon (“Whipped Peter”)—his back scarred by bondage—stands as indelible proof of a history that must be told fully and truthfully.
Posted inOpinion
Don’t let your climate power slip away
A call to action “You have power unless you give it away” are words my grandmother instilled in me as a young boy growing up in the mountains of Appalachia. Her words have been echoing in my head as the seasons turn. Today is the first day of fall, and already the air feels unsettled, […]
Posted inOpinion
Support our prisons’ invisible caregivers
Inside Maryland prisons, incarcerated people routinely act as nurses, chaplains, and social workers for one another—unpaid, unprotected, and unseen. Rev. Jamesina E. Greene urges lawmakers to pass a Prison Care Standards Act to mandate adequate health staffing, create peer-caregiver training and certification, and require transparency about in-prison care.