Like many victims I met, Marina suffered gruesome violence at the hands of her boyfriend. Marina testified at trial that her boyfriend tried to rip out her tongue and that she believed his threats to kill her and her 10-year-old daughter. The jury agreed and convicted him.
Opinion
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Posted inOpinion
Hamilton is no hero to ordinary working people
Hamilton’s loyalty was ever and always to wealthy landowners and rich merchants with never a thought to the ordinary working people he regarded as beasts of burden.
Posted inOpinion
Mpls. mayor and city council can stop MPHA’s plan to privatize Elliot Twins
We are asking the mayor and Warsame to lead with the rest of the city council in enforcing the legal authority they have over MPHA.
Posted inOpinion
A new wave of Black political excellence is here
The awful outcome of the 2016 presidential election has emboldened young African Americans to seek public office, against all odds. It’s an exciting development in an otherwise gloomy political time, and it ought to also be motivation for people to vote in the midterm elections!
Posted inOpinion
Is the Catholic Church unsalvageable?
The question not asked by the church’s governing body is why does sexual abuse persist as it does among its clerics?
Posted inOpinion
Strategies proposed for raising people from poverty
Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and supported by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute, this partnership set out to design and implement a series of comprehensive strategies to support current best practices and discover new and innovative approaches to help lift people out of poverty.
Posted inOpinion
We need a signal from the mayor on Chief Arradondo’s status
As interim chief, Arradondo’s job is to continue to lead the MPD until his term ends December 31, 2018. With the end near, there needs to be a signal from Mayor Jacob Frey, who is the appointing authority, as to whether there is to be continuity or the time-taking process and turmoil of seeking a new chief from applicants across the country.
Posted inOpinion
Injustice system attacks local Black Lives Matter activist
Minister Toya Woodland faces charges of terroristic threats, simply for being a mother standing up for her son, Toyvon Campbell, against systemic racism. Since December 16, 2017, Woodland has been in contact with the Perpich Arts High School, specifically Curt Tryggestad, the school’s director, along with principal Ahava Silkey-Jones, regarding the overall racist climate of […]
Posted inOpinion
Mourning Kofi Annan, remembering Ron Walters
Kofi Annan’s contributions to the UN are twofold, in my opinion. First, he was committed to peace, and to the UN’s peacekeeping role. He saw human rights as more important than “state sovereignty” and felt that the UN had a role in maintaining citizen rights in the face of state brutality.
Posted inOpinion
Rising Black graduation rates still behind Whites
Still, despite much progress with that indicator, major gaps still exist. And there is great concern that the graduation rate hype not only masks those gaps, but distracts us from what must be our ultimate goal: ensuring all students earn a high school diploma and are college-and-career-ready.
Posted inOpinion
The fruit that we bear
A monthly column in which various contributors from both sides of prison walls explore common ground for effecting change. Kevin: One of the first lessons I learned as an organizer was from my mentor and former Voices for Racial Justice Training Director Salvador Miranda. During one of our sessions he informed me, that as an […]
Posted inOpinion
The abuse won’t stop until we change police culture
Contrary to the usual response to such recordings, police and city officials acted quickly after Officer Arthur Williams was caught on camera Saturday, Aug. 11, savagely beating a defenseless DaShawn McGrier.
Posted inEducation, Opinion
The power of belief as an educational tool
In a handful or so of previous columns, I have explored what educators and social scientists have come to call “the word gap.” The research in support of the word gap comes from landmark studies at the University of Kansas and Stanford University, which reveal that by the time a low-income child reaches the age of three they have potentially heard 30 million fewer words than peers who come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.
Posted inOpinion
It’s time for NFL players to stand for something
What does kneeling have to do with police brutality or other “social injustice,” the stated reasons these protests began? Their message has been drowned out by the fact that most Americans have interpreted their actions as being anti-American and disrespectful to U.S. servicemen.
Posted inOpinion
Arming teachers will not stem gun violence
This is yet another example of Secretary Betsy DeVos’ disdain for our nation’s public schools and underscores the urgent need for Democrats to remain steadfast in the fight to safeguard our students, teachers, and schools.
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: The Black vote is not a political piñata
On the surface, Blacks are marketed to as if their sacred vote means so much, but, historically, that often changes once their vote is cast. The way Black voters are treated, it is as if they have become a political piñata.
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: The homeless need homes, not hugs
If Mayor Frey wants to do something that really matters when it comes to this homeless crisis, he would go after the landlords who put the homeless out in the streets in the first place.
Posted inOpinion
Does the GOP have a racist cut-off point?
President Donald Trump traffics in racial epithets. Since his first year in office, Trump’s displays of xenophobic, misogynistic, LGBTQ-phobic, and racist remarks (to name just a few from his laundry list of bigotries) appear to have no cutoff point. The Republican Party under Trump doesn’t seem to have one, either. In a recent YouGov poll, […]
Posted inOpinion
The racial optics of the opioid epidemic
Where is the lock ‘em up and throw away the key sentiment towards opioid users that politicians showed towards crack dealers?
Posted inOpinion
Another death at the hands of police
The initial accounts by media and St. Paul officials left a lot to be desired. From my onsite visits and multiple phone calls since that Sunday, I learned that Hughes had a gun, which he shot from his home at the intruders and he then called 911.