Our land has been plagued by racial injustice from the first moment Europeans reached its shores. A direct line can be drawn from the genocide of the indigenous people, to the suffering of the African slave trade, through Jim Crow segregation to today’s appalling racial disparities. We cannot accept this and must do what we can to eradicate disparities.
Economic justice and increasing opportunities are the key to fighting racial disparities in Minneapolis. City government cannot cure societies failings but we can use our resources to fight them.
We must continue to ensure that our minimum wage is a livable wage, and expose disadvantaged youth to careers in fields where they are currently under-represented through mentoring and partnering with city departments, other government entities, trade unions, and the business community.
One example of this partnership is the Minneapolis Fire Department’s EMS Academy. Over the last three years the the EMS academy has trained 36 Minneapolis youth in for careers in the Emergency Medical Services field. 85% of the graduates have been BIPOC and many have gone on to careers with Hennepin Healthcare and the MFD. This is the type of successful program that I will work to expand citywide.
