Yesterday I bookmarked an OpEd piece from The New York Times. In to-day’s issue there is yet another OpEd by Dr. Samuel L. Myers, a professor of public affairs at the University of Minnesota.
Minnesota is currently grabbing national attention with daily headline news as the most high profile of … nearing to end.
Minnesota is one of the best places to live in America. It has good schools, excellent housing and low unemployment. It regularly appears near the top of indexes for livability. But all of that matters much less if you’re Black.
Samuel L. Myers Jr., Professor at University of Minnesota
But the structure of many of Minnesota’s policies and institutions — like police policies, housing policies, even regulations about driver’s licenses and renewal of tags — has a disproportionately adverse impact on nonwhites. These effects are not overcome by Minnesota’s progressivism.
Minnesota has long been a magnet for African-American residents seeking a better life. When it was illegal in most states in the country to marry a white woman, Minnesota beckoned. When job opportunities for Black chemists and engineers from Howard University and Hampton Institute were limited, Minnesota corporations like 3M and Honeywell were unabashed recruiters of African-American talent.