Minding the Education Gap

Thetis White’s class is diverse—filled with students from different races and backgrounds, who are all taught by a Black man. That’s not uncommon at Monroe Elementary in Brooklyn Park, a diverse suburb of Minneapolis, but it is rare in Minnesota as a whole, where fewer than one percent of teachers are Black men.  Experts say […]

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Reconnecting Rondo

Minnesotans, now more than ever, are waking up to the realities of racial inequity in their communities. In St. Paul, activists with ReConnect Rondo have a new suggestion: they want to build a land bridge over Interstate 94 to rejoin the old Rondo neighborhood, which was destroyed decades ago by the construction of the freeway. […]

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A Mother’s Love

Lisa Clemons is a former Minneapolis police officer who founded a non-profit called A Mother’s Love—a brigade of people in bright pink t-shirts trying to bring back the metaphorical village they say it takes to raise a child. Clemons dreamed of being a cop since she was young, but left the department 20 years ago for […]

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Bringing Back the Buffalo

Charging Buffalo is the first butchering facility on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota – the economic development alone is welcome in one of the poorest communities in the United States, but a place that treats the sacred animal with honor and respect means something more. Bamm Brewer is a member of the Oglala […]

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The Condom King, Mechai Viravaidya

In the Bangkok restaurant Cabbages and Condoms, rubbers are everywhere: on sculptures, lanterns, even a condom Santa Claus at Christmastime.  The place has become an icon for what’s widely regarded as one of the world’s most successful family planning programs.  Bringing a little humor to a taboo-laden topic is the trademark of Mechai Viravaidya—or as […]

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Defunding the Police

After police killed George Floyd on May 25, Minneapolis and St. Paul saw weeks of protests that spread across the world. Never before has such a clear demand emerged from the demonstrations: defund the police. The Minneapolis City council unanimously advanced a proposal at the end of June to create a new Department of Community Safety and […]

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George McGraw Digs Deep

George McGraw and his organization, Dig Deep, used to bring water access to communities in Africa.  A few years ago, he turned his attention to the United States—he now works in the Navajo Nation. The native reservation spans twenty seven thousand square miles across parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, where 40 percent of the […]

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