Social Issues

Pope in headdress stirs deep emotions in Indian Country
It was a stunning image: Pope Francis briefly wearing a full Indigenous headdress, after he apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s “disastrous” residential school system for Indigenous children. But some Indigenous people took to social media to express unhappiness with an iconic gesture they found incongruous with the Catholic Church history of abuse.
A new dictionary will document the lexicon of African American English
A new research collaboration between Harvard University and Oxford University Press aims to compile the first fully-formed dictionary of African American English.
Pope apologizes for 'devastating' school abuses in Canada
Pope Francis has apologized for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” policy of Indigenous residential schools. The pontiff says the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed their families and marginalized generations in ways still being felt today.
City of Minneapolis and state's human rights dept. talking again about MPD reforms
After a delay, the city of Minneapolis and the state department of human rights have agreed to continue working together towards an agreement to address systemic issues within the Minneapolis Police Department.
Gary Hines and Sounds of Blackness stay on mission for more than 50 years
Sounds of Blackness is more than a band, it's a cultural institution. That, says the group's longtime director Gary Hines, was the mission given to them by a mentor at Macalester College in St. Paul, where the group was founded more than 50 years ago. 
‘Where do I belong?’ Native roots, hard realities surface in woman’s search for her past
In her quest to find the birth mother she'd never known, Peggy Mandel confronted stories of government boarding schools, generational trauma and the loss of Indigenous culture and identity. She couldn’t change the past, but could she alter the future?
First Ave cancels Dave Chappelle show after outcry from staff, patrons, performers
The controversial comedian with a reputation of mocking transgender people was scheduled at the Minneapolis venue for Wednesday night. LGBTQ First Avenue staff say they remain angry and hurt by the club booking Chappelle in the first place.
Income inequality is deepening in America. Economic gains in recent decades have been unevenly dispersed, with the vast majority of the wealth going to those already on top. Part of that discrepancy is rooted in the inability to buy property.
Black-owned Strive Bookstore opens in downtown Minneapolis
Mary Taris couldn’t find enough books for her children featuring Black characters, so she founded her own publishing company – Strive Community Publishing. “We’re really striving to connect across cultures,” Taris says.