Race: Conversations around race and racial justice

Here are the latest on the fight against racism, voices calling for racial justice and in-depth stories on communities of color and other racial issues from MPR News.

Voices of Minnesota Calls for change across the state

Protests and pain The killing of George Floyd

Call To Mind Spotlight on black trauma and policing

Amplifying voices Share your experiences and hopes for the future

Inside one Minnesota school district’s battle over an equity training program 
Many Minnesota school districts are launching equity programs in an attempt to correct the state’s well-documented and longstanding racial inequalities. But in numerous places, groups of parents and sometimes students are combating those programs. Here’s what happened in Pequot Lakes, a rural, mostly white district in central Minnesota. 
Too much work or not enough: Minnesota Latinos describe one pandemic but two very different economies
For the past year, COVID-19 rattled the job market across Minnesota. Latinos, more than any other racial or ethnic group, remained in the state workforce. But many found themselves on divergent paths. Pandemic shutdowns cost restaurant owners and staff their livelihoods. Meanwhile, construction workers and contractors booked more jobs than they could handle.
The recent discovery of 215 unmarked graves at an Indian residential school in Canada prompted the United States to announce its own investigation into the dark past of federal boarding school policies. Over the next 10 months, the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative will look into the history of the schools in hopes of shedding light on any past traumas. That includes identifying burial sites.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sees a cycle of inaction on police reform
The Minnesota attorney general who prosecuted Derek Chauvin wants Congress to act on police reform. He wants to see a national registry of "bad cops" and limitations on qualified immunity.
UN rights chief: Reparations needed for people facing racism
The U.N. human rights chief is urging countries worldwide to do more to help end discrimination, violence and systemic racism against people of African descent and “make amends” to them — including through reparations.
In pandemic, drug overdose deaths soar among Black Americans
Overdose deaths among Black Americans surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. In St. Louis, deaths among Black people increased last year at three times the rate of whites, skyrocketing more than 33 percent.