State Fair booth a sounding board, lightning rod on race

De Morey volunteered to help sell T-shirts.
A Minnesota State Fair booth is sparking some provocative conversations about race. Here, volunteer De Morey helped sell T-shirts at the Black Lives booth at the fair on Monday.
Doualy Xaykaothao | MPR News

Across from a beer garden, and in front of a dining hall that serves pancakes, is a booth at the Minnesota State Fair that's sparking some provocative conversations about race.

Todd Gramenz
Todd Gramenz, 25, financed the booth and recruited volunteers to work at the Black Lives Matter booth at the Minnesota State Fair. Gramenz said he plans to use proceeds from T-shirt sales for education materials about the Black Lives movement.
Doualy Xaykaothao | MPR News

Todd Gramenz, the man who runs it, says he wants to engage the public in a different way than the #BlackFair protesters who made news over the weekend. He's been selling T-shirts with the words "Black Lives Matter" and "All Lives Matter."

Most of the spirited conversations at the booth revolve around whose lives matter.

"A lot of people are open-minded, but don't have any real person to go to that's African-American or part of the Black Lives Matter group," Gramenz says. "So this is now opening the doors to allow them to express themselves and then try to understand our perspective."

Click on the audio bar to hear more from Gramenz and the visitors who came by his booth recently to talk about race.

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