Survey: More Minnesotans rise to fight racism, educate themselves about social injustice
Minnesotans from various racial and ethnic backgrounds name community involvement, growing awareness of racism, as well as cultural celebrations and awareness as some of the most positive things going on in their communities currently, according to a new survey.
Minnesota’s Diverse Communities Survey published by APM Research Lab asked 1,532 Minnesotans across various racial and ethnic groups what they felt was the single most positive thing happening in their community right now. The survey also asked participants to rate the overall quality of life in the state and to answer the question of what they would like to see addressed to improve the state.
“I think the biggest takeaway is that no group is a monolith,” said Benjamin Clary, senior research analyst at APM Research Lab.
For Black Minnesotans:
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12 percent cited police reform and the Derek Chauvin verdict as the most positive thing happening in their community. Chauvin is the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.
12 percent cited anti-racism and social justice.
Another 12 percent answered community involvement.
“The accountability we saw happen with Derek Chauvin’s case gave our community hope that maybe, just maybe, things are finally changing,” one 29-year-old Black woman from the Twin Cities said.
Hmong, Indigenous and Latinx Minnesotans all had cultural awareness as one of their top answers.
One 61-year-old Indigenous woman from greater Minnesota answered, “Dakota and Ojibwe language revitalization at the early childhood level,” as the most positive thing in her community.
White Minnesotans were asked a slightly different question: “What is the single most positive thing happening in Minnesota right now?”
Answers mainly centered around COVID-19, with vaccinations and the easing of COVID-19 restrictions as top answers.
Despite the positives, the most frequent response among all the groups was that they didn’t know the most positive thing occurring in their community. Latinx, non-Hmong Asians, Indigenous and Hmong individuals all had more than a third answer that there is nothing to be positive about. For Black Minnesotans this was 27 percent; for white Minnesotans it was 21 percent.
“I think more work needs to go into understanding why that answer is as big as it is,” Clary said.
According to the accompanying report, many Minnesotans from various racial and ethnic backgrounds “want the media to feature them in stories about positive things happening within their community and not just feature them when there is a negative story to tell.”
For the question of what participants feel should be addressed in the state, answers remained varied across all groups, though there were common themes of racial and social justice, reducing taxes and tax reform, and addressing political partisanship.
For Clary, the survey serves as a jumping off point.
“We certainly received answers to the questions we asked, but I think in a lot of instances that just raises more questions,” Clary said. “My hope is that it raises more curiosities.”
Check out APM’s report as well as the complete list of positive things offered by survey respondents.