Atlantic writer: Minneapolis is of enormous importance to American politics

Minnesota has been in the national spotlight for weeks. The killings of two 37-year-olds — Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti — have kept Minneapolis, the federal immigration enforcement surge and subsequent protests in the headlines.

Former New York Times bureau chief and Atlantic contributor Robert Worth wrote about the groundswell of protests in Minneapolis in his new article, “Welcome to the American Winter.” In it, he writes about his time in Minneapolis talking with protestors, demonstrators and concerned citizens.

“To me, it seems a very locally produced movement,” Worth said.

He said a lot of what he saw in the Twin Cities reminded him of what he saw during pro-democracy protests in the Middle East and North Africa between 2010 and 2011, also known as the Arab Spring.

“You were lucky back then if you had a single video by someone that documented something that happened, the killing of a protestor, whatever,” Worth said. “Now, these things have permeated our lives, and they're ubiquitous to the point where for each of these events, you had multiple videos documenting it, so that it was possible, within hours, to have an almost forensic-level analysis of what happened.”

He added that many of the community networks responding to immigration operations and the needs of neighbors formed after the death of George Floyd in 2020. He said these neighborhoods work within themselves to make sure their community is prepared to respond to anything as best as they can.

“What's happening there is of enormous importance for American politics,” Worth said.

Listen to our full interview with Robert Worth by clicking the player above.

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