Race/Ethnicity

“New Jim Crow” discriminates against people with a criminal record

By Christina Cerruti, TC Daily Planet

by Christina Cerruti

Minneapolis resident Manu Lewis has spent the past four years working to turn his life around and give back to society despite his criminal record. “I do a lot of volunteer work.

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MN VIDEOS | Jury of peers

By Mary Mabry, SPNN

Jury of Peers is a short documentary exploring the inequities of jury selection particularly in cases concerning African American defendants. Directed by Mary Mabry.

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Brother Ali: 'Fame is an illusion'

By Harry Colbert, Jr., Insight News

Brother Ali (Photo by Jonathan Mannion)

It's Monday afternoon in a cold rehearsal space in St. Paul and Brother Ali is putting in work.

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American Indian veterans seek a memorial on Capitol grounds

By Liz Stoever, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Since 2005, Erma Vizenor, chair of the White Earth Nation and Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, has been working to secure a memorial for American Indian veterans, many of whom have served in wars as early as the American Revolution.

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Several films of Jewish interest to be screened at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

By Staff, American Jewish World

Stephen Dorff (right) plays an Israeli fighter pilot who escapes from captivity in Lebanon with the help of Fahed (Abdallah El Alkal, left), a young Palestinian refugee. (Photo courtesy of Bedlam Productions)

In Zaytoun, a new film from Eran Ricklis (The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree), Yoni (Stephen Dorff), an Israeli fighter pilot shot down over Lebanon in 1982, manages his escape with the help of a 12-year-old Palestinian refugee street vendor, Fahed (Abdallah El Akal). Zaytoun had its world premiere last year at the Toronto International Film Festival, and won the runners-up prize for the People’s Choice Award.

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Play based on oral histories of Holocaust survivors to be staged at Mount Zion Temple

By Erin Elliott Bryan, American Jewish World

Local actor Joe Wiener (left) portrays Holocaust survivor and Mount Zion Temple congregant Erwin Farkas (right) in We Could Recall/We Could Tell Stories, a play based on oral testimonies from eight local survivors. (Photo: Courtesy of Sharon DeMark)

When asked if there were ways to keep his connection with Judaism alive while imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, Erwin Farkas responds, “We could talk. We could recall. We could tell stories.”

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Our American nightmare: Detroit

By Emilio DeGrazia, Downstream

I didn’t want to pick the book up, but after I did I couldn’t put it down. Written by Charlie LeDuff, it is called Detroit: An American Autopsy. Detroit, in my youth the fourth largest city in the U.S., currently is on life support, casualty of a cancer in the American Dream.

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Downstream

Minneapolis civil rights director to 'ride herd' on hiring goals, still won't report specifically on hiring of Blacks

By Charles Hallman, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

(l-r) City Council Member Elizabeth Glidden, Toni Newborn, Velma Korbel, Karen Francois, and Jennifer White (council office associate for Glidden) (Photo by Charles Hallman)

Minneapolis Civil Rights Director Velma Korbel pledged recently that her department will have a “distinct presence” in addressing issues of employment equity and monitoring construction hiring goals in the city. She also said, however, that the department is still not in a position to specify how many African Americans have found work on publicly funded construction projects.

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Twins' diversity talk seems mostly for show

By Charles Hallman, Another View

A new movie on the life of Jackie Robinson premieres Friday. It has support from people in high places.

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Another View

Lao New Year 2013: Myth of the Nang Sangkhan

By Saengmany Ratsabout, Little Laos on the Prairie

As we approach Lao New Year, I wanted to take this opportunity to not only highlight traditional practices associated with the celebration, but also begin a conversation on the relevancy of centuries-old traditions in twenty-first century Lao American communities. As we begin this conversation, there are three things I will focus on: 1) an overview of the three-day celebration including myths associated with the Nang Sangkhan, 2) Lao New Year as practiced by Lao Americans through archival research and personal anecdotes, and lastly, 3) relevancy of the myths and practices in the twenty-first century through a community development perspective.

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Little Laos on the Prairie
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