Contributing writer Noah Riccardi speaks with Macalester College history professor Dr. Walter Greason and author and educator Dr. Artika Tyner about the last fifty years for Black communities in Minnesota and across the country, the durable structural barriers that remain and what the next decade will require to move toward equity and justice.
Where do Black communities in Minnesota and across the country stand today, and where are they headed? The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder reached out to prominent Black academics to get their assessment. Looking back across the last several decades and forward to the next ten years, their responses were sobering, nuanced, and at times hopeful.
Dr. Walter Greason, a professor of history at Macalester College, cautioned against an overly optimistic view.
“There is a temptation to see the last fifty years through rose-tinted lenses due to the increasing levels of political participation and elected leadership for Black communities,” Dr. Greason said. “However, the realities that the core of Black middle class has been decimated and the increasing levels of carceral policy have reduced the opportunities for success in Black communities, especially since 2017.”…