University of Minnesota fails the underserved population of Minnesota, with the help of Black people that work there.
On Monday, November 3, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. the man that inspired the movie “Hotel Rwanda”- Paul Ruesabagina, will be coming to Northrop Auditorium to speak. This event is sponsored by the Department of Post Secondary Teaching and Learning and co-sponsored by the Department of African American and African Studies with African Read-In. This mess falls under the University of Minnesota’s – of Education + Human Development. This event is free and open to the public. (?)
About two weeks ago, staff from a local agency was contacted about doing possible advertising for this event. The firm contacted has the Twin Cities #1 minority-ethnic media news distribution and operates a full service Public Relations agency. The problem – the General Manager was a Black Man.
So often a group of Black people get to a point in an organization where they get make decisions (or not make decisions) that effect how important information is distributed to the community that never get to attend or hear about such events. This is the case with Ms. Serna Wright, Director of Events for the University of Minnesota College of Education + Human Development. These events are usually attended by 85 percent White and the rest a mix of students and some “stratified” individuals that got the word through the “IIBN – (I’m Important Black Network). Staffers at the agency asked the GM, “How the University of Minnesota College of Education + Human Development would get the word out to the Black, Asian, Somali, Hispanic-Latino and Hmong community without using Insight News, The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Asian American Press, LaVoz, Hmong Times, One Nation News and the African media outlets in Minnesota?”
In a telephone call to Ms. Wright on yesterday, she (Ms. Wright) was asked what are her plans for message and information distribution; Cost per point; GRP; Budget; Reach & Frequency. Her reply was, “I’m going to use radio. Of course this was a call for possible dollars into our agency, but also a concern about why she’s stalled for 2 weeks.
Being in advertising and marketing for over 30 years in Minnesota, I understood then that Ms. Wright has and is consistently wasting the U of M’s money on advertising and marketing on what she feels, rather than reaching a segment of the population that would like to engage this event. This is another example of “Blue Business Racism on Pluto”.
It was apparent to me that Ms. Wright has no clue what a clean media distribution would be as it pertains to attracting people of color to the U of M that might possibly assist in building capacity for students interested in Journalism, African American Studies or other courses the U of M might offer.
Those of you that get it must know by now – Ms. Wright is the “wrong” person for the job!
Another example that no one was reading or comprehending when WEB Dubois said, “The Talented 10th is responsible for the other 90%.”
Again the University of Minnesota fails the underserved population of Minnesota, with the help of Black people that work there.
The Council on Black Minnesotans Invites You to Attend A Community Issues Forum
Topic: Economic Development & Poverty Issues Impacting Black Minnesotans
Location: Hallie Q. Brown/MLK Community Center – 270 Kent, St. Paul, Minnesota October 14, 2008 – 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Mission: Since 1980 the Council on Black Minnesotans has been charged by the Minnesota State Legislature to advise the Governor and his administration, the Legislature, the Judiciary and other policy makers at all levels on issues impacting Minnesotans of African Heritage.
In response to this charge, the Council is presenting a series of Community Issues Forums that will focus on such issues as disparities and disproportionalities in the Minnesota Criminal Justice, Health, and Education, Economic and Children and Family systems. The first forum, held in August, was on Criminal Justice Issues. The Health forum was the second forum we sponsored. And, the third forum, on Economic Development Issues, is scheduled to be held on October 14, 2008, at MLK/Hallie Q. Brown Center in St. Paul (270 Kent Street).Please put this date on your calendar and Come and Participate.
Purpose of Forums: The Council is committed to creating, identifying, analyzing and disseminating policy oriented information essential to advancing people of African descent toward equity. More specifically, the Council will sponsor about four community issues forums. Through the use of dialogue and discussion, it is anticipated that these forums will educate residents of our communities, community policy makers, professionals, the CBM Board members and staff in our efforts to create and promote a Black Legislative/Policy agenda for 2009 and future years. It is also anticipated that greater collaboration will be promoted among key stakeholders through this process.
Forum Format: All community forums will have a similar format and rules of conduct:
• “Respect for all” will be the guiding philosophy for forum’s activities.
• “Rules of the game” will be explained by the facilitator.
• Appointment of a note taker – to capture the discussion and questions.
• Issue Presenters will provide an overview of the issue(s) and will have from five to ten minutes present their position/observations.
• After all presenters have made their presentations, a twenty (20) minute question and answer period will occur. Questions should be brief and to the point and be related to the presenter’s statements. Three by five cards might be used to solicit questions from the audience. Please, no speeches.
• Community Responses/Input/Discussion on their specific issue(s). Community participants will be allowed up to two minutes each to introduce an issue/solution. (Up to a maximum of twenty (20) minutes). Speakers are limited to one presentation, depending on available time and participation level. Please be brief and to the point.
• Evaluation/questionnaire. All program participants will be requested to complete a Forum Evaluation which will be handed out at beginning of forum. On this form, they will also be asked to identify, in priority order, their perception of the three most important issues facing Black Minnesotans and the three issues that they would like to see addressed in the Council’s Legislative/Policy Agenda for 2009 and Future Years.
Community Closing Party for Exploding Language: Mining the Black Arts Movement to create new visual text – October 18, 2008 – North Minneapolis
A special thanks to Mr. Roderic Southhall for providing the
following information to Twin City Business!
North Minneapolis, MN – October 2008…Bringing the spirit and power of the black arts movement back home to North Minneapolis is the goal of the current off-site project by Obsidian Arts. Bathing a four block stretch of Plymouth Avenue North, starting at Penn and Plymouth, in public art that focuses on the weight orientation of the visual aesthetics and purpose of artwork associated with the Black Arts Movement that swept though the U.S. during the late 1960’s and early 1970s. The exhibit consists of two and three-dimensional installations, projections and sound scapes placed along Plymouth Avenue in North Minneapolis. Plymouth Avenue was the epicenter of the city’s black power and black arts movement activities in the late 1960’s and early 1970s.
Saturday October 18, 2008
7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Action Sites -
Mass Appeal Barbershop (East Wall):
• Video Projections by artist Charles Nelson & Film Short: Hairpiece
Legacy Village East Wall (Logan Avenue North):
• Video Projection by artist Tim Portlock & Film: Killer of Sheep
Yard Poetry (Between Newton and Logan):
• Kirk Washington – Word games for community youth
• Community BBQ
• Old School DJ Music
Background
The Black Arts Movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s led to a profound cultural shift in the United States and throughout the African Diaspora. While the goals of the Black Arts Movement focused on creating art that reflected the aspirations of Black people, it also changed how people viewed basic notions of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, politics, and art. Long standing issues of ethnic art and its place in the mainstream art world finally had a forum.
Inherently political, the Black Arts Movement, often called the “aesthetic and spiritual sister” of the Black Power Movement, took place against the backdrop of the turbulent political and economic climate of the ‘60’s. Activism was the order of the day and the tandem movements that formed the core advocated for a “cultural revolution of ideas”.
This “revolution of ideas” created one of the most fertile environments for Black artists in the twentieth century. Amidst all the chaos there was an energetic vision of achievement, self actualized and fed by artistic disciplines diverse as the free jazz of John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, the plays of Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, the revolutionary literature of Franz Fanon, and the creativity of visual artists from all directions.
The intent of curators Ernest Bryant and Suzanne Roberts was to a create a revolution of ideas and provoke participating artists to create a new “visual text” for today’s black community based on a rigorous re-consideration of the literary and visual languages of the Black Arts Movement. We invited artists from across the country to engage in a dialog that interrogates the current or standard lexicon of black visual text, with the hope that they create a new language that accurately articulates the contemporary Black experience.
Artists and Curators
Charles Huntley Nelson (Atlanta), Christopher Aaron Deanes (Minneapolis), Christopher Harrison (Minneapolis), Estela De Paola De Lerma (St. Paul), Jessica Ann Peavy (New York), Kirk Washington (Minneapolis), Mica Lee Anders (St. Paul), Michael Paul Britto (New York), Seitu Jones (St. Paul), Torkwase Dyson (Boston) and Tim Portlock (New Jersey). Ernest Arthur Bryant III and Suzanne Roberts curate the exhibition for Obsidian Arts.
Obsidian Arts
Obsidian Arts participates in the global dialogue about artists and the art they create. Add. Enter 2948 Chicago Avenue, suite 220.; Tel. 612-822-6808; Hours are Thursday 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturday 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. No admission fee.
Sponsors
The General Mills Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, The Minneapolis Empowerment Zone, The Buddy Taub Foundation, and The NorthSide Resident’s Redevelopment Council.
Special Thanks
Minneapolis Arts Commission, Mustard Seed, Mass Appeal Barbershop, N.R.R.C. Green Team, Peter Thompson, U of M Projection Project, Carl Pope, Juxtaposition Arts, Mary Altman and the City of Minneapolis, CartoGraphics, Ali Momeni, Legacy Management and Shalette Cauley Wandrick.
About Obsidian Arts
Obsidian Arts supports the growth of ideas . . . valuing artists, curators, and art historians in the examination of Black history and culture. Obsidian Arts regularly develops exhibitions, art-history based educational programs and maintains a small black art history library and artists’ collective.
Address: 734 E. Lake Street, Ste. 220, Minneapolis, MN 55407 – 612-822-6808.
University of St. Thomas Third Annual CommUNITY Week celebration will begin Sunday, September 28, 2008
Gospel Music concert, Susan L. Taylor, and Penumbra “Fences” Symposium is all part of CommUNITY Week events at the University of St. Thomas.
CommUNITY Week is an excellent time to reflect on the important roles that art, culture, spirituality and learning have in our lives. It is a time for the University of St. Thomas and Twin Cities communities to share and exchange through formal and informal networks.
In its third year, CommUNITY Week has turned the spotlight on the vital contribution that culture and spirituality make in learning and in life. Music, faith, books, theater and dialogue about uncomfortable issues are a part of daily life and have a lasting impact. They inspire and challenge us and broaden our horizons. We respect the Ramadan and Rosh Hashanah religious traditions as we reflect and celebrate.
The third annual CommUNITY Week celebration will begin Sunday, Sept. 28, with an Ecumenical Gospel Music Celebration fundraiser in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. As a learning community rich in faith and heritage, it is important that we work toward uniting our community through a greater sense of shared spirituality. The Office of Institutional Diversity continues to support St. Thomas’ strategic priorities of access, excellence and Catholic identity.
One goal of the OID is to improve and enhance campus climate through a number of intentional initiatives. One way to do this is to fortify our humanity in the name of God through gospel music. Music is a universal language that transcends social status, ethnic origin, gender, generation, faiths, culture and background.
The Ecumenical Gospel Music Celebration fundraiser is a diverse program that features gospel music performed by a mixture of Twin Cities musicians and choirs. Funds raised will benefit diversity and access initiatives in the Office of Institutional Diversity.
Award-winning artists performing in this celebration will include: Bruce A. Henry, Debbie Duncan, T. Mychael Rambo and Yolande Bruce. Henry will serve as guest director and Rambo as master of ceremonies.
The Hallel Praise Team Ministry from Holding Forth the Word of Life Ministries International and the Voices of Unity Choir from Pilgrim Baptist Church will join in this jubilant celebration from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Legendary editor emerita of Essence magazine, Susan L. Taylor, also will headline CommUNITY Week. Taylor has empowered the powerless and provided hope for “all God’s children” through her famous “In the Spirit” columns. She is an accomplished author, editor, humanitarian and national spokeswoman for National Cares Mentoring Movement.
Taylor will join our community for two major events: 1) “All About Love: Living Fearlessly in a Changing World,” 7-9 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, in Room 304, Murray-Herrick Campus Center (followed by a reception and book signing), and 2) “Diversity Dialogues: Lifting Voices in the Circle,” 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30, in Room 304, Murray-Herrick Campus Center. Get details on these events in the CommUNITY Week schedule that follows this column.
I appreciate the forward thinking of co-chairs Michael Glirbas and Cynthia Fraction. In addition, we always are fortunate to have eager students, faculty and staff who contribute their time by serving on the Steering and Volunteer Committee. A special “thank you” to all these willing volunteers who publicly support our diversity initiatives. In addition, thank you Gayle Lamb and Food Service for providing special menus in various dining facilities throughout this week.
I personally invite students, faculty and staff members to attend as many events as possible. I encourage faculty to provide students with co-curricular learning opportunities by considering CommUNITY Week events for extra credit. On a college campus, diversity becomes intellectually, culturally and socially productive and central to the university’s educational mission when it is a source of mutual enrichment to all members of the university community. In this way, education becomes a tool through which the fact of diversity is transformed to exciting and productive actions of diversity, creating a climate and environment so stimulating and attractive that the experience of difference becomes a source of excellence and an instrument of achievement.
A very special “thank you” is extended to all CommUNITY Week sponsors for their generosity and support. Each sponsor is recognized in the schedule of events below. Visit our Web site for additional details.
Here is the schedule of CommUNITY Week events:
Sunday, Sept. 28
- Ecumenical Gospel Music Celebration fundraiser, 3-5:30 p.m. in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, honorary co-host Anchor Hilyard Lodge. Tickets will be on sale at the St. Thomas Box Office and Expeditions, lower level, Murray-Herrick Campus Center, and online Sept. 17 through Sept. 26. Tickets prices are $25 for general admission and $15 for students (with ID). Discounts are available for general admission groups (10 tickets for $225 and 20 tickets for $450). Tickets may be purchased concert day from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Box Office. VISA, Master Card, Discover and student eXpress cards will be accepted. Call the Box Office at (651) 962-6137 with questions.
Monday, Sept. 29
- “All About Love: Living Fearlessly in a Changing World,” featuring Susan L. Taylor, editor emerita of Essence Magazine, 7-9 p.m. in Room 304, Murray-Herrick Campus Center, co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Student Government and the University Lectures Committee. A reception and book-signing will follow the lecture. This event is free and open to the public, but requires a ticket. Students, faculty, staff and community members may pick up tickets beginning Sept. 24. For information on how to get your free tickets, visit the OID Web site.
Wednesday, Oct. 1
Penumbra Theater “Fences” Symposium, 6-9 p.m. in the McNeely Hall Great Room, Room 100, co-sponsored by STAR. Panelists include: Dr. D. Todd Lawrence, Dr. Buffy Smith and Dr. Lawrence Potter Jr., University of St. Thomas; Dr. Peter Rachleff and Beth Cleary, Macalester College; and Stephanie Lein Walseth, August Wilson Fellow, University of Minnesota.
Psychological Screening – The Good the Bad the Ugly, Don’t let the System Dictate for your Children!
Informing Parents of Their Right to Opt Out of Preschool Screening
The state must now inform parents that they have the right to opt out of preschool screening. The current law states that parents may conscientiously object to screening, but public notices to parents are highly misleading. They usually state that Minnesota law requires all preschoolers to be screened before kindergarten. Most parents were not told that their children do not have to participate in the highly subjective mental screening or the nosy personal questions about family life that ask about gun ownership, eating habits and “exposure to violence.”
This is a very important victory that will shield many families from intrusive data collection and many children from false mental illness labeling at an early age that will follow them throughout their years. It will also reduce unnecessary referrals for dangerous psychiatric treatment. Great thanks for this goes especially to Rep. Steve Gottwalt (R-St. Cloud), who sponsored this language as separate legislation, and to Sen. Betsy Wergin (R-Princeton) who worked to get it amended into the Senate bill. Thanks also to the DFL leadership for leaving this common sense parental rights language in the final bill.
Infant Mental Health Screening — Fails
The entire section of legislation to establish a Kindergarten Readiness Advisory Board that included infant mental health was dropped from the final K-12 bill.
This would have affected all children, birth through age 5, in the recommendations of a statewide early childhood system to be designed by this appointed board. (See EdWatch update here.) Part of that system would have included infant mental health as part of a federal grant program that seeks to “screen all children birth to age five early and continuously” for “behavioral health.” “Behavioral health” is used to describe socio-emotional or mental health. It requires screening and treatment which more and more frequently is drugs, even in very young children. Although this Advisory Board, appointed by elected officials, would have been preferable to the barely accountable MELF system which did pass (see Nanny State Expansion, Part I), concerns remained. The Advisory Board was directed to recommend a statewide early childhood system that included infant mental health. In addition, preschool mental screening continues in this state, with extremely vague or non-existent statutory authority and weak or non-existent parental consent or notification. Hopefully, this existing screening will be curbed by the parents’ rights language on screening that was passed and discussed just above (See item #1). Thanks goes to the Governor for threatening a veto and the House Republican Caucus for being willing to uphold a veto of the education bill that starved the funds for yet another bureaucratic intrusion into family life.
TeenScreen — Passes
Funding for mental screening programs like TeenScreen passed in the education spending bill (HF2245). Due to enormous opposition and pressure from you, the public, this program went from “in your face” specific implementation of the very controversial TeenScreen program to the stealth description of “voluntary, opt-in suicide prevention tools” in the Safe Schools Levy. Opt-in does not mean that parents have requested psychiatric screening or that they have been informed of the dangers of the program. [For more information on TeenScreen , click here.]
TeenScreen must be challenged at the individual school district level. Some districts in Minnesota have already been implementing TeenScreen, even before receiving the additional money this levy will provide. However, once parents and school boards are notified of the controversial and unscientific nature of TeenScreen with its high false positive rates and other problems, many boards across the country have refused TeenScreen or parental permission rates have been so low that schools have discontinued the program.
Besides many thanks to you for your calls and emails, great thanks goes to Representatives Mark Olson (R-Big Lake), Tom Emmer (R-Delano), Tony Cornish (R -Good Thunder), Laura Brod (R-New Prague), Paul Kohls (R-Victoria), and Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton) for sponsoring amendments to remove this provision and for speaking out on the House floor and in committees against this bad language. The entire House Republican caucus with the exception of Representatives Jim Abeler (R-Anoka), Carol McFarlane (R-White Bear Lake), Ron Erhardt (R-Edina), Morrie Lanning (R-Moorhead), Denny McNamara (R-Hastings), Neil Peterson (R -Bloomington), and Kathy Tinglestad (R-Andovor) voted to remove this provision. (Rep. Dennis Ozment, R-Rosemount, was absent.). No Democrats supported the amendment.
Discriminatory Mental Screening of Poor Children
a pilot program that will psychiatrically screen the children of low-income families passed in the Health and Human Services bill. Those receiving benefits through the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) will have their children screened for mental illness. The dangers of this psychiatric screening are the same as the dangers of TeenScreen. This program is also highly discriminatory and stigmatizing for poor and minority children, because it assumes that low-income families are more prone to mental illness.
Minority activists strongly opposed this measure by testifying and lobbying. EdWatch hoped for a veto of this appropriation. Mental screening in this program will lead to more drugging of poor and minority children than is already happening. According to a study by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 90% of children who see a psychiatrist will receive medication. Poor children on government programs like Medicaid are more likely to receive the strongest anti-psychotic drugs compared to children with private insurance.
Rev. Herron, an African-American pastor of Zion Baptist Church in north Minneapolis, representing many members of the community group Parents Speak Out, testified twice against the children of the poor being targeted for mental screening. Rev. Herron stated that the poor and minorities are aggressively drugged with dangerous and addictive psychiatric medications as a result of unreliable and subjective mental screening. He testified that universal mental screening is destructive to their families. (See details here.)
In Rev. Herron’s Senate Health and Human Services Budget Committee testimony, Sen. Berglin, the Committee Chair, Sen. Higgins, the bill’s author, and committee member Sen. Lourey all insisted that he was mistaken — that child mental screening was not in the bill. In reality, screening has always been in the bill, and these Senators seriously wronged this highly-regarded leader of the minority community. Rep. Sondra Erickson (R- Princeton) and Rep. Mark Olson (R-Big Lake) are to be thanked for their attempts to amend this language out of the bill.
Early Intervention to Include Mental Screening
Mental screening and behavioral intervention was included into an otherwise positive program that provides added instructional aid to students struggling with math and reading before referring them for special education. The problem comes with the “behavioral intervention” part of the program. Neither the language of the bill nor the program’s website clarify how students that are not yet identified as special education students are screened for behavior problems, what interventions taken, the scientific validity of these interventions, what the parental consent procedures are for screening or intervening, or how these issues are handled in student records. Both state and federal law require parental consent before special education evaluations occur, and Minnesota law upholds a parent’s right to refuse these evaluations. Struggling students should not be routinely screened and referred for mental illness or untested behavioral intervention, especially under such unclear consent procedures.
Dr. Karen Effrem raised these concerns in both House and Senate testimony. The sponsors, Rep. Tim Faust (D-Mora) and Sen. Kathy Saltzman (D-Woodbury), feigned concern about these objections, but in the end did nothing about them. The Senate added this language to the education bill on the very last night of the session. Sen. Warren Limmer (R – Maple Grove) is to be thanked for attempting to add parental consent requirements as an amendment.The entire Senate Republican caucus voted for that amendment with the exception of Sen. Gen Olson (R-Minnetrista), who inexplicably spoke against it.
All of the Democrats voted against it.
For more information, visit www.edwatch.org.
