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Tapestries: Interwoven voices of local and global identities

Abstract

Statement of Purpose:

As a Black Minnesotan, I feel stuck between the binary of hope and despair after the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent protests during the summer of 2020. I had never seen as much vocal support for Black lives. However, reflecting two years later makes me fear the support was simply appeasement and empty promises. While Derek Chauvin was convicted of killing George Floyd, there have been several Black men murdered by Twin Cities police in the two years since his death including, Dolal Idd, Daunte Wright, Winston Smith, and more. Poor Black people in the Twin Cities are still relegated to living in areas of concentrated poverty and subjected to unrelenting police surveillance and community violence. I was raised in a middle class Minneapolis suburb by a Black father and white mother. My family moved to the city at the beginning of my freshman year where I gained confidence in my identity as a Black woman from the Black teachers and classmates at my new high school. In this paper I seek to highlight the experiences of working class Black people in Minneapolis; that is not and has never been my identity or life experience. As a lighter-skinned Black person who benefits from systems of capitalism and colorism, my priority in the wake of the summer 2020 uprising is to call attention to the anti-Black violence embedded in Minnesota that particularly impacts working class Black Minnesotans.

Author Biography

Muriel Ambrus (she/her) is graduating with an American Studies major and minors in Sociology and Spanish. She is from the Twin Cities and would like to extend gratitude towards her community, especially her parents and grandparents, for the inspiration, support, and encouragement.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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