by David Beckford | Jan 14, 2020 | Uncategorized, Voices from Recast
Interview of Jewelean Jackson
Interviewer: 00:26 Okay, may I have your first and last name the spelling, please?
Miss Jackson: 00:40 Jewelean, J-E-W-E-L-E-A-N, no middle initial, last name Jackson, J-A-C-K-S-O-N.
Interviewer: 00:51 Okay, nice to meet you.
Miss Jackson: 00:51 Indeed.
Interviewer: 00:52 Do you or have you lived in this area in the last 10 years?
Miss Jackson: 00:58 I have lived, played, worked, and prayed in this area for 40 years.
Interviewer: 01:03 Okay. From when you first moved in this area what changes have you seen over the years?
Miss Jackson: 01:09 Oh, even though they say the statistics say otherwise, it seems like there are more non-black folks, more Asians, more Somalis and it also seems as though there may be a little more negative behavior, be it us killing one another and/or the police killing us.
Interviewer: 01:34 I agree. So do you feel that’s a negative or a positive change?
Miss Jackson: 01:41 Well, I think it’s a double edged sword. I think part of the concern is that there seems to be a lack of value in human life too often amongst us and it’s reciprocal among the other folks as well. Now, I think in terms of Euros, it has more to do with they still think of us as animals, they still think of us as 3/5 human, they still think that we’re just a beast. The flip side of that is one of self hatred. The physical shackles were removed but we still have shackles on our minds.
Interviewer: 02:19 I agree with you, by the way. What do you feel caused the changes?
Miss Jackson: 02:21 Oh gosh. Some would say it was all the transplants from Gary, Indiana. Some would say it’s the transplants from south side of Chicago. I am not sure. I don’t know if it’s specific to Minneapolis and north Minneapolis as much as it seems to be different pockets of the country, be it Chicago, be it New York, be it Los Angeles etc. I think part of what makes it seem like it’s more is that with social media you get it faster, quicker, all at once. One of the things that seems to be different is I always tell my scholars, it wasn’t as though we didn’t fight and duke it out with one another, but if you and I had an issue, you beat my behind, I didn’t run home and get Pookie and Mom and them and a gun and come back and try to kill you.
Interviewer: 03:10 To kill you, right.
Miss Jackson: 03:11 Typically, it was done. So you beat my behind and so be it and we shook hands and we went on.
Interviewer: 03:17 And that’s it.
Miss Jackson: 03:20 And I don’t know if this is different either but I think this whole thing of babies having babies, they haven’t been raised so how are they going to raise another little person. And so therefore you pick up all of those bad habits, non-habits, and so with the work that I do I always try to incorporate home visits because I can think about what it might be like but, oh my gosh, once I get into the home it’s like, okay, know what’s wrong. And certainly I’m not researched or haven’t studied it but these are just some of my observations.
Interviewer: 03:53 Okay. And what makes you feel that way?
Miss Jackson: 03:58 One, I think integration did us in. I think that in yesteryear we were forced more to get along and be along because all we had was one another.
Interviewer: 04:12 Exactly.
Miss Jackson: 04:12 Now we figure that we had the civil rights movement and we fought for equal rights and now on the one hand you have too many of us trying to be like them and outdoing them at being themselves, ie. Europeans. And on the other hand you have this whole sense of hopelessness that I’m not sure where it came from.
04:30 I just asked one of my third grade scholars the other day, I said, “So what do you want to be when you grow up?” And he said, “Miss Jackson, I want to be alive.” Oh, okay so where, when, and how because in our darkest days as slaves we still wanted to do better. We wanted to learn how to read and write. Today we’ve got to drag our kids to school to get them there, get them there on time and get them there without them throwing chairs through windows and those kinds of things. So, it’s pretty complex, it’s pretty complex.
Interviewer: 05:01 Okay, so we are gathering these stories to increase understanding between the city of Minneapolis and the community on the impact of historic discriminatory government policies and practices in areas like housing, transportation, economic development and more. Examples include housing and employment discrimination in the early 20th century, the war on drugs in the 1990s and others. What impact has these policies or others had on the community in general?
Miss Jackson: 05:27 That was a mouthful. Was I supposed to remember all that?
Interviewer: 05:31 Basically, what changes have you seen in the housing, transportation, economic development since back in the day until now?
Miss Jackson: 05:40 Well, it’s only been recently that they have removed legal language saying that we can’t purchase property.
Miss Jackson: 05:47 People are very surprised by that, white and black. It’s only been recently that the language has been removed in terms of redlining in the district. So I don’t know how soon you would say that’s happened. Are we talking 2018, we’re talking about 1990, etc.? Because, again, I think all of what ails us is this whole thing of racism at its best, sexism at its best, white folks and black folks think we’ve truly arrived. We have not. And the Willie Lynch syndrome is alive and well.
Miss Jackson: 06:22 And I think that’s kind of the underpinning of everything that ails us and I don’t think even with affirmative action at its best that we’re going to catch up. I’m not going to see it. I’m not sure if you all are going to see it either. My child, the one I birthed at 27, oftentimes she says, “You know what? It’s an upstream battle.” And I don’t that even me or my children will be around to see it.
Miss Jackson: 06:46 And as dismal as that sounds that doesn’t mean we work any less hard in terms of change. And again, it still goes to that whole thing of how you feel about folks because even with laws changing and written information changing, attitudes are slow to follow. And so it may be another 200 years before they even allude to the civil rights movement. I mean they still have on the books that we’re not allowed to vote. That’s still on the books.
Interviewer: 07:14 I didn’t know that
Miss Jackson: 07:14 And then on the one hand as a long time head election judge I have to drag my folks kicking and screaming to vote, to register to vote, to pledge to vote, to know where your polling place is. Folks will get to the polls at 7: 50 the polls close at 8:00, you’re at the wrong poll, then you cuss me out going out the door because you can’t get to the right poll. Well come on now, come on.
Miss Jackson: 07:38 So it’s a lot of that. I had one of my 5th grade scholars two years ago tell me, “Well Miss Jackson my daddy says it’s stupid to vote.” Now I ain’t going to take on what his daddy said but I made note, okay there’s some other things I have to do with this little 5th grade scholar of mine in terms of getting him to
see things differently. But it’s hard because I have them, what, 3 or 4 hours a day? Then they still gotta go home to whatever madness that is.
Interviewer: 08:01 Yup, that is true.
Miss Jackson: 08:03 Did any of that make sense?
Interviewer: 08:03 Yeah, that did. I understand it completely.
Miss Jackson: 08:05 Okay. The other piece with housing, with the foreclosure piece that hit a few years back and I lost my house as a result of it. One of the things that I keep telling people that they need to do in terms of policy is that at the end of what I went through, and I fought a hard fight but I lost after about 6 years, they still said they wanted $300,000 from me for my house right around the corner, 1618 Freemont Avenue. But then they turned around and sold it to the white boy for $40,000. What’s wrong with that picture? What is wrong with that picture?
Interviewer: 08:37 Are you serious?
Miss Jackson: 08:39 Serious. And it wasn’t as though he was going to come and move into the community. What he did is he carved it up to rent it out-
Interviewer: 08:46 To make-
Miss Jackson: 08:46 To make more money for a whole lot more than he should have been charging, that’s about policy.
Interviewer: 08:53 That’s crazy.
Miss Jackson: 08:53 You know. And even now the other thing, there seems to be a whole lot more vacant houses as well than there used to be and that’s another policy piece. The city finally heard us a year and a half ago with some listening sessions that we did. We said okay so, what do we do with these vacant houses, these vacant lots? So they said oh okay well we hear you, let’s come up with this system. And I don’t remember all of it verbatim but it was $75,000, I think, if you were a first responder, you could get free money, $50,000 if you were in education, $25,000 if you were a resident in the community. What’s wrong with that? Flip it!
Miss Jackson: 09:29 Flip it! That is policy. And they didn’t even have that before we had these listening sessions a year and a half ago. That’s all policy. That’s the city of Minneapolis.
Miss Jackson:09:40 So.
Miss Jackson: 09:40 I get animated sometimes. Forgive me.
Interviewer: 09:43 It’s okay. We need that. So what impacts have that had on you or your personal family?
Miss Jackson: 09:53 Well, part of it’s my fault and/or part of it’s the system but I have spent most of my darned near 70 years really embracing my community, doing for my community which meant that most of my life I’ve either totally given it away for free or for little or nothing. And so for me if I walked out this door and I broke a hip or whatever I’d be expected to live off of $900 a month social security. What do you do with $900 a month social security? Not much. But, it’s still on me. From that perspective I’m kind of a sick puppy, if you will, because people that volunteer at my level for that length of time got three, four sugar daddies somewhere paying the bills.
Miss Jackson: 10:35 But at the same time, I think that it’s important and it’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it so when I think back on the Miss Black Minnesota pageant that I produced and directed for 15 years, a founding mother for Twin Cities Juneteenth, founding committee for the Minnesota Freedom Schools’ Children’s Defense Fund, founding committee for the National Night Out, at some point part of my legacy will be there she lay, but look at all this good stuff she left behind.
Miss Jackson: 11:02 But in the meantime it would be nice to be able to make a decision and be able to write a check and make it happen as opposed to fundraising and seeing who I can submit a proposal to, so.
Miss Jackson: 11:15 They say God looks out for babies and fools. I think I fall in the fool category which God has decided that, with that, he has given me my health. And so we have figured out that for the next decade, I have until I’m 80, to make up for that social security piece. Because I still have my health and when you have your health you can attain the other stuff or get it back.
Interviewer: 11:39 So what changes have you seen in this community that raised your level of stress or concern about its future?
Miss Jackson: 11:44 Well, recognizing that the police have never been our friend, it seems as though they have become a lot more blatant and I tell the chief and all of the boys in blue often, “Y’all are sharp shooters.” So you mean to tell me I’m supposed to believe that he’s running away and whatever level of his black face, you can’t shoot him in the legs and stop him or tase him or something? It’s always shoot to kill our folks, especially our black boys and the young black men.
Miss Jackson: 12:13 So that seems to be more overt and it’s scary to the point of when I found out I was pregnant I said, “God don’t give me a boy. I don’t want a boy.” Because I did not want to have to think for the next 21 years that knock on the door in the middle of the night that my child- Although, I got a girl, I’m not good with hair either because I have none, but she’s had the police pull guns on her. So it’s not specific just to the sexes.
Miss Jackson: 12:44 So that seems to be a little worse. That’s probably the main thing just in terms of the police and the way that they- I mean I’ve even had them tell me- because you hesitate to even call them, even if you need them, and I’ve had them tell me when they’ve gotten there, “Well, just move out of the neighborhood. Well, you decided to live here.” They don’t do that out in their neck of the woods.
Miss Jackson: 13:08 And I don’t think that more police are necessarily the answer to that because many of them are still, and even with our new police chief, he’s still got this horrible system that he’s stuck with. And so I just heard something recently of how we finally allude to moving forward is we’ve got to have the Thurgood Marshall’s, you all know who that is, right?
Interviewer: 13:27 Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Miss Jackson: 13:28 Which I just found out today he had 32 cases of which he won I mean, yeah. So he was saying that you have to have those like him that deal with the system but you still have to have the Martin Luther King Jr.’s who can speak it, who can mobilize, who can organize. And until we have a consistent, incestuous like relationship between those two strategies, I don’t know, it’s going to be a hard time coming. And a long time coming.
Interviewer: 13:56 All right. True that, true that. What part does the city of Minneapolis need to play to relieve that stress?
Miss Jackson: 14:05 For me personally?
Interviewer: 14:05 Yes ma’am.
Miss Jackson: 14:07 Part of it has to do with, and I’ve gotten pretty creative. When you don’t have the check book, so I know where all the food shelves are, I know where the food distributions are, I even know where there’s a free clinic where we can get free acupuncture, free chiropractic, free massage, free counseling, etc.
Miss Jackson: 14:24 And so for me part of relieving my stress is to know that it’s not going under the knife. It’s not taking another pill. It’s dealing with some of these other strategies to help me with my mental and my physical. As a matter of fact, we’ve actually decreased my meds for high blood pressure in half by the acupuncture.
Miss Jackson: 14:43 If we could have more of that I think that that would help because, one of the things that I said is if the real revolution happened tomorrow, we’re such a sick people you wouldn’t be able to carry me and I wouldn’t be able to carry you. Let alone pick up a gun and do it at the same time. And so I think those are a few of the things and then just this whole thing of, this whole unity thing. One of my other hats is I’m the current lifetime national Miss Kwanza and part of my platform is teaching Kwanza, the Kwanza principles as a way of life.
Miss Jackson: 15:15 KMOJ, 50 years ago started with unity, umojah, etc. But we are such a far cry from that at this point and we’re still like crabs in the barrel etc. so I think it’s a combination of us coming together as a people and us figuring out what we have to do in terms of our mental and physical mindset.
Miss Jackson: 15:38 The other part of the unity piece is we got to organize and mobilize and get, and yeah, I’ve said it to them, these Asians that we continue to give our money to that treat us like you know what. But years ago we had a black salon down here Reverend Charles and Marie Graham, Marie Graham sings with the Sounds of Blackness, they didn’t last because we didn’t support them. But we run to the other folks to give them our little bit of money. So that’s another piece that’s sorely lacking.
Interviewer: 16:10 Okay, okay. Moving on to the next question. What gives you hope for the future of this community?
Miss Jackson: 16:17 You young folks. You youngins. I think part of what’s going to help too is with the energy of the young folks and the wisdom of us old folks, if we could truly come together it would make a difference. I don’t know if any of you were involved with the fourth precinct occupation?
Interviewer: 16:33 Mm-mmm (negative)
Miss Jackson: 16:34 Well, a lot of my community children were and the one that I birthed was also part of that. But it was us old folks that did those young people in. What they did is in the middle of the night they ran downtown to [mossa 00:16:45], the city bureaucracy, and literally dismantled it in the middle of the night. Yeah, that’s how it happened.
Miss Jackson:16:55 And I’ve said that to some of those old folks, as well, because what I say, I say it to the source as well. So that’s a huge piece, this whole divide and conquer and I got more education than you and my eyes are lighter than yours and my hair’s straighter than yours and it’s crazy. So until those things begin to change, it’s not going to change. So it’s on y’all. But we have to have the good sense to give you what we know, give you the baton and get the hell out of the way so you can do what you need to do that we’ve trained you to do. Oops, bleep. Okay. The helicopter out of the way. Sorry.
Miss Jackson: 17:34 But there are the John Brown’s too though. You all know who John Brown was right?
Interviewer: 17:39 I do.
Miss Jackson: 17:39 Okay, so he led any number of the insurrections during the slavery times, white boy. And I say that because even during my time with my foreclosure, there was a young Jewish guy that had walked with us through that whole process and what we did is we strategized and we said so when the sheriff gets here and they come, we know that they will react differently to your white face than my black face. And so I’m not saying that it all has to happen with all black folks. There are some white folks too that we need to also coalesce with.
Interviewer: 18:24 Yeah. What part does the city of Minneapolis need to play to create that more hopeful future?
Miss Jackson: 18:30 I think it’s all of the city because too often people think well, it’s them. No, it’s all of us. And I think that all of the city has a part to play When they did Rondo in, in St. Paul, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that story or not.
Interviewer: 18:44 Mm-hmm (affirmative). I heard about that.
Miss Jackson: 18:44 Well initially when that was on the drawing board it was going to be Rondo and Prospect Park. Now the white folks in Prospect Park had the wherewithal and the resources to fight so it didn’t happen to them, whereas we did not and we saw what happened, so. So all of us are affected, contrary to popular belief but, yeah.
Interviewer: 19:14 When you think about this area today, what impact do you still see from these historic government policies?
Miss Jackson: 19:17 Ask me that again.
Interviewer: 19:27 The impact of the discriminatory policies that have been in place historically.
Miss Jackson: 19:31 Oh, okay.
Miss Jackson: 19:34 Well when you look at so often, white folks and black folks, “Just get over it. That was then, now is now.” Well you can’t just get over it because it continues. So that when my significant other says that excuse me but we’re going to this wedding and it’s a young white couple and the parents have given them their house, we don’t have that to bring to the table, let alone be in a position to give it to our children.19:59 And so that kind of policy continues on. People don’t recognize that when they say, “Well it’s not me.” Well of course it’s not you, it’s institutional racism, it’s institutional sexism, it’s all that institutional madness that Trump and the Trumpettes are solidifying and undoing all of the things that Obama did.
20:20 Now the flip of that in terms of hope. I mean I jump for joy. All these young folks we’ve got on city council, get these old folks out of the way. Now, will they have all the answers? No, but at least it’s new blood and it’s young blood and so far I’ve been very impressed with Phillipe and Jeremiah and Andrea’s not as young but, nevertheless, he brings another perspective. I think that’s what’s going to help.
Miss Jackson: 20:48 Did that answer?
Interviewer: 20:49 Yes. How would you describe the relationship between the city of Minneapolis and the northside community over the years?
Miss Jackson: 21:00 It’s been up and down, mainly down. Again, the system looks at us as less than human. The system looks at us in a paternalistic way when they do, it’s like, “Well I know what’s good for you poor slobs over there.” The system thinks of us as a detriment. Everything is always in the negative. An yeah there are issues but there are issues everywhere, there are issues everywhere and I don’t know what it’s going to take to change that.
Miss Jackson: 21:29 And, again, we’ve got a new young mayor, St. Paul has not only a young mayor but a young black mayor and a young black male mayor. Matter of fact he taught my child her first story. He was getting ready to go to college and she was still in middle school? Yeah, middle school. Elementary school. Whatever. So I think the new blood is going to help.
Miss Jackson: 21:48 But what happens is even when you come in with all of these ideas, you too can get caught up in the system. Even with Obama, I told people he wasn’t going to be the Messiah, but I voted for him because he looked like me. I didn’t care what his policy was. He looked like me and that was a historical moment.
Miss Jackson: And you saw what happened. But lord of mercy I’ll tell you he has proven to be the most gracious, and they couldn’t even dig up anything on him in terms of sexual scandal, and I am so pleased, you’d think he was my own child.
Miss Jackson: 22:17 But, ultimately it may happen and then again it may not. But even with the real revolution, I can’t think of a historical revolution where it’s been a real revolution and then the folks that overturned the previous folks didn’t turn out to be like the previous folks they overturned. So, what do you do?
Interviewer: 22:37 Okay. What are your expectations of the city of Minneapolis related to this community?
Miss Jackson: 22:44 Well, I mean, they need to either do it or get off the pot. You all know that expression, right?
Miss Jackson: 22:51 Okay. But we also have to force the issue. People still tell me, “My vote won’t count. Why should I vote? Well I don’t like who’s on the ballot.” And I try to tell folks then if that’s the case you at least get to the polls, register to vote, you pledge, you know where it is, you get to the polls, and write in your own name. Write it Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck because then people know that you at least exercised that a right that we have as Americans because what we don’t realize is when we do vote, we jump to the top, to the presidential. More times than not, the stuff that’s going to affect us is the local. How often are the streets plowed? Who gets the nicer looking parks and those kinds of things. But it’s continuing to try to educate, re-educate, un-educate.
Interviewer: 23:37 I understand that. I agree with you there too. To what extent do you trust the city of Minneapolis to deliver those expectations?
Miss Jackson: 23:54 Oh, that’s funny. Let me first say that there has been changes let me recognize that but the more things change the more they stay the same. And power is not given, you have to take it and people have to be in a position and willing to make the sacrifices to take it. I don’t trust them to just say, “Oh, here’s your part of it.” I mean when they took out Martin Luther King Jr. why was that? Because he started talking about economics. Economics. Hit them in the pockets. I’m still waiting for my 40 acres and my mule, not with bated breath but nevertheless. But that gives you an idea. And everybody has gotten the reparations except for black folks. Well the Natives have been done in too, but everybody else has got- And when we talk about reparations it’s like all of a sudden we’re talking Chinese. But everybody else has gotten them.
Miss Jackson: 24:44 So I don’t trust them to do a doggone thing. That doesn’t mean though that I don’t continue to work because someone still has to be at the table because I tell my scholars, “If you ain’t at the table you’re going to be on the table.” And when they get to slicing and dicing- So I don’t know that we’ll ever get our fair share.
Interviewer: 25:04 What part do you feel you can play in creating that more hopeful future?
Miss Jackson: 25:08 Working with the babies, working with the young folks. Trying to train the young folks, trying to help them with empowerment because once you have the empowerment piece, you have a sense of who you are, you’re unapologetically black, you ain’t trying to do Michael Jackson and change all of that then the more apt you are to say, “Hey, this isn’t right. I’m standing my ground. I’m going to fight.” And even with my foreclosure and some other things that I’ve gone through, [claw in 00:25:35] the case is back against the wall but fighting back.
Miss Jackson: 25:39 I had to sue a former employer. Everybody said, “Ahhh,” and I won’t mention their names because y’all know who they are but everybody kept saying, “You’ll never win.” Whether I never did get one thin dime, and I did win, and they had to write a check, and it was substantial but I knew that I had the- I won’t use that word, I was going to say I had the testicles to fight back but, I guess I could have used another word but I didn’t, but I at least stood my ground and if I had not done one thin dime. They knew that I stood my ground and I had the backbone to do it. And more people have got to do that and we’ve got to stop thinking this whole I, me thing. It’s all of us, it’s a collective.
Interviewer: 26:14 Yeah, a team. Well that’s the end of the interview and we do appreciate you taking time out here to come talk to us. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Miss Jackson: 26:23 Thank you. So what’s the next step? What will y’all do with all this valuable information?
by David Beckford | Jan 14, 2020 | Uncategorized, Voices from Recast
Interview of Jenese Thomas
Jenese Thomas: Jenese Thomas. J E N E S E T H O M A S.
Interviewer: Alright and reference to this map, do you, or have you ever lived in or near any
of these parts of North Minneapolis and if so, how long.
Jenese Thomas: Yes, the North Community High School area and 4 years.
Interviewer: Alright. Thinking back from when you first came to this area, to today, what changes have you seen? Positive and negative.
Jenese Thomas: The reconstruction of Plymouth, Penn, Broadway, and no positive change.
Interviewer: Okay. Why do you say there’s no positive change? What makes you say that?
Jenese Thomas: Cause the education is still horrible, the violence is still horrible. Well, the only positive changes are different community centers, You Rock, Oak Park. Different places where you can go.
Interviewer: Alright so more youth, just more things for youth to do, like stay off the streets.
Jenese Thomas: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.
Interviewer: More important. I see that. Next questions will be, what do you feel caused the changes in this area over the years and why do you feel this way?
Jenese Thomas: The violence caused most of the change. I feel this way cause it’s getting out of hand.
Interviewer: Yeah, Absolutely. I can see that. We are gathering information for the City of Minneapolis and they want to know how these policies, for example: housing, transportation, economic development and others, and employment discrimination, how these policies impacted you and your family personally.
Jenese Thomas: Like I said, I really never had a problem getting a job, I don’t have a felony. Nothing on my backgrounds.
Interviewer: No discrimination during employment?
Jenese Thomas: No.
Interviewer: Okay. That’s good.
Jenese Thomas: As far as education, I believe my kids are in good schools, but who to say when they get in high school it will be the same. Because suburb schools are learning more and graduating faster than our schools in the cities. As far as housing, I was homeless for seven months, but I really didn’t have a problem finding anything it was just finding something based on my income. Income is scarce.
Interviewer: Yeah. Absolutely.
Jenese Thomas: Section 8 for black families in North Minneapolis is not a go-to thing. You giving people section 8 vouchers but they’re not being able to find places because a lot people are not accepting section 8 now, or they’re accepting it and they raise the rent.
Interviewer: Right.
Jenese Thomas: It’s a lose, lose situation for a lot of other families in the North Side.
Interviewer: How do you feel about the war on drugs policy. Do you feel like that policy…
Jenese Thomas: The what?
Interviewer: The war on drugs.
Jenese Thomas: War on drugs?
Interviewer: Yes, that’s the policy that basically tries to, trying to think of the right words, it tries to compact on drugs and crack in the black communities and tries to make sure that ..
Interviewer: Targeting black people.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Jenese Thomas: For example the 100-1 ratio, crack to cocaine.
Jenese Thomas: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Interviewer: You know about that. That’s pretty much the war on drugs. Has that effected you or this community in any way that you can think of?
Jenese Thomas: I don’t think it changed. This neighborhood right here that we in now is horrible with drugs.
Interviewer: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jenese Thomas: I don’t think anything changed with that. There’s still a lot of crack heads, still a lot of whatever, drug dealers and people on drugs. It’s just different drugs coming out now.
Interviewer: Right, it seems like your saying that it effected the community a lot.
Jenese Thomas: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Interviewer: Yeah.
Interviewer: What changes have you seen in the community that raise your level of stress or concern about it’s future? And what do you think the City of Minneapolis can do to relieve that stress?
Jenese Thomas: The violence has raised my stress. I’m not sure what the community can do or what the city could do about the violence, cause I don’t think they ever was able to control it. They can’t control the people that are supposed to be in position to stop it, cause they doing it to. I don’t think anything happened.
Interviewer: How would you describe the relationship between the City of Minneapolis and the community?
Jenese Thomas: Horrible.
Interviewer: Horrible.
Jenese Thomas: Not good.
Interviewer: I do believe that I agree with you. What are your expectation for the city of Minneapolis? Relative to this community.
Jenese Thomas: My expectations are that they keep us safe, are we talking about as far as police, law enforcement?
Interviewer: Yeah.
Interviewer: All the higher powers, government officials, all of the above. What can our elected officials and people that are supposed to protect us and anybody that’s supposed to protect us, what can they do to help us? Or to help this community.
Jenese Thomas: Just try to keep us safe and not kill us.
Interviewer: That’s real.
Interviewer: It is.
Interviewer: To what extent do you trust the city of Minneapolis to deliver on those expectations?
Jenese Thomas: Say that question again.
Interviewer: How much do you trust them to actually follow through with that?
Jenese Thomas: I don’t.
Interviewer: I believe it.
Jenese Thomas: I don’t, there’s been too many of black men dying in the hands of them. Half the time it’s the things that are happening is not okay. These black men, most of them ain’t got guns on them, ain’t got no weapons on them and you shooting to kill. Like, no. You can shoot em, my thing is you can shoot them in the arm, shoot them in the leg, you can shoot them anywhere. You shooting to kill. You shooting in the head, you shooting in the chest where the heart is. You shooting to kill.
Interviewer: A lot of times, it’s multiple shots.
Interviewer: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jenese Thomas: Right.
Interviewer: Not just one or two.
Jenese Thomas: You had to shoot him twice you had to shoot him three or four times.
Interviewer: Had to shoot him 30 times.
Jenese Thomas: Right.
Interviewer: Doesn’t make sense.
Jenese Thomas: Yeah. I don’t trust them, I don’t think they can do anything, like get some new cops? New government officials. Definitely a new president.
Interviewer: A whole new policy.
Interviewer: Yeah. What part do you feel that you can play in creating a more hopeful future?
Jenese Thomas: Doing my job, staying at home. Going to work. Teaching my kids right from wrong. I also want to put out there, when I was going to school they had D.A.R.E. What happened to D.A.R.E?
Interviewer: Now that you say that I remember that.
Jenese Thomas: McGruff, McGrath from Chicago Illinois 60612. They had all them programs, they don’t have non of them in school no more. They took them out completely.
Interviewer: Seems like especially with D.A.R.E, I feel like that was definitely to letting people know, of course they know they’re not supposed to be doing these drugs, they’re not supposed to be doing these things but it just, it still just enforces it like keeps it fresh and lets you know like at school you know.
Jenese Thomas: If you’re teaching your kids this, they coming home like mom, you’re not supposed to be doing that. It helps.
Interviewer: It’s going to influence you to stop doing.
Jenese Thomas: Mom, I know that they said that you’re not supposed to do this, this is not what you’re supposed to do. So it’s like why did they take these programs out of school. I believe some of the reason why they took programs out of school, they really want to have us be the first teachers. We’re supposed to be teaching our kids good touch, bad touch, all this, all these different things.
Interviewer: That’s true, you’re supposed to be teaching your kid that but when they come to school, and they’re at school what, eight hours out of the day, by the time you get home your tired, you’re ready to go to bed, you feeding them and taking them and putting them to bed. You’re not gonna sit down to talk to them about things you know, you’re trying to take care of your household. It’s the teacher job to teach. To enforce things and to let them know, what is, what’s good and what’s bad as well. That’s going to be their second home, they’re in school for 12 years you know.
Jenese Thomas: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Interviewer: It’s levels to it, but I feel as if, you know.
Interviewer: That’s all the questions we have for you. We appreciate your time.
Interviewer: Thank you so much for answering our questions.
Jenese Thomas: Thank you.
by David Beckford | Jan 14, 2020 | Uncategorized, Voices from Recast
Interview of Gretta Maxwell
Interviewer: 01:10 All right, thank you. So before we begin, can you spell your first and last name?
Gretta Maxwell: 01:15 First name Gretta – G R E T T A. Last name Maxwell – M A X W E L L.
Interviewer: 01:24 All right, you mentioned that you lived in North Minneapolis, how long have you been living there?
Gretta Maxwell: 01:26 I’ve been in North Minneapolis since 2001, so 18 years.
Interviewer: 01:30 Where did you move from?
Gretta Maxwell: 01:32 Chicago. Chicago. When I first came here, it was so nice, I just wanted to visit but my sister stayed up here. It was quiet, compared to Chicago it was so quite. Nice. Everybody was in at ten. And all that until I got up here. Like totally good, but it’s nice, I like it.
Interviewer: 01:51 Okay so thinking back from when you first to this area to today, what changes have you seen, positive or negative?
Gretta Maxwell: 01:58 Oh there’s a lot of things changes. The neighborhood changed. I guess the kids got older, so the neighborhood changed. Everything changed, it’s like the buildings, we got a lot more abandoned buildings than we had when we first got here. It’s a lot more things that happen now. I think the kids were younger then so it wasn’t a lot of, it wasn’t as much killin and shootin as it is now. I think they’re doing more shooting now, they killing each other now more than they was when we first got here. So it’s been over ten years, there been a big change in ten years.
Interviewer: 02:31 Yeah, what do you think caused all these changes over the years?
Gretta Maxwell: 02:31 It’s more just the kids gang-bangin. I don’t know what it is but they just against each other. Oh that’s mine, good Lord. They just against each other. I guess that’s what it is, the drugs.
Interviewer: 02:57 Yeah, so I’m just gonna read off the paper. All right. So we’re gathering these stories to increase understanding between the city of Minneapolis and North Minneapolis, the community here, on the impact of historic, discriminatory government policies in areas of housing, transportation, economic development, and examples like that and the war on drugs and things like that. So the question is, what impact have these policies affected you or others in the community.
Gretta Maxwell: 03:39 It’s probably the drugs and the housing. The housing, I don’t think when, it ain’t up to standard for a lot of people and then the ones that is, they’re probably going to tear down anyways. There’s not enough housing, then they ain’t got enough schools, and then there’s a lot of drug selling. On the north side there’s a lot. It’s mostly, I think it’s the housing, they ain’t gotta look like, the housing, it’s not enough that they can afford. There should probably be more low-income housing for the people in the neighborhood or something.
Interviewer: 04:12 If you don’t mind me asking, have you personally had any experiences in the housing area?
Gretta Maxwell: 04:19 Where I’m in, I been there for a minute so I ain’t really had that problem but it have been when I couldn’t find, it have been a place where you can’t find no where to go. Ain’t no where to go and if there is somewhere to go you can’t afford it and the ones that probably could afford it, their credit score or something not high enough. I have struggled before I moved out of where I was, I struggled, had no where to go. I lost my job. Folk here is no work. Times get hard we just got to work through it.
Interviewer: 04:50 Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yeah. So what changes in this community raise your level of stress or concern you about the future in North Minneapolis.
Gretta Maxwell: 04:57 The guns in the neighborhood. I think it’s the guns. If they can do more, I don’t know how or what they can do, but if we get rid of a lot of the people with the guns, get the guns out the neighborhood, that’s probably sellin the drugs, get the drugs, well all the drugs, I know you can’t do that but I know it might be different. They got to stick together and get the neighborhood, more a place like this, community things to get together so people can stick together and do things. A lot of people gotta get involved, once they get involved and see what’s going on, it might be a change but a lot people ain’t really involved in a lot of stuff.
Interviewer: 05:31 Yeah, what part does the city of Minneapolis need to play in relieving the stress and fixing the things? The City of Minneapolis?
Gretta Maxwell: 05:44 What part of it?
Interviewer: 05:45 Yeah, what can they do to help the community here?
Gretta Maxwell: 05:50 Get more programs, get more activity for the kids, somewhere for them to go or something to do. You gotta have something for them kids to do. The YMCA and stuff is good but a lot of kids parents probably can’t afford it so they don’t send their kids there so their kids just be out runnin around. You gotta get something for the kids so they can go and play computer games and video games, they don’t have to be outside. You gotta find something the kids gonna get them involved in something. A lot of more free activity for the kids. Then open up places where people can drop off their kids is this kind of activity one for the kids without the drugs and all this and everything it might change, it might be a change, I don’t know.
Interviewer: 06:30 Yeah. What gives you hope about this community?
Gretta Maxwell: 06:31 What gives me hope? I’ve been here for a minute. I’ve been in this community so I’m used to it and I like it, I like the North side. I like being on the North side, but I don’t know, I guess the whole just being here, I don’t know what gives me hope for being on the North side. I just like being, I been here all the time. I’ve been here and then my kids, I’ve raised my kids and I don’t have no trouble with it but my kids I know we go through problems it’s a lot of things that do happen I know my kids have problems. It’s just something they just got to work through.
Interviewer: 07:07 I should finish up, do you have any last thoughts? Things you wanna add?
Gretta Maxwell: 07:13 Any last thoughts?
Interviewer: 07:13 Yeah
Gretta Maxwell: 07:15 No, we just need to, no I ain’t got no last thoughts. I just think they should come up with more things, just something to do. They need something on the North side for the kids, there ain’t nothing on the North side for them to do. You know? Ain’t no where for them to really go or hang out and play. No gangs. More parents gotta get involved. People gotta get involved in something, do something for them. Maybe that, I don’t know.
Interviewer: 07:43 Well thank you so much for your time, thank you for coming here. And that’s it for the interview.
by David Beckford | Jan 14, 2020 | Uncategorized, Voices from Recast
Interview of Gloria Reese
Interviewer: 00:01 Can you say your first and last name again and then spell it.
Gloria R.: 00:05 Gloria Reese. G-L-O-R-I-A. My last name Reese, R-E-E-S-E.
Interviewer: 00:16 Do you live on the north side?
Gloria R.: 00:17 I don’t now, but I did. I just moved about five years ago.
Interviewer: 00:22 Okay. Where did you live when you were here?
Gloria R.: 00:25 I lived on Vincent Avenue North, about three blocks from the golf course, the Chalet.
Interviewer: 00:32 What made you move?
Gloria R.: 00:34 Divorce and my house went into foreclosure because of my ex-husband. But I loved the north side.
Interviewer: 00:46 Yeah. So thinking back from when you used to live here and now what positive or negative changes have you seen?
Gloria R.: 00:56 The positive changes are they are getting rid of a lot of the slumlord houses, and they’re building. And I would like to see more people of color. There’s one thing that a lot of people don’t know about north Minneapolis. They think it’s predominantly African-American. It’s always been predominantly white. It’s starting to look a lot nicer. What they’re doing with Plymouth Avenue. They’re still, you know, some things that could be improved. And Broadway is the big one I would like to see. Broadway and Lowry Avenue. Okay.
Interviewer: 01:49 How long did you live in north Minneapolis?
Gloria R.: 01:52 Oh, my goodness. I was born in 1948 and I lived in north Minneapolis until my first marriage and we went to Seattle and I lived there for a year and I came back and I lived. And then I raised my children in Brooklyn Park for 13 years and then I came back. So I’ve always come back.
Interviewer: 02:16 Yeah. So going back to the changes, what do you think caused the changes that we see?
Gloria R.: 02:28 Well, the first change was, I think it was ’66 or ’67, and the riots. Plymouth Avenue completely changed. All the Jewish people, which I grew up with, moved to St. Louis Park or Golden Valley. They left their stores and storefronts. That’s when it first started changing. And then they started building apartment buildings over north. And then, I can’t remember exactly. I think it was the 80’s where they started tearing down the projects and they built Heritage Park. That was a good thing.
Interviewer: 03:23 So we’re gathering these stories to increase understanding between the City of Minneapolis and the community on the impact of historic discriminatory government policies and practice and areas like housing, employment discrimination, the war on drugs, and others. So what impact have these policies, or others, had on the community and you personally?
Gloria R.: 03:48 In the community. I’m trying to think. I’m sorry.
Interviewer: 04:02 Oh, that’s alright.
Gloria R.: 04:02 I think the war on drugs was the reason why they tore down the projects because a lot of the people from out of the states would come here as welfare is much better here and women would come with their children and the children were, their young, their boys, were either not in school or halfway in school and they would come here. And you know when you were in maybe St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee and you weren’t going to school and you were on drugs, and then you could come here, and then they would start. So Minneapolis got, I should say yes, Minneapolis got pretty smart about that and told a lot of the woman and families if your children aren’t in school there and you bring them here, we can’t have that.
Interviewer: 05:03 Oh.
Gloria R.: 05:06 They did a lot. And, what was her name? Sharon Sayles Belton and Cherry Home. When Sharon Sayles Belton was the mayor she got on the slumlords so that they had to either fix their property or sell it. And that was one of the main things that was really good because people could come in here and, you know, drug lords they rent for cheap and have these drug houses and stuff like that. But that was the reason because the slumlords would let anybody live there. They didn’t check backgrounds, anything like that. But once that started happening things started getting better in the north side.
Gloria R.: 06:02 But, there’s still a lot of changes that had to happen. The schools. A lot of our African American families were sending, when open enrollment, they would send their kids to the outer suburbs to go to school because it was a better education. You know when the money leaves the city that hurts your schools. So once you start taking care of the schools in the inner city and the properties and tear down all the raggedy homes and start building, more money starts coming back. People, the Europeans, are coming back now. So, it’s like they leave, they come back. And they want to live … all of us like to live closer because they want to go to work downtown, they don’t want to ride forever. But that’s some of the changes I’ve seen since.
Gloria R.: 07:07 And I forgot. When Ellis was Alderman I worked with him in his first caucus and that was so much fun. But he didn’t win his first one, but he did call me and ask me should he keep running. And I told him, “Yes, keep running. Just because you lose one doesn’t mean you have to stop.” And he said, “Well, what could I do for the north side?” I said, “You could get us a supermarket.” So, that’s when … well Target was here and they left, you know on Broadway, and then he got the Cub there. So, that has helped a lot because all the supermarkets left. We had plenty. And then we were left with none so people had to… there was a new market, or SuperValue but they were so expensive. So, they built The Cub and it helped a lot. It didn’t solve everything, but it helped.
Interviewer: 08:16 How do you feel about the North Market?
Gloria R.: 08:20 I haven’t been there. I haven’t been there yet. So, yeah. And that’s right on Penn and Boom Valley. That one. Oh, no. That’s on 40-
Interviewer: 08:30 Camden Area-
Gloria R.: 08:31 Yes. That’s right there.
Interviewer: 08:31 -and Humboldt.
Gloria R.: 08:32 Yes. I haven’t been there yet.
Interviewer: 08:38 What changes have you seen in this community that raise your stress level or concern for the future?
Gloria R.: 08:47 It seems like they’re forcing all African Americans out and all the Europeans are coming in. And the housing, the prices on them, are so high that it’s unaffordable. Okay.
Interviewer: 09:02 And then what part does the City of Minneapolis seem to play in relieving that stress?
Gloria R.: 09:18 Helping them. Helping African Americans to be able to afford their homes. Helping them with down payments and stuff. And I think there are plans out there for that. Some banks have that. But they could help them.
Interviewer: 09:34 So what gives you hope for this community?
Gloria R.: 09:40 I’ve always had hope for north Minneapolis. I think the Light Rail would help. Not necessarily going up Broadway, but I know going up Wilson Highway it would help. Bring back more stores, storefronts. That would help a lot because if there’s more stores people will buy and the money is here so it stays in the community.
Interviewer: 10:21 Before you ask all the questions. So as a finish up, do you have any last thoughts?
Gloria R.: 10:34 My last thoughts are south Minneapolis has a lot of apartments that are affordable and condos. We don’t have that over north. And that is something that not everyone wants to purchase a home. But a nice town home, or condo would really be nice. And nice, beautiful apartments. That’s my take on it because if I come back and live here maybe I’ll buy a small home. But a nice town home would really be nice.
Interviewer: 11:18 Yeah. That’s great. Thank you.
Gloria R.: 11:21 Hm-mmm.
by David Beckford | Jan 14, 2020 | Uncategorized, Voices from Recast
Interview of Floyd Smaller
Interviewer: 00:06 Could you spell your first and last name please?
Floyd: 00:08 F-L-O-Y-D S-M-A-L-L-E-R.
Interviewer: 00:14 All right. And reference to the map in front of you there, do you currently or have you ever lived in or near this part of north Minneapolis? And if so, how long?
Floyd: 00:22 Yes, I live at 1121 Vincent. Approximately, I’d say 49 years.
Interviewer: 00:29 Any other places have you lived? I think, I can’t talk today.
Floyd: 00:33 It’s okay, no I haven’t.
Interviewer: 00:35 Okay. Thinking back from when you first came to this area to today, what changes have you seen, positive and negative?
Floyd: 00:45 Negative it’s like, I mean all the blacks have, they’re moving a lot of black people out, and it’s like gentrification. They’re moving a lot of white people in, and it’s like they’re taking over the community, and some of them are nice, some of them are not. It’s different now. I don’t understand what’s really going on. But when I was coming up as a youngster on the north side, it was basically balanced. You had your whites and you had a lot of blacks, and you had black businesses that were flourishing. We don’t have that anymore, and we don’t have a store close to the Northside right here. You have to] go all the way to Cub Foods to get groceries, and for the people that live down this way it’s extra hard. But if you had – I think it would help out a lot – if we had a grocery store closer to the community. When we did have a grocery store it was black owned. But I helped get rid of it because the guy was selling drugs to little kids in the store.
Interviewer: 02:13 Wow. What was the name or location of it?
Floyd: 02:17 It was down here on – what street was that? Close to Russell down here. It was the Sweet Shop, that’s what i was called. Yeah it was a long time ago, you guys probably never heard of it.
Interviewer: 02:31 I’m doing some historical research on north Minneapolis so it’s good to know those things.
Floyd: 02:35 Yeah it was called the Sweet Shop and this guy, this black dude who was in there, I think his name was Jesse. Me and this other guy got rid of him. We got the police involved. I didn’t like what was going on because young kids shouldn’t be exposed to that. Messes up your mind, you can’t think straight. You get confused and a lot of things happen to you. I think the north community has a lot of good things too. People work together and show love towards one another and there’s a lot of good things happening here. I think if we all just took together and made things work out right, we could all make things work.
Interviewer: 03:29 Definitely. So I hear you saying there was some positive and some negative changes. Could you identify what caused some of those changes?
Floyd: 03:40 Well, let’s see. I say people moved from Chicago or in Indiana to get on this easy welfare up here, not really wanting to work, not really wanting to produce. It brings the community down. When you really don’t produce things and do things for yourself and try to do anything, you don’t get any good results. Part of that is hard work. When you do hard work, you get results. I learned that as a young kid and I know how to work, and knowing how to work is a good thing because you can always produce for yourself. Do something, live for others too, like this old lady I help her all the time. She lives by herself. She can’t really move things. Can’t really do things. So I help her out a lot. But I know there’s a lot of people that don’t care about the elderly here on the north side. They don’t try to help them. They play their bang bang music, I don’t like that. Ride down streets smoking dope, smoking weed. That’s bad for a community.
Floyd: 04:59 I mean if you want a nice community, you want educated people in your community. People that are doing things. People that are trying to help one another. Educated people – doctors, lawyers, businessmen. You don’t want dopeheads running around messing with your children and messing with the community. [crosstalk 00:05:24] I think another negative aspect is that thing that where the buses run, that they’re like little blocks of something, with poles standing up. I don’t know if you guys noticed them when you’re driving in your car. Where the buses run now, you guys know what I’m talking about? That’s a hazard because that can cause accidents for bikers. If you got a biker on the side of the road driving, the bus comes, don’t see them – bam! He’s gone.
Interviewer: 06:06 You’re talking about that little indent that goes from this. They did so much construction right there on Oak Park.
Floyd: 06:13 I don’t understand that.
Interviewer: 06:14 They just literally just extended the sidewalk, and then continued it.
Floyd: 06:18 Yeah. Why would they do that though? Do you guys know?
Interviewer: 06:20 No. I don’t understand. I never understood why they did it. That’s the type of question I should be asking because they took so long just to do that.
Floyd: 06:30 That is so retarded dude. I don’t get that. Northside has changed for some better though, because it used to be a lot of gang violence here. I don’t know if y’all know that or not. That has slowed down a lot. The north side got some good parks, good recreation, good community centers. North High School, that’s a good high school. I went to Saint Paul Central, I ain’t go to North. I live over north, and I have to function over north, and I like it over north, so I’m not going to move from over north. I like the people over north. But I don’t like some of the things some of the guys do. But ain’t nothing I can do about that. I’m not God. I have to deal with it just like everybody else. I ain’t nothing special out here. I love my people though. I ain’t gonna lie about that. I love my black people. That’s just the way I feel.
Interviewer: 07:39 So we’re gathering these stories to increase understanding between the city of Minneapolis and the community on the impact of historic discriminatory government policies.
Floyd: 07:56 Yeah, discriminatory is right because another thing I want to bring up. There was a McDonald’s here years ago, up on Pin and Plymouth. I worked up there and I was discriminated against. I was fired because the white manager told me to do something, but it was like, “G outside and pick up the garbage.” And I looked at that like, “Wait a minute.” It’s like he had an attitude about saying it. And I was young and in my teens, so I took an attitude I’m saying, “Wait a minute. Go outside and pick up the garbage? Stay out there until it’s all picked up?” I took like it’s not my dad. I’m here to do burgers and fries, dude.
Interviewer: 08:49 Right, and not to pick up garbage.
Floyd: 08:51 I’m not out here to pick up garbage and throw it in the garbage all day long. So he got rid of me. That’s how life is. So I got fired and I lost that job. It was a good job at first, until the black manager left and then the white manager came. I was like, “I’m done with this. I’m done.” Then I went looking for another job. Then I worked at Mars and Building Maintenance Company.
Interviewer: 09:19 I worked there before.
Floyd: 09:22 I messed my hands up, so I was gonna sue them, because the chemicals got on my hands. I got a big rash. I’ve been through some changes y’all.
Interviewer: 09:34 I see you talking about employment. Some of the examples I was going to give like transportation and housing.
Floyd: 09:40 Yeah, transportation – I take the bus everywhere because I don’t have a car. But I manage, and I do yard work now to relax me because I’m old. 53, I mean I ain’t no teenager no more. I try to make it best I can. My mother is sick right now. She could go at any time.
Interviewer: 10:05 I’m sorry to hear that.
Floyd: 10:16 Oh boy. I don’t know. Life is funny. Real funny.
Interviewer: 10:24 Appreciate the time we do got.
Floyd: 10:24 I appreciate your time you gave me. It turned out to be a good thing. I got to release all my tension. I am a little pissed off. These white folks moving up here, taking over shit.
Interviewer: 10:37 That’s part of my next question I was going to ask you. What’s going on in the community that raises your level of stress?
Floyd: 10:49 Well, the white folks moving up here. They act like they run everything. It’s like they don’t have to speak to you. They can belittle you. I don’t like that. I have the Audi you don’t, so I’m better than you are.
Interviewer: 11:04 Absolutely.
Floyd: 11:06 I have the Mercedes you don’t, I’m better than you are. I moved into your neighborhood, I’ll take it over. I’ve been living here for 40 years. I might not have the Audi, I might not have the Mercedes, but I got a house. I got a place to live. I got a roof over my head. I eat everyday. Ain’t like them begging in the streets. So I feel I’m just as good as you.
Interviewer: 11:29 That’s true.
Interviewer: 11:29 Absolutely are.
Floyd: 11:31 God gave us both the same insides, so how are you so much better? What makes you so much better? My ancestors suffered for 400 something years. They made this country for you to live in. But you push us to the side. What’s up with that?
Interviewer: 11:59 What gives you hope for the future of this community?
Floyd: 12:02 Black people get together and stick together. We can rule this mother.
Interviewer: 12:07 That’s what I’ve been thinking everyday.
Interviewer: 12:17 How to build the community and how to make everybody continue to be on the same page.
Floyd: 12:18 I see we on the same page.
Interviewer: 12:19 Absolutely.
Floyd: 12:22 I’ve told you before, I love my black people. I don’t never turn on black people. I’ll be downtown, and somebody will say, “Dude, can I get change?” If I got it, then you got it. Now if you’re white, I figure you already got money. You don’t need to ask me for money.
Interviewer: 12:37 If you ain’t got money, you got privilege. You got something.
Floyd: 12:40 Privilege, man. You came from rich. What do you need me for? You know what I’m saying?
Interviewer: 12:48 Can I get a dollar?
Floyd: 12:49 Kick me out some 20’s, man! Shoot. I don’t turn on my black people. A girl yesterday went out to my mom’s house. She’s in foster care, and her parents kicked her out of the house. She ran to our house, so we took her in for a minute. Then my mom talked to the foster kid. The parents, they came back and got her. She was crying and scared, and when you in the foster program, you don’t see your real parents. You don’t know what it’s like to really have real parents. I think that’s unfair too. I think it’s unfair that a lot of black men don’t get to see who their fathers are. Their mothers. Or if they come from a single parent home. I think they deserve the same rights as a person with a two parent home. I think they deserve that right. I don’t think black kids should be cheated. I don’t think none of that should be happening. I don’t like that kind of stuff.
Interviewer: 13:54 These next couple of questions are just –
Floyd: 13:59 You can shoot as many as you want.
Interviewer: 13:59 Absolutely. They’re just meant for quick and short answers. So first question I’m going to ask is when you think about this area today, what impact do you still see from these historic government policies that we talked about?
Floyd: 14:14 What impacts? You mean positive?
Interviewer: 14:15 Positive, negative, just the ones you were talking about like the war on drugs –
Floyd: 14:20 Well the negative is they got rid of the black barbers shop on Plymouth. The reason they did that is so they could get a white person to buy the place so they can take it over and make more white businesses. That’s negative. Now, far as positive, we got a barber shop on Broadway that’s black. Black owned, black everything. That’s where I get my haircut at. I ain’t letting a white boy cut my hair, I’ll be looking like alfalfa probably. Shit, the part down the middle. I ain’t pulling that. I do need a haircut and I’m getting one this week. But now as far as positive things is going, we got a nice downtown. Broadway is flourishing with more stores for blacks. People like y’all. Nice people you can open up to. I feel like I can open up to y’all, I feel good about it.
Interviewer: 15:24 That’s good.
Interviewer: 15:24 We appreciate that.
Interviewer: 15:24 Appreciate that.
Floyd: 15:29 I could sit here with y’all all week. I ain’t lying.
Interviewer: 15:36 Next question for you. How would you describe the relationship between the city of Minneapolis and the community over the last couple of years.
Floyd: 15:44 That’s hard to say. The relationship between the community and Minneapolis. I’d say crime has went down. Crime has went down. I don’t know what else to say about that one.
Interviewer: 16:06 That’s fine.
Interviewer: 16:06 We can go and stop it right there.
Interviewer: 16:11 No, I’ve got one last question.
Floyd: 16:12 You can shoot me with three more if you want.
Interviewer: 16:15 I hear you talking about you’re for the people a lot and want to do positive things for black people. So what part do you feel you can play in creating a more hopeful future for our community?
Floyd: 16:26 Create more activities for black kids to get into, and help them to get along with one another better and not hate on one another. That they call hate unity more, because that’s what’s messing us up. Some kid will have a nice pair of tennis shoes on, and you’d look at him and roll your eyes at him. Mean mugging, they call it. Because he’s got something better than you got on. All you gotta do is get a job and go get the same thing. You ain’t gotta go do that. We’ve got a lot of that going on in the community. Lot of mean mugging. That could lead to fights, and then later on, a murder. Occasionally it happens. That’s why when I’m out I don’t roll my eyes, mean mug, or cutting my eyes at people because you don’t know what could happen.
Floyd: 17:25 It feels good to be on the safe side when you’re trying to live longer, because a lot of guys get in these hip hop cars and hip hop things, and they want to handle it. It goes to their head, and I don’t know man. I got a cousin that got shot in Saint Paul. Getting in that hip hop life, it couldn’t handle it. Shot right over by White Castle. I miss him dearly. But he was killed because he was out there. When you’re out in that life, a lot of things happen to you. A lot of guys on the north side are in that life, that drug life. That’s not a good life. But you got a lot of positive black women here. A lot of positive black men here. So I can’t knock the north side at all on that. A lot of black men are taking care of their kids. A lot of black men are working. A lot of black men are doing a lot of good things. There’s a lot of good things happening here, y’all.
Floyd: 18:40 There’s a lot of bad things happening, undercover things. Abuse from kids. A lot of things go on. That’s unheard about, and that’s not good either. But I have a daughter now. I’m a grandfather.
Interviewer: 18:57 That’s a beautiful thing.
Floyd: 19:00 I’ve lived a long life. Some of my high school friends are dead that I went to high school with. I’m still here. I thank God every day for waking m up. Bless you, Lord. He don’t have to wake me up. He can put me to sleep any time. Put you to sleep any time. We all could take a nap tomorrow. But he brought you in and he said, “I want you to interview somebody. You can interview them.” Thank God you’re here. Thank the Lord that you are here.
Interviewer: 19:31 We definitely appreciated and your story.
Floyd: 19:40 I appreciate you too.
Interviewer: 19:41 Unfortunately that is the last question we have for you.
Floyd: 19:46 Well, ask me one more. How do I feel today?
Interviewer: 19:49 How do you feel today?
Floyd: 19:51 I feel great. How do you feel?
Interviewer: 19:51 I feel wonderful.
Floyd: 19:53 I feel wonderful too now.
Interviewer: 19:53 I appreciated that.
by David Beckford | Jan 14, 2020 | Uncategorized, Voices from Recast
Interview of Donald Johnson
Interviewer: 00:01 Okay, we’re going to start off with you having, give me your first and last name spelling, please.
Donald Johnson: 00:11 Donald Johnson. D-O-N-A-L-D J-O-H-N-S-O-N.
Interviewer: 00:16 Nice to meet you Donald. Do you or have you lived in this area in the last 10 years?
Donald Johnson: 00:22 2006.
Interviewer: 00:25 2006? Okay, thinking back from when you first came to this area to today, have you seen any changes?
Donald Johnson: 00:33 Worse.
Interviewer: 00:34 Worse?
Donald Johnson: 00:34 Yeah.
Interviewer: 00:36 What makes it worse?
Donald Johnson: 00:38 The drug activity and stuff like that.
Interviewer: 00:45 Okay. What do you feel caused the changes you’ve seen over the years?
Donald Johnson: 00:47 Construction.
Interviewer: 00:47 Construction?
Donald Johnson: 00:47 Yeah.
Interviewer: 00:47 Okay.
Donald Johnson: 00:47 They do a lot of construction over here.
Interviewer: 00:56 What makes you feel that way?
Donald Johnson: 00:57 Cause I can see it.
Interviewer: 00:58 You can see it?
Donald Johnson: 00:59 Yeah.
Interviewer: 01:00 Okay. So, we are gathering these stories to increase understanding between the city of Minneapolis and the community on the impact of historic discrimination government. I’m sorry, the discriminative government policies and practices in areas like housing, trepidation, economic development, and more examples including housing and employment discrimination in the early 20th century. What impact have these policies or others had on the community in general? So to break it down, if you’ll have a clear understanding.
Donald Johnson: 01:35 Yeah, break it down one more time.
Interviewer: 01:38 So basically, what changes have you seen in the last 10 to 20 years about housing, transportation and employment?
Donald Johnson: 01:49 Well, housing-
Interviewer: 01:50 Anything that’s been like discriminatory in housing that you’ve seen.
Donald Johnson: 01:56 Yeah, I see that all the time-
Interviewer: 01:57 Or in jobs.
Donald Johnson: 01:59 Oh, well jobs, I don’t think it’s that bad in the jobs, but a lot of people say there’s not no job because they don’t go look for one. What I did, I didn’t have no job, I joined the military. That was a job enough for me, you know. So, other than that, as far as the jobs, there’s jobs, there’s a lot of jobs. You just gotta get out there and get it. You know, that’s what I can see.
Interviewer: 02:31 Do you have any feedback on the housing part?
Donald Johnson: 02:33 You can get a house. I done and had two houses since I’ve been here since 2006, you know.
Interviewer: 02:40 Okay, okay.
Donald Johnson: 02:41 A lot of people just don’t wanna, “Well I can’t get no house, I rather choose to go stay at the Salvation Army” and stuff like that. You know, but I didn’t want to do that. You know what I’m saying. But like I said, the military helped me out a lot.
Interviewer: 02:55 That’s good.
Donald Johnson: 02:56 Yeah.
Interviewer: 02:58 What impact have they had on you or your family personally?
Donald Johnson: 03:04 See my nephew, he got four or five buildings, so I would stay in one of his houses, you know and stuff like that. Housing wasn’t really a problem for me. You know, cause the military helps me out still, you know. So housing for me wasn’t a problem. But, like I said, people just want to choose to stay at Salvation Army, or live under the bridge.
Interviewer: 03:26 They ain’t trying to go get it, they just trying to…
Donald Johnson: 03:26 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It get cold out there, partner.
Interviewer: 03:36 Okay, so what changes have you seen in this community that raise your level of stress or concern about the future?
Donald Johnson: 03:42 My level? Stress, jobs, housing, that stress people out, you know. Robbery, drugs, you know, all that kind of stuff.
Interviewer: 04:05 So how did that effect you personally? How does it like, bother you?
Donald Johnson: 04:13 Cause I see it happening everyday, and I feel sorry for them, but I can’t do that all the time because you gotta help yourself. You know what I’m saying. And so, I can just say look at this, look at that over there, you know, okay, he about to go stay up under the bridge, go to the Salvation Army, or go out there and work for McDonald’s. You know, put a couple dollars away and got your family to help you out, you know, it’s stressing me out thinking. I hate to see people do that. You know, but if live, it’s up to you in, join the military. Go to jail. You know, I see a lot of guys do that.
Interviewer: 04:50 Go to jail?
Donald Johnson: 04:51 Go to jail through the winter.
Interviewer: 04:52 Live there for free.
Donald Johnson: 04:53 Some states, you gotta pay to go to jail. Yeah. Like Colorado and stuff, if they put you in jail for like three or four months, and if you getting a check, you don’t get that check while you in jail. The government get that check.
Interviewer: 05:07 And they pay … Oh my God.
Donald Johnson: 05:10 You pay to live there.
Interviewer: 05:10 Right basically.
Donald Johnson: 05:13 Right, yeah. You know
Interviewer: 05:14 Okay what part of the city of Minneapolis needs to play into relieve that stress?
Donald Johnson: 05:19 South side and north side and the south side.
Interviewer: 05:23 So like, what should they do specifically to help you relieve that stress?
Donald Johnson: 05:28 Well, get me a job.
Interviewer: 05:30 Exactly.
Donald Johnson: 05:30 Get me a job.
Interviewer: 05:33 Okay. What give you hope for the future of this community.
Donald Johnson: 05:46 Well, give me some hope, well, I can’t answer that one right now.
Interviewer: 05:50 Okay. We can just come back to it.
Donald Johnson: 05:51 Yeah, come back to it.
Interviewer: 05:51 When you think about this area today, what impact do you still see from these historic government policies?
Donald Johnson: 06:00 The government take a lot of money and put it, I’d say schools. They need to improve these schools. And they got enough construction going on. They cutting out a lot of bus stops. And that’s not going to help them, cause if you gotta get off right here to go to work, you gotta go way down here to get off and come back. Or get off here and walk way down there. You know, but really just the schools and the churches and stuff.
Interviewer: 06:32 Okay. How do describe the relationship between the city of Minneapolis and the community over the years? Specifically talking the north side.
Donald Johnson: 06:40 The north side is, it’s improving, but like I said man, they need to put some jobs over here. You know, that’s the only thing I can see. If you give a person a job and keep them off the street, they’ll stay off of drugs and breaking in your house. You know.
Interviewer: 06:59 I agree with you.
Donald Johnson: 06:59 Okay. All right. Yeah.
Interviewer: 07:05 What are your expectations of the city of Minneapolis relative to this community?
Donald Johnson: 07:08 What is it?
Interviewer: 07:10 Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Donald Johnson: 07:11 I just like to move around. You know.
Interviewer: 07:14 So, what do you expect from the city of Minneapolis?
Donald Johnson: 07:17 To give me a job. Let me be a firefighter and all of that, you know.
Interviewer: 07:26 So, to what extent do you trust the city of Minneapolis to deliver those expectations?
Donald Johnson: 07:32 None.
Interviewer: 07:33 Okay.
Donald Johnson: 07:33 Nope. Nope. Not right now.
Interviewer: 07:35 Not at all?
Donald Johnson: 07:36 Not right now.
Interviewer: 07:38 What makes you not trust them?
Donald Johnson: 07:40 Huh?
Interviewer: 07:40 What makes you not trust them?
Donald Johnson: 07:40 Do I got a job? No, I just, well the city, they’d rather put five or six police on the street and then get one person a job to work watching the police car. You know what I’m saying. I don’t trust that, you know.
Interviewer: 08:01 Okay, what part do you feel you can play in creating that more hopeful future?
Donald Johnson: 08:07 I’m going back to the same thing, get me a job. Let me work, let me work. And get with some people up on the ladder and then I can help them, you know.
Interviewer: 08:20 So, if you was already up there at the top of the ladder what specifically would you do?
Donald Johnson: 08:23 What would I do?
Interviewer: 08:25 Yeah, if you had a job, if you was at the top of the ladder.
Donald Johnson: 08:25 You know what I’d do?
Interviewer: 08:25 What would you do?
Donald Johnson: 08:29 I’d build an orchard. And y’all wanna pick some apples, tomatoes, that’d give you something to do.
Interviewer: 08:33 Right.
Donald Johnson: 08:37 Instead of standing on the corner. People can’t even ride the bus stop cause you got five or eight people in the bus stop, you gotta stand in the rain, you waiting on the bus to go to work. They just want to sit in the bus stop and drink.
Donald Johnson: 08:49 You know what I’m saying? That’s what I would do.
Interviewer: 08:51 Okay, well back to the other question.
Donald Johnson: 08:53 Okay, bring it on.
Interviewer: 08:55 What gives you hope for the future of this community?
Donald Johnson: 09:00 What give me hope? Can I tell you what I hope for then?
Interviewer: 09:03 Yeah.
Donald Johnson: 09:04 like I said, I would hope for the kids to be more protected on the buses. You know, and you got the dogs running around not chained up. I went walking down here today, this lady let her dog go, I went to the store, I came back, there’s a big old turd about that big [inaudible 00:09:24]. I would have her to clean that up. You know what I’m saying. But hope, [inaudible 00:09:30] what would I hope for? I would hope that kids can just be kids in the park and all that, without all this gang banging and all of that stuff.
Interviewer: 09:40 Yeah, grow up a little bit too fast.
Donald Johnson: 09:40 Keep them in the house then. But you can’t. How you gonna keep kids in the house in the summertime? They gonna run out that backdoor.
Interviewer: 09:49 Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Donald Johnson: 09:49 You know. I know that.
Interviewer: 09:49 Yeah, me too.
Donald Johnson: 09:56 But the north side is, the north side I think is a lot better than the south side. You know, cause I done lived over there too and you know, yeah.
Interviewer: 10:09 What part does the city of Minneapolis need to play in creating
that more hopeful future?
Donald Johnson: 10:15 What part of Minneapolis?
Interviewer: 10:17 No, what part of the city of Minneapolis, like the city of Minneapolis, what could they do to make our community better?
Donald Johnson: 10:28 Back to the same thing man, get a job and more activities, a job is activity, but just give them something, you know, to help old ladies cross the street, you know, go to Cub Food, and that old lady, help that lady to her car.
Interviewer: 10:46 Put her groceries in the trunk.
Donald Johnson: 10:49 Exactly. You know what I’m saying man? I used to do that kind of stuff.
Interviewer: 10:51 I do every blue moon.
Donald Johnson: 10:54 Okay, yeah.
Interviewer: 10:57 I don’t do it too often.
Donald Johnson: 10:59 But you know, I would go to Cub Food, we didn’t have Cub Food in Chicago, we had Jewel. I go to Jewel, sit around for them ladies to come, or “do you need some help ma’am?” You know, and stuff like that. It makes you feel good. And the lady might say, “Well, here go $2 dollars, $3 dollars.”. “No, you keep your money.” You know, something like that, you know. Go cut some grass for them. Shovel snow for them, stuff like that. All that man. You know, it helped me a lot. Where’d you end up? I still went to the military.
Interviewer: 11:34 Maybe that was your time, it was good for you.
Donald Johnson: 11:36 That was something I wanted to do all my life though, go to the military, play G.I. Joe.
Interviewer: 11:41 Well, that’s my last question that I have for you.
Donald Johnson: 11:43 Okay.
Interviewer: 11:44 Thank you for coming and…
Donald Johnson: 11:43 All right, man. Have a good one.
Interviewer: 11:45 Enjoy the rest of your…
Donald Johnson: 11:44 Okay.
Interviewer: 11:45 Thank you for your time.
Donald Johnson: 11:50 Okay. All right, y’all got my picture?
Interviewer: 11:51 Yeah I got your picture.
