Deseria Galloway

by David Beckford | Jan 14, 2020 | Uncategorized, Voices from Recast

Interview of Deseria Galloway

Interviewer: 00:28 Before you start, my name is… What’s your name?

Speaker 2: 00:37 Deseria Galloway.

Interviewer: 00:38 Nice to meet you.

Deseria : 00:39 Nice to meet you.

Deseria : 00:42 Okay, Deseria Galloway.

Interviewer: 00:45 Okay, so [inaudible 00:00:46].

Speaker 3: 00:45 Well thank you for coming in. We just want to go over some of the questions just about your experiences in North Minneapolis.

Deseria : 00:58 Okay.

Interviewer: 01:01 Okay, so can I have you say your first and last name with the spelling, please?

Deseria : 01:07 Deseria Galloway. D-E-S-E-R-I-A, Galloway, G-A-L-L-O-W-A-Y.

Interviewer: 01:15 Okay, so referring to the map right there, do you currently live or have you lived near this part of Minneapolis?

Deseria : 01:24 I lived in North Minneapolis for approximately 12 years.

Interviewer: 01:27 About 12 years?

Deseria : 01:28 Yes.

Interviewer: 01:30 Okay. So part two, thinking back from when you first came to this area til today, what changes have you seen, positive or negative changes?

Deseria : 01:40 I would have to say they’re negative.

Interviewer: 01:42 Negative?

Deseria : 01:43 Yeah.

Speaker 3: 01:45 What type of changes?

Interviewer: 01:46 Yeah, I was just going to say that.

Deseria : 01:54 Respect, level of respect for the elderly or the older persons in the community. The youth are disenchanted and feeling like they have nothing to lose so they live their life like that. So they don’t respect themselves and they don’t respect others. And will say, not just youth, I think that our adults and our elderly …Our older persons, not necessarily our elderly, but the older persons in the community have contributed to that because whether they’re just working two or three jobs to keep ends meeting, keeping food on the table, whether that is just going out to the bars on the weekend getting a break from their kids. All those factors contributed to the deterioration of North Minneapolis.

Interviewer: 02:44 Okay. What do you feel caused the changes you’ve seen in the area?

Deseria : 02:49 Well, as I just said some of them.

Interviewer: 02:50 Yeah, you did.

Deseria : 02:55 And I guess part of it is the deterioration of the family. You’ve got young mothers having young kids and then that continue to spiral out of control. And so I will say that I do believe that service providers in the area don’t always provide services equitably to everyone, especially children of color or youth of color, whether they don’t … Whether they’re fearful, whether they don’t care about them I don’t know, but i have seen agencies get the money but they don’t do the work.

Interviewer: 03:39 Right. You don’t know why you feel this way?

Deseria : 03:44 Because I’ve seen it happen.

Interviewer: 03:46 Okay.

Speaker 3: 03:46 And what type of agencies?

Deseria : 03:50 Human services agencies and that includes the medical professionals in this area as well. Our mothers, our young moms are afraid to go and get prenatal care, fearful that they’ll end up in child protection. I understand the importance of child protection. I used to do it for 24 years as an investigator, but I think we need to figure out a way to engage with our young people in a different way, in a creative and innovative way so they’re not afraid to come forward and get the help that they need.

Interviewer: 04:28 Okay. So I’m going to this?

Speaker 3: 04:28 Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Interviewer: 04:35 All right. 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 the areas like housing, transportation, and economic development and more. Examples including housing and employment discrimination in the early 20th century, the War on Drugs in the 1990s and others. What impact have these policies or others had on the community in general? What impact have they had with you?

Deseria : 05:25 Well, wow. The War on Drugs I think was manipulated and abused, and they targeted our youth and our families. A lot of the mass incarceration has contributed to the War on Drugs. And so, with that in mine, I understand the need to manage illicit drugs in the community but the way it was done … There could’ve been another way to have done that. We have hundreds and hundreds of young men who now have felonies. They cannot get a job. They cannot get houses. It starts with that … The War on Drugs … a lot of them got those felonies and now they’re stuck. And if they don’t have a second chance program, such as Wellspring or other agencies then it makes it difficult for them to be able to move forward, propel forward, to live their life even after they’ve changed, even after they’ve gotten their second chance scraping and scrambling and getting the churches in the community to come forward to help them.

Deseria : 06:41 Housing, discrimination as far as employment, they all go hand in hand. Housing is just one major factor. Why is it that North Minneapolis has an outrageous number of sex offenders in the area? Can somebody tell me why they drown this area with that? How can an area like North Minneapolis thrive and be successful when you overly populate that community with those kind of people? You know what I mean? I know they have a need to place to go, but it should be equitable across board All communities should get a piece of that, not just North Minneapolis. It’s an excessive amount of people in this area with those charges.

Deseria : 07:31 The war on drugs I think … the issues with drugs, because I’ve served the community of North Minneapolis … People say I do the drugs … Some do the drugs so they can just go home and not have to contend with tomorrow or the [inaudible 00:07:50] next to them. People do it to escape. People do drugs to feed their kids because they can’t get another job because they have a felony. So it’s a cycle that continues to go through the washer and it doesn’t get clean. You just have to keep washing it and washing it and it never comes clean. The stains remain and they’re not given a second chance. Even though we say we give them a second chance, the felonies does not allow them to get a second chance.

Deseria : 08:22 So our housing discrimination is allowed to continue because that is a discriminatory practice. Just because they have a felony does not allow them to … They’re not dogs. They’re not animals. They deserve a place to lay their head. If a person does not have a place to lay their head, how do you expect them to get up and go to a job? To go get a job? That’s a basic staple in a person’s life, to be able to lay your head down safely in a clean apartment so you can get up in the morning and go look for a job, but if you don’t have that staple as housing, that’s a problem.

Deseria : 09:01 Transportation, that’s a joke. I can speak to that all day. The transportation for North Minneapolis … I think they’re targeted. The police wait for them to get off the buses and they watch where they go and that’s a done deal. So transportation, which a lot of our people of color in North Minneapolis has depended on is a problem. I don’t put my kids on public transportation. I wouldn’t put my kids on that public transportation due to the behaviors that go on on the bus. So I know that the police is necessary on what part of it but on the other end I think there’s some issues there, too.

Deseria : 09:43 People have a tendency to do like the Romans do. So, if one person’s acting like that, they’re all going to act like that. So, that’s kind of my spill on the … The War on Drugs I think was a catapult to some of the other problems that we’re seeing though.

Interviewer: 10:01 Okay. What changes have you seen in this community that raise a level of stress or concern about it’s future?

Speaker 3: 10:06 And what part does the-

Interviewer: 10:09 Yeah, what part does the city of Minneapolis need to play in relieving that stress?

Deseria : 10:13 What part does the City of Minneapolis need to play? Give our young men and women jobs, livable wages, not minimum wage, livable wages. And give everybody … Everyone deserves a second chance. A person’s mistakes should not define them. Jobs, that’s a huge piece. I know there’s some brothers out here that would take a job if they were offered a job, okay? So, that’s number one. Employment is one. The other one is housing. If you’re going to give them a fresh start, give them a real fresh start. You know what I mean? We can do a pilot even of housing for ex-offenders. If you’ve got a felony we’ll rent to you but it’s kind of like on a pilot. If you can demonstrate that you’re working and you’re trying to do better then let them get the apartment just like normal Joe could get an apartment, okay?

Deseria : 11:16 So I think those are the kind of things that we need to readdress. Housing for everyone, equal opportunity. You know what I mean? Equal opportunity employer, give them a job. You know what I mean? The homeless, we should be … They wouldn’t be homeless if we gave them a job. They stand on the corner for sometimes eight hours collecting money. Give them a job. Walk up to that young man or woman and say, “Do you need a job?” That’s what the City of Minneapolis … If you’re going to put some money into something let’s direct it to those disenfranchised individuals like the homeless, like the people with felonies, like single moms who can’t get a job because they don’t have no day care. Day care’s just … That’s a huge … That’s why we leave our babies with people that shouldn’t have our kids, crack addicts. That’s why we leave our kids with people that don’t need to care for our kids for day care.

Deseria : 12:11 These are things … If you want to invest, make it affordable for everybody who wants to work to have their kids in day care, not just some people, those that can afford it. Everybody should have a right to put their kids in day care. So that’s just … The City of Minneapolis, if you want to do something and contribute to the recovery and help this community thrive again, you’re going to need to be creative and innovative and willing to give everybody a fresh start no matter what their background is.

Interviewer: 12:44 Okay, you basically said it, but what gives you hope for the future of this community and what part does the City of Minneapolis need to play in creating a more hopeful future?

Speaker 3: 12:56 It sounds like we got the City of Minneapolis part.

Deseria : 13:00 Well, and stop putting us … Why don’t we do stories on people who are doing well in the community? It is so discouraging to see the news and watch the news, and when a crime is committed we shiver in our boots saying, “I hope they’re not black.” We shouldn’t have to say that. That is so sad. And so, giving hope to the community would come with honesty and transparency. We’re here to help, not to judge. I think the City of Minneapolis needs to work a little bit more closely with community organizations, non-profits. Not just give funding to the designated few that provide the services now. It needs to be more equitable, minority lead, women lead, male lead that are of minority descent. Give it to those who are doing the work and who’s out here hitting the trenches doing the real work instead of giving it to the agencies who keep getting money on top of money and they do less and less work.

Interviewer: 14:21 When you think about this area today, what impacts do you still see from historic government policies?

Deseria : 14:32 Historic government policies. Well, we talked about it. There’s rules on the books that prohibit people to get jobs and that’s the felonies. We got Ban the Box. I congratulate us in our success as the State of Minnesota. We got that Ban the Box, but there is other ways that people are figuring out how to eliminate that person with a felony. And actually, to be honest with you, the talent pool of people who have felonies is huge. What am I saying? Those that made a mistake when they were teenagers or near teenagers, 18 years old and they got that felony that’s now on their record as an adult, that’s a talent pool that we’re missing. You know what I mean?

Deseria : 15:26 We got artists, we got engineers, we got people with creative minds that could be doing some great things in the City of Minneapolis if given a chance. That is a talent pool that we need to tap into. We’re missing the boat when we eliminate them. So we need to tap in and maybe come up with some kind of program. If you have a felony, we got jobs for you. You know what I mean? And there not just … I’m not talking about McDonald’s and Burger King. I’m not talking about those kinds of jobs. I’m talking about livable wages jobs. If they have a felony, some of them can’t even go to school, get a higher education because of their felonies. That’s the kind of stuff that we need to be working on, changing rules and regulations that are prohibiting them to live their life like a normal human being.

Interviewer: 16:22 How would you describe the relationship between the City of Minneapolis and this community over here over the years?

Deseria : 16:28 I don’t think people trust the City of Minneapolis. Look at some of the people that have been killed in the North Minneapolis area. And so I don’t think that it’s communicated effectively and with transparency and authenticity that they care about this community. We are a rich community. Pull the covers back and you’ll find them. You know what I mean? So I think that the relationship right now is strained. I think that we need to do a better job of hitting the streets, talking to the community agencies that are doing the work and asking them, how can we help? How can we better collaborate to make a greater impact within the city of North Minneapolis? You sitting down at City Hall, you don’t have a pulse of North Minneapolis. You need to be talking to the persons who have the pulse of North Minneapolis, those that are providers in this area, community agencies that are providers. The faith-based community is huge. These are starting points. Listen to what we have to say so you can get a better understanding so we don’t keep going in this spinning wheel and not getting anything done. So, it’s strained. I would just have to say it’s strained.

Interviewer: 18:00 Yeah, I feel you. What are your expectations of the City of Minneapolis related to this community? To what extent do you trust the City of Minneapolis to deliver on those expectations?

Speaker 3: 18:11 You kind of touched on that.

Deseria : 18:14 Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Deseria : 18:20 I don’t think North Minneapolis believes that they care. If they cared they would do something about it.

Interviewer: 18:28 Yeah. So last question. What part do you feel you can play in creating a more hopeful future?

Deseria : 18:40 I’m a philosopher of second chances as you’ve probably already picked up. I truly do believe that everybody deserves a second chance. This community unfortunately is overwhelmed with people with felonies, overwhelmed with people with issues whether it be addiction, whether it be homelessness. This is the community that’s getting hit at a higher rate than any other community, and until we address that … And I think that community agencies such as ours, we will continue to work very hard and diligently trying to extend hope and let them know that we are here. You know what I mean? But in order to continue the work we have to get the monies to continue the work. The churches have to continue in collaboration with the City of Minneapolis. The community agencies need to be in collaboration with the City of Minneapolis. I’m hopeful because I happen to be a community agency. I’m hopeful because I know my … I legitimately love the City of North Minneapolis. I attend Shiloh Temple International Ministries. I love my church and I watch us put the energy into the community. Sometimes it’s come back because we don’t have the funding to continue. We can start something, to launch something, but if you don’t have continual funding that makes it difficult.

Deseria : 20:10 So the community agencies such as Shiloh Temple, that’s a faith-based organization but there are many other organizations such as Wellspring Second Chance and Antioch Ministries that does the work but we can’t do it all by ourselves. It’s going to take a collaborative effort and funding, monies, time, energy to do that, to bring that to pass. I’m hopeful that if they’re doing this that the City of Minneapolis will listen and hear our cry in the plight of North Minneapolis.

Speaker 3: 20:47 Well thank you for sharing with us today.

Interviewer: 20:48 Thank you for sharing.

Speaker 3: 20:49 I really appreciate it.

Deseria : 20:51 Thank you. All right.

Alika & Ralph Galloway

by David Beckford | Jan 13, 2020 | Uncategorized, Voices from Recast

Interview of Alika & Ralph Galloway

Interviewer: 00:01 May I have your first and last name with spelling, please?

Alika: 00:07 Alika Galloway. A-L-I-K-A is the first name. Galloway G-A-L-L-O-W-A-Y is the last.
Ralph: 00:13 And Ralph Galloway. First name R-A-L-P-H and second name G-A-L-L-O-W-A-Y.

Interviewer: 00:25 So in referencing this map that we have, do you currently live in any of these areas or have you ever lived in any of these areas and if you have, how long did you live here or how long do you… Have you lived there if you still there?
Ralph: 00:40 Okay, since we live in the same household, I’ll just speak for us both.

Alika: 00:48 Great.

Ralph: 00:49 We lived in the area near UROC, as I see this kind of is one of the points of reference. I actually at 1623 Washburn, Avenue North. And we’ve been at that location for probably about 24 years now.

Interviewer: 01:17 Thinking back from when you first came to this area to today what change have you seen, positive and negative?
Ralph: 01:37 Well some things that I’ve seen that I think are positive is there seems to be an effort to garner more input from the community, from the citizens of the community. There seems to be more structure to be able to do that. I was looking at the … Oh I forget… North Side, I think, Urban Development, I can’t remember the part of the name of the organization, but I was pretty impressed with the … I looked at the website with the purpose, getting input from the people that live in the neighborhood, and to be able to get suggestions to inform proposals that would be written, to be able to get resources that will really make a difference in terms of impacting lives in North Minneapolis.

Ralph: 02:58 Part of my concern, so this is on the other end of the question of what hasn’t happened or what have you seen that hasn’t happened and is a concern I have, is that those instruments might be … And I’m talking about the people that make up the committees and that, might be stacked with people that aren’t enough people or rooted in the community. So thereby the outcomes might be a little skewed because it might not represent the citizenry of the North Side.

Alika: 03:49 I would ditto that. I think that the … Well two things I would say as I think about it is Pastor Ralph and our son and both of our daughters attended North High School and I’m not originally from Minneapolis, so when they prepared to close North Minneapolis when that was grounds for to close it, I was very grateful to see the community in action. And so for me that was really positive to see this organic ground swell of people so invested in this, the symbol and the power of North High School. And so ’cause often times I haven’t seen that kinda action and activity and I was very impressed with how smart people were about it and how strategic they were and how they owned the heritage of North Minneapolis and North High School, like how they identified so heavily.

Alika: 05:03 So that was one of the reasons why we wanted to do thisproject with ReCAST was because North Minneapolis and North High School was so invested.

Alika: 05:14 And then I, along with my husband, would say the re-gentrification like on our block now… So we are 16th and Washburn but 17th is primarily white, and we call that the White Lane. And the people don’t speak to … Like when they walk ’cause … So we’re so Washburn [inaudible 00:05:36] in the parkway so they’ve got to walk down our street, they walk down in order to get to the parkway to walk their dogs, and we rarely see them without an animal. And the animals are trained as if they’re threatened. So it’s like they’ve come to possess the land, repossess the land. They didn’t come to join a community. They came to get good housing stock. And I know that …So part of what Pastor Ralph’s role has been in terms of community is trying to be a community organizer. I look at things often through his lens, so they’re not there to develop community, they’re there for tax breaks and that kind of thing. And I feel like that’s unfortunate because with regard to the community, the community took the action, those that were invested with both heart and mind around North High School. They’re just invested in getting good land stock, good housing stock.

Interviewer 06:47 So what do you feel then caused the changes that you’re talking about over the years?
Ralph: 06:57 You know, I think part of what caused changes in terms of input are the turbulence, and the resistance that has come out of the community in terms of getting more input and more info as to how the resources would be spent. I think it has to do with people just raising hell, saying that they’re not represented. I don’t think it was something that came out of the hearts of the politicians. And although, I know there was some good, great hearted people there, but I think it had to do with people pushing and pushing. You know kind of indicative or represented of seeing, demonstrated in the revolts, you know, 1968 and continuing with more of that kind of process. Not necessarily the damage of property but people voicing themselves. And it pushed a dial towards something positive.

Ralph: 08:06 I think with the re-gentrification process, it has to do with pressure on the cities to get the pack space up, get people in that have money to make for a whole general investment and … the word alludes me now but return. I rely on city property in general, getting more wealthy and so it makes sense to encourage people to come in that have a good middle class or upper-middle class income. So pressure on the city to do that.

Alika: 09:01 I’m good, I’m good.

Interviewer: 09:03 The city of Minneapolis is gathering information to try to understand how these government policies such as the war on drugs, housing and employment discrimination has affected you?
Ralph: 09:18 Can you repeat it again?

Interviewer: 09:19 The city of Minneapolis is gathering newer information to try to understand how these government policies such as the war on drugs and housing and employment discrimination has affected you?
Ralph: 09:35 Okay, so that’s a question?

Interviewer: 09:38 Yeah.
Ralph: 09:39 Okay.

Interviewer: 09:41 You can kind of like split it up and talk about the war on
drugs or housing and employment discrimination or …
Ralph: 09:50 Yeah.

Interviewer: 09:51 So kind of like how has the historic discriminatory government policies affected the community and then just a couple of examples are like housing, transportation, economic development, the war on drugs, things like that; so how has that affected the community you’ve been living in for the past 24 years?
Ralph: 10:11 Okay, you wanna take that on?

Alika: 10:16 Yeah. Do you wanna go too?

Ralph: 10:18 Yeah, and then I’ll dove tail. I need to think about that a little bit.

Alika: 10:20 Okay, so, I would say part of what we do at Liberty is we are liberation theologians and we are Christians ’cause people hear that and say, “Oh no, you’re not a Christian.” Yes, we are. But we really uniquely believe that God is on the side of the poor, and the oppressed and that God is really concerned about discriminatory practices, so the work that we do out of this church is to really bind up and systems of oppression that hurt people and hurt communities at large such as housing discrimination.

Alika: 11:03 A lot of the work … So our church, while we have a worshiping community. We also have a large community engagement such as 21st Century Academy in Northside Healing zone, and the number one issue in terms of the opportunity gap that we see with our children is housing discrimination They’re un-sustainably housed. So they’re couch hopping. They’re moving from one dwelling to another dwelling to another dwelling. And that just decreases they’re opportunity in school because they’re unstable. So if you have not had a place to live, a place tosleep, you’re not secure, you’re not going to do well in school. It is just a question of survival. So the disparities around housing in North Minneapolis, the rents, the ghetto, landlords, all of that has a direct impact. And we believe that God is very concerned about that, that God isn’t just concerned about us going to heaven but is in fact concerned about us and our call is to usher into the kingdom of God here.

Ralph: 12:25 And I have just some concerns related to the housing comment that Pastor Alika just made. When they raised the housing projects, they’re on Lindell and that area, it was supposed to be able to create mixed income housing and give opportunity to those of low income as well. But with what we see here with so many people without housing, you kind of wonder how effective that has been by taking those units down and raising new housing, you know, heritage homes etc. but we just question whether the low income side of that really got it’s just do. We’ve seen it in other cities too. I used to do duty organizing in Atlanta and in Atlanta many of those housing projects were raised, and I returned a couple of times and asked the government, some of the leadership, “Where did those people go?” The lower income people and nobody has really good answers for that. Many went to the suburbs, and the suburbs were really tooled to handle them, didn’t have the services, the wrap arounds. So people were on buses all over the place. So part of my concern is for our people here too.

Ralph: 13:55 You know, that we have opportunities, further out but not the accommodations to make that work. And related to the drug conditions, we just … It seems like at some points in this area the amount of drug trafficking that’s gone down, but we’re not sure if it’s gone down or if it’s just gone under.

Interviewer: 14:28 Like it’s hiding itself.
Ralph: 14:29 Yeah, like it’s hiding. That it’s more cloaked, it’s more disguised now. So we have some concerns. We see that there’s a sustainable period of time where it seems peaceful, a bit more placid then we maybe getting to think maybe there’s an effect from law enforcement strategies to community cooperation to help cartel some of that.

Interviewer: 15:04 So in reference to affordable housing and the drugs, do you think the new minimum wage policy, with minimum wage gonna be 15 dollars an hour soon, do you think that will help benefit the community in any sort of way? Or housing or maybe it might help deal with some of the drug problems or something like that if people are making mor money?
Ralph: 15:24 Definitely.

Interviewer: 15:24 Okay.
Ralph: 15:26 Definitely a correlation between more money and more opportunities. I think 15 dollars an hour minimum wage is a great thing. It’s a good start, and I don’t think that’s where we should plateau. But it’s a good start ’cause our people, people we serve are just suffering from lack of adequate income. And so to get that income up would do a number of things. It will mean that perhaps some of our parents will have to … Would be able to work less rather than three jobs maybe they can do two jobs and make ends meet, have more time for their children. To not have to then have their children under latch key or have one of the older child watch the younger children. So I think it would make for a more secure environment for our parents. And then they can begin to look at other opportunities in the good that economic base up a little bit more. I definitely think it would make a difference and probably have some residual effects to on drug trafficking, sex trafficking because all of that has so much to do with low income levels. I definitely think it would impact.

Alika: 16:58 Me too.

Interviewer: 16:59 So my last question on the topic then is so the economic development part that has a direct correlation to a lot of the community problems, right?
Ralph: 17:10 Yes.

Interviewer: 17:11 Okay, so then what changes have you seen in this community that raise your level of stress or concern about the future and then the second part is what part does the city of Minneapolis need to play to help relieve some of that stress?
Ralph: 17:29 It seems like that’s connected to the other questions in a sense.
Alika: 17:41 Can you repeat it for me?

Interviewer: 17:43 Yes, you want me to do the first on first and then…
Alika: 17:45 You’ve just do both of them together.

Interviewer: 17:47 Okay, what changes have you seen in this community that raise your level of stress or concern about it’s future? And then the second part is, and what part can Minneapolis play in relieving some of that stress?
Alika: 17:59 Okay, so there are higher levels of trauma in this community and they continue to be untreated and unmitigated and so part of what we are doing at Liberty is opening a hearing center directly related to trauma healing at 2100 Emerson. And I think that the curve in terms of people recognizing that we are under high levels of trauma very much similar to the questions that Pastor Ralph answered in terms of discrimination and economic disparities and housing and all of that, all that is traumatic. And it embodies us, it gets into our bodies and we’re hearing that on a daily basis and then passing that on from generation to generation. And, so when we’ve been in contact and conversation with ReCAST, one of the things that we have said collectively and as a church community is that we’re hoping that the city will continue to work on its trauma issues and raise that up in terms of the health disparity and then our big, there used to be something called our big, hairy audacious… Audacious goal?

Interviewer: 19:30 Yes. Big, hairy audacious goal.
Alika: 19:33 Yes, is that Minneapolis will be known as a city that treats and heals and recognizes trauma. And so that when they talk about Minneapolis so whatever it is that they call it, and I’m proud. I’m very grateful to be a part of the Minneapolis community. Even though this is not my community of origin, I’ve adopted it but I would like to see Minneapolis be known with, besides prints and the lakes and, you know, 10 000 lakes and good wildlife that we would be known as a city who treats trauma and takes trauma seriously.

Ralph: 20:18 And I know what brings stress … Another aspect, if I could just make a point somewhat related to the point Pastor Alika made is the … And it goes back to the re-gentrification question, we’ve seen on our corners here to the east, we’ve seen probably three families moved in and out in each of those houses there. And they’ve had to move under duress and part our concern is that then the landlords because they haven’t owned homes, they rented them, will flip it and sell it to re-gentrifiers. Which we don’t have an issue with people but we have a concern of diversity, we have a concern with what’s gonna happen to those families. And so it brings a lot of stress and we’ve had for those families, a few of them that were members of the church, but they’ve had to move far out and we’ve lost touch, the location is broken. So we’re concerned about the degree of isolation that takes place, you know, with family members that have to move under duress.

Interviewer: 21:37 Re-gentrification?
Ralph: 21:38 Re-gentrification. The pressure to get people in that will bring up the tax base and then maybe the lack of resources or a lack of consciousness to deal with those families that have been misplaced that they live in isolation and then are prone to all the negative stuff that can happen when you’re under stress or experiencing trauma. Concern.

Interviewer: 22:06 What gives you hope for the future of this community?
Alika: 22:09 Can I answer that real quick ’cause Yanis keeps walking back and forth.

Ralph: 22:13 She’s wanting[inaudible 00:22:14]

Alika: 22:14 Yeah, and then I’m gonna come out. So I thank you guys very much for this time. Y’all give me hope. Our young people, our next generation gives me a lot of hope that you will see things differently and that you guys will have your visionaries and that you’ll be able to establish your vision of a just and hope filled community. Y’all give me hope.

Alika: 22:45 Alright, go check on your daughter.

Ralph: 22:47 Okay, yeah, that’s the same with me. ReCAST what you’re doing, input, the mechanisms that are developed as I said earlier to garner input from the community. I think that’s always to me a great thing when they’re balanced. I’ve seen community groups that are formed that the power structure seems to resemble the power structure of the nation when you look at who’s calling the shots. But it seems like … And what I mean by that is middle class white people kind of assuming control of community groups without enough diversity in them. But it seems like there’s an effort to get a full mix of representation in our community structures. That gives me hope for a better tomorrow. The input channels and groups of communication.

Interviewer: 23:44 So how can Minneapolis play a part to create that?
Ralph: 23:49 Well, I think that by what it’s doing now with these effort to get input to really hear from different groups within the community from different geographical locales, to hear, and then to put income behind it, to fund it, you know, to fund these efforts. When I read about the North Side Redevelopment Corporation, I think is the name, and then actually having the money set aside to fund projects in the city gives me hope. To hear that North Commons got some of the … The North Commons YWCA got some of the money from the NCAA being here to redo … That gives me hope to see where there are large projects that come into the city be able to get some of that profit to the communities in the area when those events have long since gone. That gives me hope. So I think in that regard Minneapolis is progressive. So I guess a couple of words: keep the dollars flowing to everyone and it seems like we’re working harder to have that happen in the city of Minneapolis.

Interviewer 25:21 Last couple of questions, if you could just give us a short quick answers and then we’ll be out of your way.
Ralph: 25:28 Okay, okay.

Interviewer: 25:30 So when you think about this area today, what impacts do you still see from the historic government policies?
Ralph: 25:40 Historic government policies?

Interviewer: 25:42 Yes.
Ralph: 25:43 Like policies of past?

Interviewer: 25:45 Yes.
Ralph: 25:45 Is that kind of the word for…

Interviewer: 25:46 Yes.
Ralph: 25:46 Okay, well, I think one is the re-gentrification piece. You know to me that looks a lot like a new form of discrimination called something different, packaged in a positive way, but I wonder if it’s thought out fully enough to see to it that those who are displaced by that process are fully taken care of. So that I see as maybe still a historic kind of looming residual of white supremacy because those who are re-gentrifying are basically from the European ethnicities.

Interviewer: 26:34 How would you describe the relationship between the city of Minneapolis and this community over the years?
Ralph: 26:42 I think it’s gotten better. I remember a time, you know, I grew up in the housing projects that’s why I referenced them earlier. You know way back and one of the things that we felt was a real hostility between the city and our community and family. I knew my mother would always say, “When somebody with suits on knocks on the door, you don’t answer that door. Don’t answer it, don’t look out the window, make sure that your father’s slippers are hid, put somewhere else,” because we were on welfare. So there seemed to be a we against them sort of mentality. And I think that that has, and there’s still some of that, but I think it’s decreasing. There’s not as much hostility in seeing people who are kind of affiliated, representatives of the city with those who are living in the communities. I think that gap has lessened. And I think a lot of that has a lot to do with having people of color in those systems that the city runs. There’s nothing like being able to see somebody that looks like you affiliated with the city operations.

Ralph: 28:12 Mayor Sayles Belton when she was the mayor, Erin

[inaudible 00:28:20]

, the now police chief, I know this is Saint Paul but mayor Coleman of Saint Paul. Still I think you know it says something about the twin cities. Just seeing people that look like you. Am I still on point with the question? ‘Cause but I forgot what the question …

Interviewer: 28:41 You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine.
Ralph: 28:45 So you know, I see represented there that there is some traction, and I think as long as we try to keep the communication … Lines of communication open between city residents get some good feedback, allow for positive conflict to take place, constructive differences to be voiced and mitigated. I think the future looks bright.

Interviewer: 29:16 So what are your expectations of the city of Minneapolis? I think you kind of answered this one, so I guess the question is gonna be: what are your expectations of Minneapolis relative to this community? And I think you kind of answered that so I’ll just go to the second question which is to what extent do you trust that they’ll do the things that you expect them to do?
Ralph: 29:41 Well my trust is great as long as there’s input. Real, sincere, just input, communication’s open, representation of various levels of the city government from the citizenry at large. I’m very, very hopeful. Very, very, very hopeful.

Interviewer: 30:08 Okay, so on a scale of one to ten, where do you put them at with the input?
Ralph: 30:15 I’d say about a six. Yeah, I’d say about a six. But looking historically back I would you know … So it’s come from probably in my mind, a one or two to a six. But still a long ways to go.

Interviewer: 30:32 Alright.

Interviewer: 30:35 What part do you feel you could play in creating that more hopeful future?
Ralph: 30:42 That’s a good question. I think that Pastor Alika said it earlier that we are liberation theologians, I think if we continue to do our job here in that the church that will help because our call’s consistently to work towards freedom of the people from abased work, challenging systemic oppression, we’re doing a North Side Healing Space program that we’ll hear of and begin some time in the near future. If we continue to do that, that will contribute to the city becoming a better place to live. And as we continue to tell our people to resist, resist, resist, resist, don’t feel like you don’t have any power. As one community leader told me in the south of Atlanta, female, about the housing projects she said, “Just say it. Whether your verbs line up or not, just say it. Just keep on talking and keep on expressing where your position is.” So if we continue to empowering people to speak out, to continue to reach out, make coalitions, build partnerships for the sake of justice, fairness, inclusion then the city will move in the right direction. But we’ve got to do our part and that is to work towards that end together. It’s not just the city, it’s all of us.

Interviewer: 32:11 That is all of our questions for today, Pastor.
Ralph: 32:14 Okay, great, great. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful work that you’re doing.

Interviewer: 32:18 Thank you.

Alana Ramadan

by David Beckford | Jan 13, 2020 | Uncategorized, Voices from Recast

Interview of Alana Ramadan

Interviewer: 00:02 May I have your first and last name with spelling, please?
Alana Ramadan: 00:05 Okay. My first name is Alana, A-L-A-N-A, the last name is Ramadan, R-A-M-A-D-A-N.

Interviewer: 00:15 He’s going to give you the map.

Interviewer: 00:16 Do you currently or have you ever lived near this part of North Minneapolis? If so, how long?
Alana Ramadan: 00:24 Yes, 37 years. So I live just a few blocks from where I live over on 14th Avenue by North High School. So I pretty much have lived there all my adult life. And actually my grandparents lived, like three blocks one way and one block, so I’m like, live within five blocks of where my grandparents lived and my parents grew up.

Interviewer: 00:58 I think that’s nice. That’s nice.
Alana Ramadan: 00:59 Yeah.

Interviewer: 01:00 Thinking back from when you first came to this area today, what changes have you seen? They can be positive or negative.
Alana Ramadan: 01:10 Well, I would say that the biggest change would be that people don’t take as much pride in their property, and there’s … I feel like the young people, a lot of them have kind of gone down the wrong road. I’ve seen some of my friends move out of the neighborhood because of violence or whatever. And there’s just a lot of … I mean, actually I shouldn’t say there’s a lot of shooting, but there’s enough shooting to give North Minneapolis a bad name.

Alana Ramadan: 01:49 I work in North Minneapolis, I pray here. I work with children at a school in North Minneapolis. I guess I was never scared away, but I know other people feel like people don’t care. In our neighborhood we generally had, like most of the people who lived there were home-owners. So now it’s kind of getting back, so it’s almost like it was a cycle. Because when my children grew up you could go outside and play and play with the neighbors and all that. And then it got to a point where I didn’t see very many children out. I didn’t see very many families. But I think it’s changing now that people are actually moving back to North Minneapolis.

Alana Ramadan: 02:33 As far as the schools, when my children were growing up they had, like Willard was science and technology. So they had Willard and then they had … I mean that was, it’s right over here. I can’t think of it all of a sudden. Franklin. So you had Willard, you had Franklin, and then you had North. And then they had Summatech. And so I think, you know, I’ve seen schools close, and then they open back up, and I don’t know. I just feel like the education has gone down as far as what our children are offered.

Alana Ramadan: 03:12 And then families. I think there are not as many families that are living in the area.

Interviewer: 03:23 What do you feel caused the changes you’ve seen in the years?
Alana Ramadan: 03:29 I think there’s a decay of … Well, I think with a lot of, well there’s always been a lot of, I don’t want to say sex, but there’s always been a lot of … I mean because when I was growing up it was like a lot of young people and they’re smoking weed where now there’s really dangerous drugs, where you could have a joint laced with something that could kill you. I think that just society, the moral fiber of society has gone down.

Alana Ramadan: 04:03 And even when I think about families, like when I was raising my children we had two parent families or whatever. And I think even with my own family, I ended up getting a divorce and I mean most of my children were grown, but I think when you’d have people … I mean the amount of money people are … even though people are making more money, it takes more money to make it. So it used to be you could work at one job, but now everybody has at least a couple jobs or a little hustle on the side or whatever, and I think the economics, and more recently I really feel like, I mean even with, I have a lot of my Somali brothers and sisters that have come from … And it used to be as a Muslim, and this is kind of funny, as a Muslim I’m like, “Oh, I’m
a Muslim,” and now, I’m a Somali. You know? It’s like, “What?” It’s like, “Wait a minute, you followed me here. I was here before you guys.”

Alana Ramadan: 04:58 And I mean I have good relationships with them, but even the children, like I work with Somali children and they’re like, “Why do you,” because as a Muslim I cover like this, but they’re like, “So why are you wearing that?” I was like, “Wait a minute, now, hold on. You just got here a little while ago,” so, I think that there’s been just a lot of different people now. Used to be pretty much Caucasian, African American. Now you have your Somali, you have Latinos, you have … I mean when you look at some of the areas you’re like, “Wow,” you know, you go to big cities you expect to see all these different …

Alana Ramadan: 05:34 But I think with the influx of a lot of different cultures, and even with the violence now, you have Hmong people having violence, you know, it’s not just African Americans anymore. I mean you got violence … And even the relationships between police officers and the community, it’s really changed. I’m like, I live right by Plymouth Avenue and I mean, having people protesting in the streets about people being gunned down and it’s … So I don’t know. It’s kind of rough, you know. But I haven’t lost hope and I feel like I want to be part of the solution. I want to stick and stay. I want to be one of the people that people say, “You didn’t just cut and run when things got rough.” Because I feel like things, that we have to make things better.

Interviewer: 06:27 In the state of Minneapolis there have been a lot of troubles such as drugs, discrimination, and housing. Have any of those impacted you or your family?
Alana Ramadan: 06:39 Well, I would say drugs. Because I have had people in my family who have had issues with drugs. Discrimination, I would say that haven’t really had a lot of issues with discrimination. Now I know some people are discriminated against because they have felonies or whatever, and so the can’t find a place to live, but I personally haven’t had discrimination, because the home that I live in, I actually own that home. So I haven’t rented, I rented maybe one year in my whole life. Because otherwise I live with my father and then we bought a house. And now it’s kind of like, a lot of people have a hard time getting a house, getting a loan. So I think that it’s really difficult for a lot of people to get the financial means that they need to buy a home where it’s
cheaper than renting. I’m sure what I pay for my home is cheaper than people, when people say they pay, I’m like, “What?” Over $1000 or $1500?

Alana Ramadan: 07:44 So I think that there has to be discrimination and that’s really sad, because people need to be … If you have a home, if you’re a home-owner, you’re more likely to take care of your property because it’s yours. But if you’re renting you’re like, “Hey, I’m going to be out of here next year, or a few months,” and so I think that there is discrimination. I think that I have a really good situation, because I’ve been there for a while and I built up over time, but I think a lot of people do face discrimination.

Alana Ramadan: 08:15 You said drugs and discrimination, what was the other thing?

Interviewer: 08:18 Housing.
Alana Ramadan: 08:19 Yeah, housing. So I seen people having these wealth creation things and I was like, “Okay, I got a job I’m going to the bank,” for me it wasn’t that hard to just go to the bank and get the loan, and even now I feel like I’m one of the fortunate people. Like if I want to get a new car, like for the last six years I’ve leased cars. I go in there, I give them my … And I try to keep good credit, and that’s another thing. If you have good credit, one time I got a car and I didn’t even have a job. So my credit was better than my husband’s credit, so they’re like, “We’re going to use your credit.”

Alana Ramadan: 08:59 So most of the time I know I can just go and they’ll be like, “Oh.” And it’s almost like they’re surprised, like, “Whoa, you have really good credit.” Like, “You’re not supposed to have good …” I’m like, “Hey, I pay my bills, I take care of business.” And I take pride in that.

Interviewer: 09:17 What changes have you seen in the community that raise your level of stress for the future?
Alana Ramadan: 09:26 I would say violence, knowing that, especially for our young people that they can be shot for some foolishness. And sometimes people are shot by people they think are their friends. I mean even with the general community, you could just be minding your own business and get … It’s like, and I feel like people don’t feel safe, and I worry about that. I don’t really … I can’t really say that I worry about myself, so to speak. But I will say this, that if I see bunch of people gathered around somewhere and I hear loud talking, or even I’ve had to call the police on my neighbors, I’m like, “What are you doing? What is that sound? I have to go to work in the morning.”

Alana Ramadan: 10:17 So I would say having neighbors that are not considerate and that just have habits that are not very neighborly. Like playing loud music, I mean I might be getting up trying to pray or read the Scripture or something and I can’t even focus because my neighbor decides they’re going to play music. So I have had to call the police on people. And yeah, I just … I don’t know. One time I had my neighbor, someone was breaking into my neighbor’s house, and of course I was like, “Okay. I’ve got to call the police.”

Alana Ramadan: 10:54 And then you know they say you can be anonymous, well, no. And the police came in time to catch the person, and then I get a subpoena to say come to court and here I am and there they are, you know what I’m saying? The face is not hidden or nothing. It’s like, “What?” So that was pretty disturbing. So I think that is stressful.

Alana Ramadan: 11:13 And then just the police community relations, like now I’m really worried about the police officer that killed the Caucasian woman over at South Minneapolis, because I feel like they’re trying to make him pay for everybody else’s, you know all the other police officers that got off? Like okay, we’re going to use him. He’s going to pay for all y’all that … And then I feel bad because he Black Lives Matter people aren’t going to support him because he’s a police officer. And I actually knew him, because I saw him here one day and I said, I told him about some evidence that could help his case, he says, “Yeah, I know you, I worked with you at Target in Crystal,” because I used to work at Target in Crystal.

Alana Ramadan: 11:52 And so I think that stresses me out where people can’t get justice. And I think that that raises the level. Even when people get shot, by, not police but other people, people aren’t going to tell. I mean, I would be scared to tell, I mean I probably would but then you’re like, you have to fear for your life because you saw what happened. It’s like people don’t want to say anything. So I think that that’s stressful where you feel like you can’t get justice, you can’t really stand up for other people because then you fear for your own life.

Interviewer: 12:29 What gives you hope for the future of this community?
Alana Ramadan: 12:33 What gives me hope is I work with children every day, and I feel like we can make a difference when we teach them how to get along with each other. Because I have worked with children in elementary school. One child said, “I’ll choke him,” I’m like,”What? You’re going to choke somebody out because they stepped on …” I mean you know it’s not that serious. And I think that every single day we have opportunity to tell them and show them there’s a better way to deal with your problems and that we care about them, but we’re not going to let them disrespect us and we’re not going to let them disrespect each other and they can work it out.

Alana Ramadan: 13:13 I feel like I have hope when I know that there’s people, such as yourselves, that are trying to hear from people. I have hope when I see people saying, “We’re going to protest in the streets, we’re not going to take this anymore.” It used to be your people … I don’t remember anybody ever protesting. Not in North …People who are like watching and paying attention, people are videotaping, people are stepping up in that way.

Alana Ramadan: 13:40 Mainly, though, working with the children and knowing that we can make a difference with them if we just have a different mentality and like, you can go to college. That’s our thing, it’s like, okay, you’re going to go to college, we’re going to prepare you to go college. You’re not just going to go, we’re going to prepare you. And if you don’t want to go, you go do something else. But you need to be positive and you’re going to be around positive adults.

Alana Ramadan: 14:03 So I have hope because I’m going to be part of the solution. I’m not going to ask somebody else to step in and do it if I’m not going to do something myself, and I feel like every single day, I try to be a good example and be positive and be hopeful.

Interviewer: 14:23 When you think about the area today, what impacts do you still see from historic government policies?
Alana Ramadan: 14:34 That’s s tough one. Historic government policies.

Alana Ramadan: 14:38 Well, I do believe that there is still a lot of discrimination against people that live in North Minneapolis, and that they don’t really think that we’re worth spending money on. And even when I think now that they’re trying to, you know the city council, they’re trying to change it where everybody doesn’t have their own council person, that they’re just like, “Okay, we’re just going to have some people represent everybody,” and everybody doesn’t represent everybody.

Alana Ramadan: 15:07 And so I think that they just, they don’t want to spend money on us because they feel like we’re not worth it. And I think that that’s something that has been historic. And then just the attitude about the area. And people don’t even want to have businesses. So I don’t even know if people want to give loans or whatever, because it’s very seldom that we get businesses, new businesses that really want to invest in our community.

Interviewer: 15:42 How would you describe the relationship between the city of Minneapolis and this community over the years?
Alana Ramadan: 15:48 Over the years? I think it’s probably similar to what I just said in that the city of Minneapolis has always looked at North Minneapolis as a problem area. However, it used to be, as my parents grew up here there used to be a lot of Jewish people that lived here. And I’m sure that they treated it differently then than they do now, because I think that a lot, there’s been a lot of what they call white flight. And so a lot of people that lived in this area have left for various reasons. And so then you have a high concentration of poverty, but then people don’t want to invest because they feel like the people don’t care. So I think that’s been a historic thing, that they just were like, “Okay, that’s North Minneapolis,” like we’re not even part of everything else. We have our own thing going on here and not in a positive way.

Interviewer: 16:49 What are your expectations of the city of Minneapolis relative to this community?
Alana Ramadan: 16:54 I feel like we should have people that work in our community that respect our community, and not just come here for a job. Just like the thing that happened down at the police station. That’s just disrespectful. That’s just, I mean, how would you do … I mean even if people … Now I might start talking about a Christmas tree with Takis …

Alana Ramadan: 17:15 First of all I think the people who live here, we should keep our community clean. So they can’t … My feeling was that they went out picked that stuff off the ground and said, “See, this is what these people put down.” But I feel like that the city … First of all we should have our representation, we should have people from this community that represent us, and that are part of us. We shouldn’t have people, even when it comes to policing, we should have people that even if they don’t live here they should at least respect us. And I don’t know how you have a litmus test for do you respect these people or not. Maybe they need to have some kind of questionnaire where they’re honest, but-

Interviewer: 17:51 Maybe they get interviewed by community stakeholders-
Alana Ramadan: 17:53 Yeah, yeah. I mean, and after you talk to somebody for a little bit, you can kind of get a feeling whether they’re just saying something or they really believe it. But I think when it comes to policing, when it comes to investment in businesses … I was really saddened when I heard that CVS Pharmacy on Broadway, they said that they’re going to close up. And they might have closed up already.

Alana Ramadan: 18:16 So when you can’t hardly get businesses, and I deliberately go to Cub on Broadway because it’s convenient. I mean I just go across the street, you know, if I’m here I can go across the street, and I try to buy my groceries there and that’s a thing that I believe we should shop at the businesses in our community. Don’t take your money outside the community, because the the places that you want to go, they’re going to close up. They’re going to go out of business.

Alana Ramadan: 18:39 And that’s another thing I saw. I used to be a business owner. We had a fish market up on Broadway, and at that time they had some nail shops that were owned by African Americans but then once the Asians came and took the business … And that’s the thing, people actually stopped going to the African Americans and going to the Asians. And so I think the business investment, and they’re providing jobs and have … People have to step up, though, we can’t keep asking people to do stuff for us and not take care of what we need to take are of. So we want to start a business, first of al we have to support those businesses. We can’t just say, “Oh yeah, so-and-so opened up but nobody came there, so …”

Alana Ramadan: 19:18 I mean I know, I was a business owner. We did have customers that came regularly, but having a business is a tough thing. And you have to have people that are consistently supporting you. So I think that that’s probably one of the things is if we’re going to ask invest that means we have to take care of them. We can’t go and … I mean I’ve heard people say, “Oh, we have to close because people are stealing.” We can’t be stealing, you know what I’m saying? I mean if you need food that’s one thing but if you’re just stealing just to be stealing that’s just wrong.

Alana Ramadan: 19:49 So we have a part, we expect other people to help us, but we have to help ourselves first. We have to have good, strong community spirit and respect for each other.

Interviewer: 20:01 Last question. What part do you think you can play in creating that more hopeful future?
Alana Ramadan: 20:07 Keep speaking out. Keep sharing with other people, find people that are doing positive things and try to be as supportive. But I think really working at the school and being part of the community. I think the most important thing is I live here, you’re going to see me. I shop here, I pray here, and I work here. And even as an employee, just because I work for somebody that is African American, that don’t mean I show up half doing my job. I try to bring excellence. If I want excellence I try to bring excellence. And I try to be an example for others, and I say, “Hey, you need to step up. You’re going to working here you need to step up.” So just being the positive role model, and being present and accounted for, really. Just living here and saying, “Hey, I believe in this community.” I think that means more than anything, is that I actually stay here and not, I could go move someplace else but I stay here because I believe in it.