An email from the city of Minneapolis, written to all city employees, reveals that the employees are being asked to sign a letter acknowledging the “devastating intergenerational harms of systemic racism and racial injustice.”
The letter was read to the public during the May 28, 2021 Minneapolis City Council meeting, by Daniel La Croix, with Minneapolis Regulatory Services.
Representative Jeremy Munson (R-MN-23B) shared a copy of the email sent by the city of Minneapolis on Facebook, regarding the letter they were asking all city employees, including police officers and firefighters, to sign. Representative Munson asked in his Facebook post if it was right for “your employer [to] publicly shame you into supporting Critical Race Theory.”
In the video of the City Council meeting, La Croix began his presentation by reminding the participants that they were “on stolen land” and shared that it was “Dakota and Anishinabe land dated 1200.” He then revealed his own Dakota ancestry and shared his Dakota name.
The letter reads “any commitment we make must be based in truth-telling and racial reconciliation.” The letter also asks that the signers recognize that “racism is a public health emergency.”
Another request that the letter makes of the signers is that they declare “[their] commitment to not just identify but take decisive, meaningful action towards the creation of an anti-racist culture in [their] personal and professional lives.”
The letter also stated that signers need to recognize that “the City of Minneapolis as a government entity has historically divided and caused harm to Black, Indigenious, Asian-Pacific Islander, Latinex, people of color, residents and staff and that, despite [the city’s] current efforts, these practices continue today.”
After the letter was read aloud, the Minneapolis Council President Lisa Bender said “The statement shouldn’t need to feel courageous. This should be baked into our systems and what we all commit to unwaveringly every day.”
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Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun | Star News Network and The College Fix. She graduated with a degree in Communications from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. Send news tips to [email protected].
