Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, Dr. Yohuru Williams, sat down with MPR News host Nina Moini to discuss the long and complex history of police reform in Minneapolis, a topic often framed around the events of 2020, but with roots stretching back more than a century.
From the interview:
Moini: And, Yohuru, as you look at that through line ... if you were telling folks a summary of this history and how it pertains to today, what do you think is the lesson that has been missing, or needs to be learned, or the thing that needs to not be repeated?
Williams: It’s such a great question. And I think it really pivots around this question of the paradox itself, that if we are confronting that history honestly, and we can do so in a way that boldly recognizes one of the quotes that we offer in the very beginning of the film, from Maya Angelou, that “history courageously faced need not be faced again,” we can really appreciate what lessons we can take from this history in terms of thinking through some of these challenges with regard to Black, brown and Native people in the Twin Cities and beyond.
One of the great things, I think, about this documentary is that this isn’t just a Minnesota story. We tell it through the lens of what happened here. But the reality is, this is a national concern and one which deserves the best of our attention and our energies to try to think about how we correct it.
