Beyond Conversation: Equity Forum Calls For Change

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The issue of race and equity took center stage Wednesday at a forum in Minneapolis.

The United Way sponsored an event called "Cultivating Conditions for Change." About 1,100 people were on hand to join in on the conversation, which I moderated.

The topic of the day was one that's been on the minds of many Minnesotans – and others across the country – for quite some time.

A panel that facilitated the discussion was made up of community leaders, including younger people like Ron Harris, an organizer with Neighborhoods for Change.

"Equity is everybody's everyday work," Harris said. "There is no role too small, there is no role too big to participate in this."

Minnesota's track record on equality is nothing to be proud of. Minnesota leads the country in health, education and employment disparities.

"Now we need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, because the numbers are right in our face," said Shawntera Hardy, the deputy chief of staff in Gov. Mark Dayton's office.

The keynote speaker for the forum was Angela Glover Blackwell, the founder and CEO of PolicyLink.

She praised Minnesota for getting people talking honestly and forthrightly about what the challenges are in a community that is quite prosperous in some ways but still has great deficits.

"The people who are being left behind are going to become the majority. By 2040, almost 50 percent of the people in the Twin Cities will be people of color," she said. "There will not be continued prosperity if people of color can't lead here. There will be no middle class in this area if people of color don't become the middle class."

Glover Blackwell says the problem lies with those who are comfortable leaving people behind.

She hopes the community here continues to strive for change, not just have conversations about it.

"The real revolution will first be an internal revolution," Glover Blackwell said, "and society will feel it as it bubbles out."

She challenged forum participants to work on equity outside of their time at work. She says it will take a 24-hour-a-day effort to make change.