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Shining the Light:Revealing Our Choice in
the St. Cloud Region
Isaiah
and
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
September 2010
Report Contributors:
Jillian Olinger, Research Associate, The Kirwan InstituteChristy Rogers, Senior Research Associate, The Kirwan Institute
Eunice Antony, OSB, St. Benedict’s Monastery, ISAIAH Ben Caduff, Newman Center Christ Church, ISAIAHRev. Steve Cook, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, ISAIAHOliver Delk, African-Americans for Minority Leaders CounselJudy Foster, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, ISAIAHMark Jaede, First United Methodist Church, ISAIAHRev. Randy Johnson, First United Methodist Church, ISAIAH Kevin LaNave, St. Paul Catholic Church, ISAIAHDebra Leigh, Community Anti-Racism Education Initiative, SCSU Dave Mann, Grassroots Policy Project Mohamoud Mohamed, St. Cloud Area Somali Salvation OrganizationDoran Schrantz, ISAIAH Executive Director Charlotte Stephens, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, ISAIAHFatumo Ukash, Somali Elders Council of Central Minnesota, ISAIAHAmy Weston, Diversity thru Colors Rev. Larry Weston, African-Americans for Minority Leaders Counsel Lydia White, ISAIAH Racial Equity in Education TaskforceRuth Wiechman, ISAIAH Organizer Jeanie Wilkens, Resurrection Lutheran Church, ISAIAH
Photo Credits:
City photo: Courtesy of Flickr user bikinisleepshirt (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bikinisleepshirt/3429026436/)
Congregation photo: Courtesy of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Africa (http://www.elcsant.org.za)
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
2
September 2010
Brothers and sisters in faith and hope, greetings! My name is Randy Johnson and I am Pastor of
Spiritual Growth and Congregational Care at the First United Methodist Church of the St. Cloud
Region and Past President of ISAIAH‘s Great River Interfaith Partnership.
Yesterday a newcomer to our community and our congregation, who happens to be a person of
color, asked me if I believed that she and her grandson would be better off moving from the St.
Cloud area. Her greatest concern is to provide her grandson with the best opportunity to thrive
during his upcoming teenage and young adult years. Her doubts about the St. Cloud region arose
out of her recent personal experiences of discrimination related to housing and employment.
How would you answer her question? She reported that several people have already suggested
that moving is the best alternative. In response to her question, I asked her if she believed that
God might be calling her to help transform this community into a place of greater justice where
the hopes and dreams we share for all our children and grandchildren might be realized.
Both her question and mine are the kind of challenging questions that leaders in ISAIAH have
been addressing now for several years. Some of our faith principles that ―shine the light‖ on
these questions include the dignity of all persons, the duty to seek together the common good and
especially the well-being of the poor and vulnerable, the solidarity of the human family, the
responsibility to participate in creating a healthy society, the call to welcome the stranger, and the
duty to protect the rights of all people to those things required for human life and dignity. While
our public and faith community debates often are divided between those who focus on personal
responsibility and those who focus on social responsibilities, our faith traditions teach us that both
are necessary to achieve God‘s vision.
The following document ―shines the light‖ on both the challenges and opportunities we face in
our region. In light of the above faith principles, it becomes clear that this document is not
simply about education, economics, and public policies. As you read the following pages,
connect what you read to our faith principles and you will understand that this is a moral
document that truly is about ―Shining the Light: Revealing the Choice in the St. Cloud Region.‖
The newcomer who asked ―would we be better off moving from St. Cloud?‖ is not the only
person living here who has a choice to make. Each of us has a choice that will impact the future
of our community. Our shared faith principles lead us to help co-create a community where all
God‘s children can become the people God created them to be. I believe that God is calling me
and calls each of us who are members of the faith community to make that choice – to work
together to create that kind of future.
In faith and hope,
The Rev. Randy Johnson
First United Methodist Church of the St. Cloud Region
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
3
Background: Minnesota at a Moment of Decision
For many, Minnesota is a state where the American ―good life‖ has survived; some might even
say that it has thrived. Minnesota has long been touted as one of the healthiest places in the
country to live. A seminal 1973 Time magazine article painted a picture of a Minnesota that was
largely white, solidly middle class, and had a highly-educated population. A commitment to
education, environmental quality, living conditions and economic opportunity played a key role
in the state‘s high health rankings.
Unfortunately, the good life in Minnesota, while an alluring narrative, was and is reality only for
some Minnesotans. Many residents have been and continue to be excluded and, for them, the
opportunity to share in the good life remains elusive. For the rest of Minnesotans, the good life
may be fading.
There is a fault line in our state‘s foundation. If we sit by, this fault will continue to grow and, in
the process, all Minnesotans will be at risk – now and in the future. When we allow inequities to
exist and grow, the entire population pays the price with declining opportunity, including
worsening health.
As Minnesotans, we need to fundamentally realign our public policies if we wish to create a
sustainable and prosperous future that provides opportunity for all. Minnesota‘s current public
policies are not working to assure the conditions necessary for a healthy future for our state.
We know this because we can measure glaring inequities along every major indicator used to
measure the health of a community. It is evident in the Minnesota public schools, where students
of color continue to lag white students on proficiency tests by a wide margin and drop out of high
school at rates two to five times higher than white students.1 It is evident in our housing and
finance markets, where communities of color were targets of predatory lending and subprime
loans resulting in a disastrous loss of home equity and community stability.2 It is evident in jobs,
where Minnesota had the second largest unemployment disparity rate in the nation in 2009, with
whites at 7.1%, Latinos at 15.5%, and African Americans at 22.5% unemployment. The failure
of our public policies is evident in the most critical areas of our collective lives.
We are all hurt by these inequities. Although the symptoms of a system at risk may first become
apparent in our most vulnerable and marginalized communities, including communities of color
and isolated rural and Native communities, the risk will not be confined to these groups. For
example, the subprime crisis initially harmed our urban, disinvested communities of color before
spreading to suburban and exurban markets and higher-income white communities, eventually
affecting the entire global housing and credit system.
Public health data shows that the very existence of inequities between groups hurts the health of
all groups.3 Even privileged groups fail to reach the levels of health that are possible when there
are inequities in opportunity.
It is critical to note that inequities are built, and they can be dismantled. Certain policies, practices
and assumptions can create uneven opportunities and burdens that are perpetuated by the status
quo. We need to recognize and change these policies, practices, and assumptions that create
inequality of opportunity. To do this, we must acknowledge that we are still living with the
consequences of historical and legal racial segregation, despite the anti-discrimination laws that
signaled an end to legalized segregation. Policies may be racially neutral on their face, but they
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
4
are often not neural in effect. Once we acknowledge that the system is producing disparate and
unfair outcomes, we can begin to work for change.
The time is now – Minnesota is at a moment of decision. Some estimates project that the state
will face a $7 billion deficit in FY 2012-2013. Public decisions around these current economic
challenges provide a window of opportunity for real change, but the current political debate has
not captured the need for transformative policies. Instead, officials are looking at the structural
budget deficit and fighting over where to cut spending just to scrape by, without recognizing that
our marginalized communities of color, already disadvantaged, will bear the brunt of these
decisions. These piecemeal approaches do not acknowledge the true nature of the problem and
will not create healthy, thriving communities.
Instead of looking at individual programs, we need to re-focus the conversation on how we make
decisions, how we allocate resources, and the outcomes of our policies. So far, the outcomes of
many of our policies – whether by design or inattention – have increased inequities along every
major socioeconomic indicator, including housing, education, health, income, and employment.
The challenges Minnesota is facing go beyond a current budget deficit, highlighting a system and
a state at risk.
In order to change the direction of Minnesota and put Minnesota back on track for the good life,
we need a new way of thinking, talking, and acting. We need to redefine what the good life is
and for whom we want it.
The search for sustainability and renewal must be based on a more equitable vision of
community. As the federal government is sending trillions of dollars in stimulus funding to states,
local governments, and neighborhoods, we need to make sure that we are not throwing good
money into broken systems.
This is especially critical for Minnesota and its fiscal crisis. New policies must be designed and a
new path forged. Even more importantly for Minnesota, this path can be undertaken without
fiscal burden in the immediate term. Simply changing the criteria against which policies are
judged promises a path to renewal and a future where all Minnesotans – white, people of color,
and tribal communities – can share equally in the good life.
In the face of these challenges, ISAIAH leaders came together to develop new principles to guide
us on a path toward healthy, equitable, livable communities and against which policies should be
judged. These principles are:
1. Restorative investment in the most marginalized communities
2. Opening access to opportunity to cultivate all human potential
3. Growing together and developing integrated, connected communities
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
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Restorative investment describes investment directed to those communities most negatively
impacted by our current economic recession and those who have borne the brunt of historic
policies that favored new, suburban, white communities. Examples of these types of investment
include community development, resident capacity building, job training, small and minority
business lending, and neighborhood revitalization. The health of the region, and the state, rests
upon the health of each of its communities. Our fates are intertwined; we are only as strong as
the weakest among us.
Opening access to opportunity is defined as affirmatively connecting people to opportunity
through, for example, opening up housing choices through sustainable homeownership options,
re-thinking school policies, and providing quality, comprehensive public transit that connects
more people to opportunity. To cultivate the health of the state, we need to grow opportunity for
all our residents.
Growing together is defined as building healthy environments for all and providing newcomers
with access to opportunity. An example of this might be building strong coalitions between city-
suburban-tribal governments, developing regional master plans, or coordinating and integrating
housing, transportation, and infrastructure plans. Growing opportunity for all cannot be
undertaken in segregated communities.
These principles are the true markers of success for communities. To the extent that our policies
and decision-making processes achieve these goals, we can confidently say that Minnesota truly
is a state of opportunity where the health of the communities and people of Minnesota is the top
priority.
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
6
Introduction
ISAIAH and Kirwan: Revealing the Choice for the St. Cloud Region
Minnesota as a whole and many of its communities, including the St. Cloud region, are on a path
of crisis. This path is marked by targeted disinvestment, restricted opportunity, and isolated
communities.
For example, the uneven impacts of the recession expose the three outcomes of the path to crisis.
The recession has affected everyone, but not to the same degree. The brunt of unemployment,
layoffs, social service and education budget cuts, foreclosures, and bankruptcies has been borne
by groups already marginalized by the mainstream economy, including communities of color,
women, manufacturing employees, rural residents, and people with disabilities. In particular, the
racial impacts of the recession and housing crisis have been extreme. While one in ten workers
are unemployed nationally, one in six black workers and one in eight Latino workers are
unemployed.4 Nearly half of all subprime loans went to African American and Latino borrowers,
even though many qualified for prime loans. African American and Latino homeowners are
expected to lose $164 to $213 billion in assets due to the housing crisis.5 The challenges facing
marginalized groups extend well before the current recession. In fact, while the U.S. economy has
been in recession for more than a year, people of color have been in a recession for nearly five
years and have entered a depression during the current economic crisis.
The impact of the recession on children has already been severe and will potentially be long-
lasting. Nationally, one in five (20%) children was living in poverty in 2008, and poverty rates
for children of color are climbing above 40% in some states.6 We can expect that the disparities
have only grown under the current economic conditions. As one pediatrician has warned, ―We
are seeing the emergence of what amounts to a ‗recession generation.‘‖7 Increases in child
poverty, homelessness, and temporary relief indicate that children across the U.S. are
experiencing ―a quiet disaster.‖ In the U.S., between 2006 and 2007, 500,000 more children
became poor and the numbers are expected to rise as the impacts of the recession continue.8
This quiet disaster is playing out in Minnesota as well. Data from 1999 on child poverty in the St.
Cloud region shows that children of color were struggling well before the recession hit – the
poverty rate for black children was 29% and 25% for Hispanic children, compared to 6% for
white children (refer to Table 17 in the Appendix). Between 2000 and 2007, child poverty in
Minnesota increased by 33%.9 Child poverty in Minnesota is highly uneven across racial lines.
For example, in 2007, 7% of white children, who constitute about 78% of the child population in
Minnesota, lived in poverty, compared with 41% of black children, who make up only 6% of the
child population.10 Only nine other states reported higher poverty rates for black children.11
Minnesota also ranked worst in the nation in terms of Asian child poverty, at 24%,12 although
Asian children constitute about 5% of the child population in the state.13
Even this most recently available data likely underestimates the growth in child poverty due to
the recession, the full force of which did not come to bear until mid-2008. The Children‘s
Defense Fund-Minnesota estimates that an additional 44,280 to 56,202 children will fall into
poverty, or an additional 33%, before the economy recovers.14
A significant portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was dedicated to
offsetting state budget shortfalls, which would have resulted in severe cuts to critical services for
marginalized populations. Analysis of the impact of ARRA suggests that several ARRA
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
7
programs will help soften the growing poverty across the nation by expanding existing tax credits
and financial assistance programs. According to research produced by the Center for Budget &
Policy Priorities, several components of ARRA (emergency unemployment provision, earned
income tax credit, making work pay tax credits, child tax credits, food stamps and disability
assistance) will stem the growth of poverty over the next five years. The CBPP report estimates
these provisions helped 6.2 million families avoid falling below the poverty line in 2009, of
which they estimate more than 50% of those assisted were black or Latino (3.3 million).15
However, more fiscal peril and potential budget cuts loom on the horizon. Even with this funding,
states are expecting another $267 billion in additional budget deficits for 2010 and 2011.16 As a
result, the harsh budget cuts predicted for 2009 may be imminent without additional federal
assistance. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that in response, 43 states have
enacted budget cuts which harm our most vulnerable residents.17 In short, state and local budgets
are at the edge of the cliff and are going to fall over once the ARRA funding expires. The
expiration of these funds will disproportionately hurt our most vulnerable populations in
Minnesota and nationwide. With its estimated $7 billion deficit in FY 20012-2013, Minnesota is
in a precarious position and faces some urgent challenges.
In addition to the fallout from the national and state-level economic crises, St. Cloud faces its
own regional challenges. One of the most troubling signs is the rapid increase in school poverty
and racial isolation for the St. Cloud region schools. In fact, three schools in the St. Cloud Public
School District have crossed the 60% poverty threshold. When poverty in a district reaches 60%
or above, the district can no longer rely on its own internal efforts to improve outcomes.18
These challenges all sound the alarm that both the state and the St. Cloud region are at a moment
of decision: whether to continue on the path of crisis, marked by targeted disinvestment, restricted
opportunity, and isolated communities, or to choose a path to healthy communities, marked by
restorative investment, access to opportunity, and growing together. Achieving sustainable,
positive change amidst inequality and economic instability is a monumental challenge. At the
heart of this challenge is a new vision of an inclusive society – inclusive physically, socially,
economically and spiritually. Report I, ―Shining the Light: Revealing Our Choice‖ walks through
where we have been as a state, and how we have gotten to this state of crisis, using the Twin
Cities as an example.
This report provides an opportunity for engaging in a broader conversation to deepen our
understanding of our shared history, the policies and processes that benefited some people and
communities over others, and to begin working towards a model of decision-making that values
equity, health and livability as the markers of success.
In the spirit of developing this new understanding and promoting a new path forward, ISAIAH
reached out to the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State
University. We knew that understanding structural racialization was a critical component in
building a state of opportunity. The Kirwan Institute is known for its commitment to
understanding and remedying racial and ethnic hierarchies, partly by focusing on the policies that
create and sustain them. Their work is premised on the belief that opportunities exist in a complex
web of interdependent factors and, to alleviate inequities in any single area, the structures that
support these inequities must first be considered.
Kirwan is also known for its research on community revitalization and building Communities of
Opportunity, a model of fair housing and community development. The Communities of
Opportunity model is based on the premise that everyone should have meaningful access to the
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
8
critical opportunity structures needed to succeed in life and that affirmatively connecting people
to opportunity creates positive, transformative change in communities. To illustrate this model,
Kirwan has created opportunity maps for cities, states, and organizations around the country.
Kirwan and ISAIAH are working collaboratively to develop three reports: this report focusing on
the St. Cloud region, a report focusing on the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, and a field guide for
organizers.
We came together because we both believe that people‘s and communities‘ fates are
interconnected, not isolated. We both believe that racial and ethnic hierarchies are wrong and
must be dismantled. And we are both committed to expanded opportunity for all. In this
collaboration to develop a robust vision of a path to healthy communities, we both have gained a
new and deeper appreciation of these shared values and the transformation that is possible.
Although we have created two different reports, one for the St. Cloud region and one for the Twin
Cities, we recognize that they are not discrete communities and that the efforts and outcomes of
forging new paths in these communities are connected. Nationwide, economic and social
inequalities often play out at the regional level. Regions perish or prosper together. The St. Cloud
region is now considered part of the Twin Cities metro area. While historically they may have
been more separate communities, their relationship has evolved over time. Today, it is no longer
realistic to consider the Twin Cities as completely disconnected from the St. Cloud region.
You will see parts in this report where St. Cloud is compared to Minneapolis. Neither community
is monolithic, and opportunity varies within each. The comparisons show us that neither
community is performing as well as it could be on key indicators of opportunity. This places the
future of the region at stake. In fact, both communities show extreme racial disparities in some
key opportunity areas, such as education. These racialized disparities matter, both in terms of
opportunity and outcomes for families in the region.
Before we as a state or a region can embark on a new path, we must learn where we are situated
now and how this varies for different groups. We assess opportunity for the St. Cloud region by
reviewing data on three main markers of community health: education, housing, and employment
opportunity. In addition to seeking out census and research data, ISAIAH also held a preliminary
meeting with St. Cloud leaders, including representatives from the African American and Somali
communities in March 2010, who are active in and with ISAIAH. The purpose of this meeting
was to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing St. Cloud and generate ideas for shaping
this report. We have included commentary from this meeting where appropriate.19 During this
process, it also became increasingly apparent that not enough data is being kept regarding the
well-being of various racial and ethnic groups.
The following report is laid out as follows. Section I highlights the changes and challenges the
St. Cloud region is experiencing and how the path of crisis is playing out in the region. Section
II discusses the key findings in opportunity areas and why these outcomes are so important for
our region. Section III highlights the many opportunities available to the St. Cloud region and
lays out the principles for forging an alternative path to prosperity and health.
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
9
Section I. Changes and Challenges in the St. Cloud Region
The Path of Crisis: Uneven Opportunities
In 2007, St. Cloud tied for first in its category for the ―world‘s most livable city‖ competition.
The competition seeks to find the small communities which are doing the most to enhance and
protect their landscape and heritage, while promoting environmentally sensitive practices, healthy
lifestyles, and community sustainability.1
To be sure, winning this award is something of which to be proud. But are these the only
indicators that matter? What does it really mean to be the ―most livable‖ city, for everyone?
To get at this question of what really makes a ―most livable city,‖ we need to ask ourselves not
only whether everyone in St. Cloud is enjoying these things, but what may be missing from this
assessment that we as a community value. For example, do all people in the community have
access to parks and open spaces that are of high quality and within walking distance? Were
efforts made to ensure that people historically left out of or perhaps unfamiliar with decision-
making or planning processes were included through community participation and
empowerment? Are all children in St. Cloud area schools receiving a high quality education? Do
all residents have access to living wage jobs and meaningful career opportunities? Are
opportunities for homeownership and affordable housing equitably shared?
When we compare the rankings of St. Cloud to regional peers such as Rochester or the state of
Minnesota as a whole, we can see that the region could be doing better. For example, St. Cloud
has a lower median household income ($37,346 compared to $49,090 and $47,111,
respectively),20 and has a poverty rate nearly double that of Rochester or the state (13.1% for St.
Cloud, compared to 7.8% and 7.9%, respectively).21 St. Cloud has a much lower homeownership
rate (55.9%) than either Rochester (71.0%) or the state (74.6%).22
And these rankings hide some divisions within St. Cloud itself. For example, there are clear racial
and ethnic divisions in homeownership rates in the St. Cloud region, where the white
homeownership rate is four times that of the black homeownership rate, double that of the Native
American and Asian/Pacific Islander homeownership rates, and 1.7 times the Hispanic
homeownership rate (refer to Table 6 in the Appendix).
One of the most troubling signs of all is the increasing poverty in schools. This is a problem for
everyone because concentrated poverty in schools can depress educational outcomes, regardless
of individual promise.23 The biggest indicator of the direction of our community is in our
children; the rapid concentration of poverty in St. Cloud schools is a signal that these kids will
carry disadvantage the rest of their lives. When coupled with the racial disparities in educational
attainment and achievement, the alarm is ringing and we cannot afford to cover our ears.
These outcomes are particularly critical as the demographics of our region, similar to the changes
across the state and U.S., shift. Estimates by the Minnesota State Demographic Center indicate
1 The six categories by which communities are assessed include: enhancement of natural/built landscapes;
arts, culture, and heritage; environmental best practices; community participation and empowerment;
healthy lifestyles; and strategic planning.
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
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that between 2005 and 2035, the population of color in the St. Cloud region2 will increase by
59,160 persons, compared to a total increase in population of 292,750 persons.24 This is an
increase of about 285% for the population of color, compared to about a 77% increase in the total
population. These changes appear to be part of a broader pattern; statewide, estimates project that
between 2005 and 2035, the population of color in Minnesota will have grown by 121%, while
total population will have increased by 24.2%.25
This increasing diversification of our communities is evident in student enrollment (see Table 2
in Appendix) in our schools. From 2001 to 2007, the percentage of students of color enrolled in
K-12 increased by 91% in the St. Cloud school district, second only to Cold Spring which
experienced a 400% increase.26 Twenty years ago, there were almost no children of color in rural
Minnesota school districts.27 Today, white student enrollment in rural Minnesota is declining,
while enrollment of students of color is increasing. In fact, several smaller rural school districts
would have closed but for the growth in enrollment of students of color, especially immigrant
children.28 These trends are reflected state-wide, with 43 districts located throughout Minneapolis
and St. Paul, Twin Cities suburban (19), and Greater Minnesota (22) where students of color
exceed 30% of enrollment.29
Aside from the structural and institutional forces that have created unequal opportunities for
people of color in Minnesota and in the St. Cloud region, the challenges facing particular
immigrant groups can be magnified. For example, the Somali population has religious and
cultural practices that are unfamiliar to most U.S. residents. These tensions are not exclusive to
St. Cloud; they can be found in many smaller rural towns in Minnesota and Wisconsin that have
rapidly shifting demographics: Owatanna, Willmar, Rochester, and so forth.
Such a moment of growth and change, especially in the midst of an ongoing national economic
crisis, may seem daunting as officials struggle to find ways out of the recession for everyone,
while state and city budgets shrink and households struggle to pay the bills.
But we urge that to truly embark on this new path, we must recognize that the changes,
challenges, and opportunities for people vary. For example, the challenges that African
Americans face in the ongoing struggle for equality are not the same the Muslim Somali
immigrants face, being only one decade removed from refugee camps and civil war, and are not
the same as the challenges faced by third or fourth generation Latinos.
Although people and communities face different challenges and opportunities, everyone can
benefit from a new path. We need to work together to expand opportunity for all. Any effort to
build equitable structures in the St. Cloud region must build on the work already being done to
make the region‘s communities inclusive and healthy places to live.
2 The region as defined by State Demographic Center (Region 7w-central) includes all of Benton, Sherburne, Stearns, and Wright counties, and the Key Cities include: St. Cloud, Foley, Elk River, Buffalo, Sauk Centre, Monticello
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
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Section II. Key findings in opportunity areas and what they mean for our future
Education Opportunities
The most alarming and significant finding for St. Cloud is the rapid increase in the concentration
of poverty in its area schools. Research shows that concentrated poverty in schools depresses
educational outcomes for all students, regardless of individual promise.30 Not only are schools
state-wide becoming more diverse, but racial disparities in educational achievement and
attainment are increasing. The accumulation of these different challenges amounts to a significant
disadvantage for children of color that will last their entire life.
Changes in Student Composition
Like many districts across the state, schools in the St. Cloud region are undergoing changes in
student demographics (see Table 3 in the Appendix). In St. Cloud District 742, enrollment of
students of color was 7.8% in 1990-00, and 25.7% in 2009-10, reflecting a 207% increase in
student of color enrollment between 1990 and 2010, from 791 to 2434 students. Sauk Rapids Rice
School District 47 has experienced the largest percentage increase during this time period, from
2.6% to 9.0%, reflecting a 276% increase from 89 to 335 students. Sartell-St. Stephen School
District 748 increased from 56 students in 1990 (2.3%) to 129 students in 2009 (3.7%), a 130%
increase.
One concern of focus group respondents was that the school administration was not reflective of
these changes: ―We need teachers of color who can bridge the gap between the student’s culture
and the curriculum” and “Kids need to see administrators and teachers of color as role models
to strengthen their self image.”
Segregation and Concentrated Poverty
Racial segregation in schools matters deeply for children‘s educational outcomes. In 2007, the St.
Cloud school district was identified as racially isolated—that is, district-wide, enrollment of
protected students is more than twenty percentage points higher than enrollment in an adjoining
district.31 For example, over half of American Indian and black students would need to change
schools in order to achieve a racial composition in schools that reflects the composition in the
metro area (see Table 4 in the Appendix). Racial segregation is correlated with economic
segregation, and children of color are much more likely to attend high poverty schools than their
white counterparts. In the St. Cloud region children of color are much more likely to attend
schools with higher poverty rates than are white students. For example, the average black student
attends a school with a poverty rate of 46.2%, compared to the average white student who attends
a school with a poverty rate of 32.0% (see Table 5 in Appendix).
In addition, there has been an alarming increase in students on Free or Reduced Lunches (FRL) in
the St. Cloud area elementary schools (see Table 1 below). Increases in FRL indicate that
children are experiencing hardship beyond the school walls.
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
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Table 1. St. Cloud Area Public Schools, Free or Reduced Lunches as percentage of student population, (2003/2008)
St. Cloud Area Public Elementary Schools,
Free or Reduced Lunches as Percentage of Student Population
DISTRICT SCHOOL NAME 2003 FRL
2003 TOTAL
% FRL 2008 FRL
2008 TOTAL % FRL
% Change '03-'08
SARTELL-ST. STEPHEN SCHOOL DISTRICT OAK RIDGE ELEMENTARY 0 0 0 60 587 10.2 /
SARTELL-ST. STEPHEN SCHOOL DISTRICT PINE MEADOW ELEMENTARY 50 623 8 120 692 17.3 140
SAUK RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT MISSISSIPPI HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY 87 365 23.8 209 732 28.5 140.23
SAUK RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT PLEASANT VIEW ELEMENTARY 171 816 20.9 167 635 26.3 -2.33
ST. CLOUD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT DISCOVERY COMMUNITY ELEMENTARY 246 636 38.6 432 653 66.1 75.61
ST. CLOUD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT LINCOLN ELEMENTARY 156 260 60 193 302 63.9 23.72
ST. CLOUD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT MADISON ELEMENTARY 186 451 41.2 327 590 55.4 75.81
ST. CLOUD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT OAK HILL COMMUNITY ELEMENTARY 144 953 15.1 251 1011 24.8 74.31
ST. CLOUD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT CLEARWATER ELEMENTARY 107 407 26.3 127 428 29.6 19.63
ST. CLOUD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT TALAHI COMMUNITY ELEMENTARY 311 684 45.4 470 673 69.8 51.13
ST. CLOUD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT WESTWOOD ELEMENTARY 102 376 27.1 269 609 44.1 163.73
STRIDE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL KENNEDY ELEMENTARY 118 357 33.1 137 459 29.8 16.1
Source. Data provided by the Institute of Race and Poverty, University of Minnesota
School poverty has serious implications not just for students, but for districts, communities, and
the region. Research has consistently found that there is a ―negative effect of high poverty
concentrations in school on students‘ academic achievement.‖ 32 The poverty of a school, far
more than the poverty of an individual, determines students‘ educational outcomes and
impoverished students do better if they live in middle-class neighborhoods and/or attend more
affluent schools.33 We have known these truths for a long time; the 1966 Coleman Report (a study
of inequality of opportunity in education) concluded that concentrated poverty inevitably
depresses achievement on a school-wide and a district-wide basis—the effects are not contained
within school walls.34
The results in Table 1 are sobering. Half of St. Cloud District 742‘s elementary schools are
suffering from concentrated poverty and others are at risk. Researchers commonly refer to a
―tipping point,‖ that point at which a school crosses a threshold and the problem spirals beyond
the control of the school. Most experts place that point at 50%. At this point, all students‘
prospects are depressed.35 As one study has found, ―high poverty schools have to devote far more
time and resources to family and health crises, security, children who come to school not
speaking standard English, seriously disturbed children, children with no educational materials in
their homes, and many children with very weak educational preparation.‖ 36 Another report finds
that once the concentration of poverty in a district reaches 60% or above, the district can no
longer rely on its own internal efforts to improve outcomes.37 Three schools in the St. Cloud
Public School District have reached this point.
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Educational Proficiency and Attainment
While overall the district realized some improvement between 2007-08 and 2008-09 in math and
reading proficiency, this obscures some extreme disparities in proficiency levels among racial and
ethnic groups. For example, in the 2007-08 school year, white students had a math proficiency
level that was approaching two and a half times that of black students. And in fact, not all groups
have progressed—American Indian students‘ math proficiency fell, from 62% to 50% (see
Figure 1). For both time periods, white students had a reading proficiency level that was
approximately double that of black students (see Figure 2).
Figure 1. St. Cloud Area School District 742 Office of Equity Services.
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Figure 2. St. Cloud Area School District 742 Office of Equity Services.
Statewide, American Indian, Asian, African American, and Hispanic students are less likely to
graduate than whites. In fact, American Indian and Hispanic students are five times more likely to
drop out than whites, black students four times as likely and Asian students twice as likely to drop
out. Similar disparities are evident in Minneapolis, where American Indian and Hispanic students
are three times as likely to drop out as white students, and black students twice as likely. In St.
Cloud, extreme racial disparities in educational attainment among students is also evident,
especially for Hispanic students, who are half as likely to graduate as white students, and six
times more likely to drop out than white students (refer to Tables 7 and 8 in the Appendix).
In fact, St. Cloud is doing worse than Minnesota on some indicators. For example, for both 2007-
08 and 2008-09, black students, both English proficient and non-proficient, are doing
substantially worse on math and reading proficiency than the state average (see Figures 3 and 4
below). These figures illustrate that the educational systems in place, even in St. Cloud, are not
serving students of color well enough.
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Figure 3. St. Cloud Area School District 742 Office of Equity Services.
Figure 4. St. Cloud Area School District 742 Office of Equity Services.
Racialized educational disparities also suggest a ―mismatch‖ between our educational services
and the kids they are serving, and this could include both exclusion and devaluation of cultural
resources and opportunities. Experiences of subtle racism, low expectations of teachers, and
culturally invalidating classrooms decrease self-esteem and the students‘ belief in their ability to
learn. Studies on the effects of teachers‘ race on their perceptions of children‘s abilities found
that teachers tended to rate students more highly if they shared the same racial identity.38Research
consistently shows that white teachers perceive black males to be academically inferior, lack
adequate leadership and social skills.39 This cultural mismatch in the classroom has been linked to
the disproportionate placement of black students in special education and in suspension40 – and
the increased school suspensions has been linked to their overrepresentation in the juvenile justice
system.41
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The health of children also has serious implications for educational achievement. Lower birth
weight babies go on to suffer from long-term disabilities, impaired physical and cognitive
development, and decreased health overall throughout childhood.42 In St. Cloud, African
American women are more than twice as likely to give birth to low birth weight babies compared
to white women, and Hispanic women are 1.2 times more likely (Refer to Table 9 in the
Appendix). Interventions designed to address educational disparities must also take into account
the critical impact of health on educational outcomes.
These figures are a wake-up call to people who care about the future of St. Cloud and the state as
a whole. The region is becoming increasingly diverse, which means its workforce is changing,
and yet many children are not performing well on proficiency tests, let alone graduating.
This has serious implications for whether marginalized students will have the opportunity to
obtain well-paying jobs and become contributing members to society. Education is meant to be
the great engine of our society, and its importance for our future health and vitality, especially in
our increasingly global world, cannot be overstated. When districts produce such highly
inequitable outcomes along educational indicators, they have ramifications beyond these children
and beyond school walls—ramifications that can last a lifetime. For example, businesses may
choose to bypass the community (or relocate) because the community lacks a skilled workforce.
Housing Opportunities
The following sections discuss the uneven access to housing opportunity for marginalized groups
in the St. Cloud region. For example, homeownership opportunity for black households has
declined substantially, from a homeownership rate of 27% in 1990 to 18% in 2000. But housing
opportunity is also restricted in the rental sector, where black households spend half of their
income on rent. Such declines in opportunity have critical implications not only for the ability of
households of color to build wealth through homeownership, but for the ability of rental
households to access other resources necessary for a healthy quality of life, such as spending on
food and healthcare.
Affordable and sustainable housing is a critical access point for opportunity, and neighborhood
conditions affect positive life outcomes.43 For example, housing segregation is part of the cause
of concentrated school poverty, which in turn impacts educational outcomes. When we talk about
housing, we are talking about more than just bricks and mortar. Housing opportunity has a direct
impact on the availability of opportunities in other areas of our lives and our children‘s lives—
from the quality of schools our children attend, to accessibility of sustainable jobs and
transportation, to health, to the ability to accumulate equity and pass it along to our children.44
Homeownership
Access to homeownership is uneven by race in St. Cloud. In some cases, the racial disparity in
homeownership has widened significantly. For example, the white homeownership rate in 1990
was 2.6 times that of blacks but, in 2000, it was a startling four times greater than the black
homeownership rate. The percentage of black and Hispanic households in the region who owned
homes decreased between 1990 and 2000 (see Table 10 in the Appendix). The only other group
besides whites to see gains in homeownership during this period was Asian households, with a
1.2% gain.
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When we compare housing opportunity in St. Cloud to Minneapolis-St. Paul (see Table 11 in the
Appendix), we see that homeownership opportunity for households of color may actually be
worse in St. Cloud. For example, in Minneapolis-St. Paul there was little change in black
homeownership rates from 1990 to 2000 and slight growth in white homeownership rates, such
that in 2000, white homeownership was 2.4 times that of the black homeownership rate,
compared to 2.3 in 1990. For the same time period in St. Cloud however, the black-white
homeownership disparity grew substantially-- in 2000, it was four times the rate. This reflected
not just a growth in white homeownership rate, but a steep fall in black homeownership rates. St.
Cloud also lags in homeownership rates for all groups (with the exception of Hispanic
homeownership) compared to Minneapolis-St. Paul.
The barriers to homeownership for households of color in any given region are many, and may
include factors such as a lack of affordable housing and the concentration of affordable housing
into distressed neighborhoods; housing discrimination in the private real estate market; and
discriminatory or predatory lending practices. For example, in the St. Cloud region, while
analyses of the percent of high interest rate refinance or home purchase loans by race were not
possible due to the small proportion of borrowers of color, there nonetheless was a geographic
footprint of these high cost, unsustainable loans that indicate a racial divide. In 2008, 13% of
high-cost home purchase loans and 18.9% of high-cost refinance loans were located in mixed-
race neighborhoods,45 compared to 9.5% of high-cost home purchase and 13.3% of high-cost
refinance loans in predominantly white neighborhoods (see Tables 12 and 13 in the Appendix).
Affordable Rental
Not only are the barriers to homeownership significant for marginalized populations, but barriers
to renting are also significant. In fact, black households are paying almost half of their income
alone on rent in St. Cloud (see Table 14 in the Appendix).With such high burdens, families must
make choices between other necessities such as health care, transportation, child care, groceries
and so forth. One study found that for families with children paying more than 50% of their
income on rent, they spent 30% less on food, 50% less on clothing, and 70% less on healthcare.46
Households of color, with the exception of Hispanic households, are more cost burdened than
white households in St. Cloud.
And statistics may not always fully capture how segregation or discrimination plays out. Focus
group participants listed additional barriers, i.e. ―Landlords will say there is an apartment
available, but when I go and they see how I am dressed [as a Somali], they say only three people
for a three-bedroom….‖ Another participant described how ―landlords do not maintain
apartments to the same level in low-income areas as in other areas.‖ In 2006, the St. Cloud
Human Rights Office confirmed 37 cases of housing discrimination.47
Economic Opportunities
Unemployment
As unemployment rates rose nationwide from the economic fallout of the foreclosure crisis,
Minnesota reported an unemployment rate of 8.2% in March 2010.48 While these figures indicate
that people across the state of Minnesota are struggling to find work, they do not reflect the
startling racial inequities.
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For example, racial disparities in St. Cloud‘s unemployment rate extend well before the current
recession hit at the end of 2007. In 2000, the unemployment rate for black men was double that
for whites; for Hispanic men, the unemployment rate was triple that for whites.49 For women the
divide was even greater, with an unemployment rate for American Indian women nearly nine
times the unemployment rate for white women (see Table 15 in Appendix).
We know that the recession has played out unevenly across groups. Consider that in 2009, white
Minnesotans had a 7.1% unemployment rate, but black Minnesotans had a 22.5% unemployment
rate and Latinos a 15.5% unemployment rate.50 These portrayed some of the highest gaps
between whites and people of color in the nation, placing Minnesota as second in the nation in
racial gaps in jobless rates.51
The link between quality education and employment opportunity is clear. In fact, experts cite
unequal educational and training opportunities as key causes for such extreme disparities in
unemployment.52 As discussed above, the St. Cloud region reports high and in some cases,
growing, disparities in educational attainment between white students and students of color. Even
as the economy begins its slow recovery, these jobless gaps will remain as long as the gaps in
education do.
The outcome of such racially disparate and prolonged unemployment rates is sure to be followed
by substantial increases in poverty. In 1999 in St. Cloud, the poverty rate for Asian and Pacific
Islanders, American Indians, and Hispanics was approximately three times the poverty rate for
whites; the poverty rate for Blacks was nearly four times the rate for whites (Refer to Table 16 in
the Appendix).53 The disparity in the child poverty rate is even more startling, with the rate for
black children approximately five times the child poverty rate for white children (refer to Table
17 in the Appendix).54
Children of color in the region were already at risk well before the recession, but we can expect
that their position has worsened as a result of our economic crisis. In fact, some analysts are
predicting that for 2010 and beyond, nationally children in general will see a 9.3 percentage point
increase (from 18.0% to 27.3%), but black children will see an astonishing 17.8 percentage point
increase (from 34.5% to 52.3%).55
Limited Career Options
While accessing employment opportunities may be difficult for many people in Minnesota,
newcomers may face even greater challenges, for example African refugees. In addition to being
confronted with a new community that is sometimes less than accepting, newcomers are also
often unequipped with skills that are required to obtain high paying jobs. As a result, many
newcomers find themselves relegated to low-paying, unskilled work that does not require English
proficiency, such as work in factories, including those in the meatpacking industry.56 Given the
limited skills and financial opportunities of these jobs, many newcomers find themselves
struggling to build a new life in Minnesota. Their economic opportunities are limited which then
affects opportunities for their children and future generations.
In fact, one of the reasons many Minnesota towns are seeing such demographic shifts is because
they still contain slaughterhouse or processing jobs—jobs that, in some cases, only the most
desperate to be employed will take. And this is not surprising, given the conditions associated
with these types of occupations.57 Occupations in the meat packing industry can be extremely
dangerous.58
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The vast racial disparities in unemployment and poverty rates indicate that our communities of
color do not have equal economic and employment opportunities in the St. Cloud region. While
many of the economic disparities are manifestations of inequities in our educational system, there
is more to the story, and it includes our public transportation system and the criminal justice
system.
Transportation
A public transportation system that does not meet the needs of residents can be a significant
barrier to employment opportunities, and indeed, stakeholders identified transportation barriers
for people without cars in St. Cloud to access region-wide employment opportunities: ―Jennie-O
and Gold’n Plump are the only places hiring, but there is no transportation to those sites” and
“Buses don’t run late enough to get night shift people back home and some routes don’t operate
on weekends.”
Given the disproportionate reliance of people of color on public transportation, barriers in
transportation may be particularly salient for these groups. For example, in 2000, black residents
were 8 times more likely to commute by bus than white residents, Asians three times more likely,
and American Indian and Hispanics twice as likely (Refer to Table 18 in the Appendix).
The St. Cloud Area Planning Organization has recently undertaken an update to its regional
transportation plan (the Plan). While formulating the Plan, the St. Cloud APO, along with Metro
Bus, studied the St. Cloud metropolitan area and identified areas that were underserved or un-
served and analyzed proposed transportation project impacts on minority and low-income
populations. The study recognized the shortcomings of the current bus routes and proposed a plan
for restructuring. In formulating a revised plan, the APO also recognized that it must ―identify
minority, low-income populations so needs can be addressed, and the burdens of transportation
investments can be fairly distributed.‖59 Although the St. Cloud APO has taken steps to improve
public transportation so that it may better serve the community, given the economic downturn and
subsequent cuts in Federal and State funding, the restructuring plans have been put on hold until
the funding situation improves.60 As such, their initiative ―Moving Forward,‖ which would have
added approximately 10,295 annual operating hours and serviced new areas, has been delayed.61
This means that for now, many people will continue to be left without a way to get to work.
Criminal Justice System
The criminal justice system also plays a significant role in hampering the opportunities for many
in our marginalized communities. Numerous studies reveal that even after controlling for the
seriousness of the offense, people of color are more likely to be treated more harshly and placed
in a correctional facility as a punishment when compared to whites.62 While public attention tends
to focus on the disproportionate number of blacks in confinement, over-representation is often a
by-product of the accumulation of actions that occur at earlier points in the justice system such as
the decision to arrest, the decision to detain, and discretion involved in sentencing.
Although Minnesota has one of the lowest imprisonment rates in the nation,63 when disaggregated
by race, Minnesota exhibits alarming disparities. In 2004, Minnesota‘s overall racial disparity
was more than twice the national average64 and in 2006 Minnesota reported a black-to-white
imprisonment ratio of 12:165 that was the twelfth highest in the nation, exceeding the national
average of 7:1.66
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One explanation for these disparities is changes in sentencing. For example, beginning in 1987,
the state legislature set different thresholds and harsher punishments for crack cocaine than
powder cocaine offenses, such that possession of one ounce of crack cocaine would be treated the
same as possession of one pound of powder cocaine, and carry a sentence of 86 months in
prison.67 Drug offenders comprise a growing share of the prison population in the state as well as
the nation.68 The differences in sentencing established by the legislature meant that crack cocaine
offenders, who are mostly African American, were sent to prison, and powder cocaine offenders,
who are mostly white, were not.69 This differential sentencing was judged unconstitutional in
State v. Russell in 1991 precisely because of the disparate impact, and the court decreased the
penalties associated with crack cocaine to match those associated with powder cocaine. In
response, the Minnesota State legislature voted to dramatically increase the punishments
associated with drug offenses, raising the penalties associated with powder cocaine to those of
crack cocaine, as well as amending the definition of a sale to include ―possession with intent to
sell,‖ decisions that would again disproportionately impact blacks because it ―cast a wider net of
stiff penalties.‖70
Another explanation for disparities in incarceration is racial profiling. A 2002 study examining
racial profiling in St. Cloud found that American Indian, Black, and Latino drivers were subjected
to searches at greater rates than whites (see Table 19 in the Appendix).71 This data provided the
basis for a Community Policing Agreement organized by ISAIAH leaders in St. Cloud to address
inequities in discretionary traffic stops (where the driver has not committed any traffic or driving
violation) and searches by the St. Cloud Police Department. A statewide study on racial profiling
revealed that although officers searched white drivers at a lower rate than drivers of color, they
were more likely to find contraband in the searches of white drivers—24% of searches of white
drivers produced contraband while only 11% of black drivers and 9% of Latinos did.72 Similarly
in St. Cloud, discovery of contraband in searches of drivers of color were lower (30%) than in
searches of white drivers (35%).73
Differential treatment by the criminal justice system and higher incarceration rates has a
tremendous impact on employment prospects. As one person stated, “The justice system creates
a downward spiral for too many black men; they can‘t find housing or work.‖
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Section III. Seeking an Alternative Path to Prosperity and Opportunity
Reviewing data on disparities can be overwhelming, but the good news is that change is possible.
The old systems that perpetuate inequities can be dismantled, and a new St. Cloud region that
works for all built in their place. A first step is agreeing on a vision of what it means to be a
―most livable city,‖ and understanding how creating a new path to healthy communities – a path
that is inclusive, equitable, and sustainable – can benefit us all. For example, building an
educational system that prepares all students to be contributing members in our communities will
help our entire region prosper.
To achieve this change requires acknowledging the role that race has played, and continues to
play, in our conversations. We have learned that if we do not explicitly name racial inequities and
combat them, we can inadvertently reinforce racial and economic disparities. And we must act
together in ways that place us on a new path to healthy communities. This requires collaboration
across groups, faiths, organizations, and communities. It means seeking out and listening to those
voices that have not been included before. It also means reaching out to share the lessons we as a
community have learned, or are in the process of learning.
The Regional Perspective
Opportunity to Collaborate
St. Cloud has an opportunity to reach out to other smaller Midwestern towns in creating
welcoming environments for immigrants. There is a growing need for these towns to learn from
the communities that have experienced such changes about what went right. For example, St.
Cloud took a series of steps in preparation for the arrival of Somali refugees that included
educational presentations for residents and service providers on Somali culture and Islamic
beliefs, cultural awareness training for City administrators, translation of brochures pertaining to
human rights and housing opportunities, and funding to develop Somali organizations to serve
cultural and religious needs of the refugees. The ―first wave‖ of communities – St. Cloud,
Willmar, Rochester—have been dealing with shifting demographics for about a decade; the next
wave of even smaller and more rural communities are just starting now. While St. Cloud is well-
positioned to help other small Midwestern towns create welcoming environments for immigrants,
there is also an opportunity to learn from its peers. For example, any attempt to build more
diverse and integrated schools must have creative, multicultural curriculums at their core.
St. Cloud also has an opportunity to learn from larger urban areas that have been struggling with
this path of crisis for much longer, and to avoid the same pitfalls. Because when a region or
community doesn‘t do well on any one of these indicators of equitable community access to
opportunity such as homeownership, education, income and so forth, then opportunity for
everyone begins to slip. If people cannot find or access jobs in the region, find affordable
housing, or enjoy quality education, they will leave and take their resources with them. St. Cloud
will struggle. As a regional center, this is not the direction we want to head. Large urban areas
(like the Twin Cities) have started to be proactive about adjusting to change, but the challenges of
this adjustment are only recently coming to a head in the St. Cloud region-- and this is therefore a
moment of opportunity to intervene in these troublesome outcomes.
St. Cloud is now considered a part of the Twin Cities metro area (Minneapolis-St. Paul-St.
Cloud, MINN.-WIS.). The entire region will prosper only if each community does its part while
recognizing that it is part of a larger system. When we are looking at key indicators of well-being,
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
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we must not only be concerned about disparities across race, but also about disparities across
space.
People and communities are differently situated, and these differences matter. Although we are
part of a larger region and we can learn from our neighbors, we also have to recognize our own
unique challenges and opportunities. We must acknowledge that the path to crisis plays out
differently across communities and people and, while the three principles of the path to health are
generally applicable, our path will look different from the Twin Cities path. We have to
recognize these differences when implementing the following principles to move us on the path to
healthy communities.
Key principles to guide our action
The challenges of walking this path to a new, more inclusive and opportunity- rich future for
everyone in the St. Cloud region have only become more pronounced with the current economic
crisis. But change is not only possible, it is essential. In the face of these many challenges,
ISAIAH leaders came together to develop new principles to guide the state on a path towards
healthy, equitable, livable communities, and against which policies should be judged. These
principles are:
1. Restorative investment in the most marginalized communities
2. Opening access to opportunity to cultivate all human potential
3. Growing together and developing integrated, connected communities
Restorative investment describes investment directed to those communities most negatively
impacted by our current economic recession and those who have borne the brunt of policies that
favored new, suburban, white communities. Examples of these types of investment include
community development, resident capacity building, job training, small and minority business
lending, and neighborhood revitalization. The health of the region and the state rests upon the
health of each of its communities.
Opening access to opportunity is defined as affirmatively connecting people to opportunity
through, for example, opening up housing choices through sustainable homeownership options,
re-thinking school policies, and providing quality, comprehensive public transit that connects
more people to opportunity. To cultivate the health of the state, we need to grow opportunity for
all our residents.
Growing together is defined as building healthy environments for all and providing newcomers
with access to opportunity. An example of this might be building strong coalitions between city-
suburban-tribal governments, developing regional master plans, or coordinating and integrating
housing, transportation, and infrastructure plans. Growing opportunity for all cannot be
undertaken in segregated communities.
These principles are the true markers of success for communities. To the extent that policies and
decision-making processes achieve these goals, then we can confidently say that Minnesota truly
is a state of opportunity, where the health of the communities and people of Minnesota is the top
priority. Embracing these principles in the St. Cloud region will make us a model for not only the
state, but for the nation.
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Conclusion
We assessed opportunity for the St. Cloud region by reviewing data along general markers of
community health: education, housing, and employment opportunity. This analysis showed that
despite the many assets St. Cloud has to offer, the region is on a path to crisis, as are many
communities in Minnesota. The most significant indicator of this path to crisis is the rapid
concentration of school poverty and racial isolation in the St. Cloud area, trends that have impacts
beyond the school walls and signal that the children in these schools might carry disadvantage for
the rest of their lives. The racial disparities in housing, employment, and education opportunities
matter not only for St. Cloud and its families, but also for the future of the entire region.
However, these inequities are built, and they can be dismantled. A new path is not only possible,
it is imperative.
To embark on a journey down a new path to healthy communities, we must change how we
think—we have to move past the ―disparity‖ frame and beyond assigning blame to individuals.
Instead, we need to work within a frame where we share the same goals and values but recognize
that the path to reaching these goals and values will differ according to the unique experiences of
different groups. There is no ―one size fits all‖ approach.
This report is intended to be a starting point for a conversation of how to move beyond our
differences and unite under a new world view that seeks to lift us all up. What are the shared
goals, targets, and values that we hold for our communities in the St. Cloud region? Is a 74%
math proficiency level for white students acceptable? We know that a 35% math proficiency level
for our students of color is not acceptable. We should be striving higher for all our children
through a commitment to transforming institutions and systems to value and utilize the gifts—and
meet the needs—of every child; it is simply that more concerted efforts might need to be targeted
to certain groups that have experienced prolonged marginalization to lift them to the goal.
Our work cannot be undertaken in isolation from other communities. We can no longer consider
ourselves as separate from the Twin Cities – the entire region is increasingly drawing work
populations in two directions: from far-out exurban bedroom communities where people
commute into the Twin Cities, and from the Twin Cities where residents are drawn to jobs in the
St. Cloud region.
Our work also cannot be undertaken in isolation from other groups, including those with which
we have traditionally not worked. We must make every effort to reach out to those who have not
had a voice at any table. We must engage in conversations with each other over shared values and
hopes for the future.
To help in these efforts, we have developed a guide, ―Shining the Light: A Practical Guide to Co-
creating a Path to Healthy Communities,‖ that is designed to help people work through these new
ways of thinking, talking, and acting around race and racial equity. This field guide shows how to
uncover the assumptions, policies, and processes that shape the path of crisis and create new ones
to forge a path to healthy communities. We encourage you to seek out this guide to help you with
your reflections on racial equity issues in the St. Cloud region.
When we do all of these things—thinking, talking and acting in new ways—then we are
beginning the journey down the path to healthy communities, and rejecting the path to crisis that
has held us all back for too long.
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Appendix
Table 2. Percentage of Student Enrollments in K-12 that Are Students of Color in Selected Rural Minnesota Communities, 2001-2007
2001- 2002- 2003- 2004- 2005- 2006- Percent Change, 2001-2007 City 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Albert Lea 14% 15% 15% 15% 16% 18% 29%
Cold Spring 1% 3% 4% 4% 5% 5% 400%
Faribault 17% 18% 20% 22% 23% 25% 47%
Mankato 10% 11% 12% 13% 14% 14% 40%
Marshall 17% 17% 16% 17% 18% 19% 12%
Owatonna 13% 14% 15% 16% 16% 17% 31%
Pelican Rapids 20% 23% 25% 27% 29% 32% 60%
St. Cloud 11% 13% 14% 16% 18% 21% 91%
Tracy 19% 19% 22% 22% 23% 21% 11%
Worthington 35% 38% 41% 42% 44% 46% 31%
Source. Data Center, Minnesota Department of Education. “School and District Enrollment Files.”
Table 3.Demographic Changes in St. Cloud Area School Districts, 1990/2000 and 2009/2010
Demographic Changes, St. Cloud Area School Districts 1990-2000 2009-2010 % Change,
1990-2010 Students of Color Total Students of Color Total
St. Cloud District 742 791 10093 2434 9474 207.1
Sauk Rapids-Rice District 47 89 3394 335 3717 276.4
Sartell-St. Stephens District 748 56 2371 129 3485 130.3
Source. Minnesota Department of Education
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Table 4. Segregation of Public Primary School Students, Dissimilarity by Race/Ethnicity (2007/2008)
Segregation of Public Primary School Students, Dissimilarity by Race/Ethnicity (2007-08)
St. Cloud Minneapolis-St.Paul
Hispanic---Non-Hispanic White 47.4% 55.3%
Non. Hisp. Asian---Non-Hispanic White 47.3% 49.4%
Non. Hisp. Indian---Non-Hispanic White 51.9% 51.0%
Non-Hispanic Black---Non-Hispanic White 53.8% 61.0%
Source: Harvard Public School, Diversity Data. The Dissimilarity Index is another indicator of the extent of segregation in St. Cloud and Minneapolis-St. Paul area schools. Table 3 shows the evenness with which one racial group is located with respect to another racial group. The value represents the proportion of one racial group that would need to relocate to another school in order for the racial composition of each school to mirror the racial composition of all students in the metro area as a whole.
Table 5. Poverty Rate of School Where Average Primary School Student Attends by Race/Ethnicity (2007/2008)
Poverty Rate of School Where Average Primary School Student Attends by Race/Ethnicity (2007-08)
St. Cloud Minneapolis-St. Paul
Hispanic 41.6% 54.1%
Non-Hispanic White 32.0% 22.0%
Non-Hispanic Black 46.2% 57.8%
Non-Hispanic American Indian 44.4% 50.7%
Non-Hispanic Asian/Pac. Islander 40.9% 47.4%
Source: Harvard School of Public Health, Diversity data
Table 6. Homeownership Rate by Race/Ethnicity in St. Cloud (2000)
Homeownership Rate by Race/Ethnicity (2000)
Metro Area
Black 18.2%
Indian 36.6%
Asian/Pacific Islander 37.6%
Hispanic 43.2%
Non-Hispanic White 73.6%
Source: 2000 Census Summary File 1
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Table 7. Graduation Rates by Ethnicity, 2006-2007
Graduation Rate by Ethnicity, 2006-2007
Statewide Ratio* St. Cloud Ratio* Minneapolis Ratio*
American Indian 70.45 0.75 100 1.09 50.56 0.58
Asian 89.18 0.95 88.46 0.96 82.37 0.95
Hispanic 70.23 0.74 50 0.55 51.97 0.6
Black 73.18 0.78 70.73 0.77 67.32 0.78
White 94.27 1 91.74 1 86.52 1
Source. 2000-2001 Completion Study, Minnesota Department of Children Families and Learning-Office of Information Technologies. *Ratio was calculated by dividing each rate by the white graduation rate.
Table 8. Dropout Rates by Ethnicity, 2006-2007
Dropout Rate by Ethnicity, 2006-2007
Statewide Ratio* St. Cloud Ratio* Minneapolis Ratio*
American Indian 29.55 5.16 0 0 49.44 3.67
Asian 10.82 1.89 11.54 1.4 17.63 1.31
Hispanic 29.77 5.2 50 6.05 48.03 3.56
Black 26.82 4.68 29.27 3.54 32.68 2.42
White 5.73 1 8.26 1 13.48 1
Source. 2000-2001 Completion Study, Minnesota Department of Children Families and Learning-Office of Information Technologies. *Ratio was calculated by dividing each drop-out rate by the white drop-out rate.
Table 9. Low Birth weight Births by Race/Ethnicity, St. Cloud (2005-2006)
Low Birthweight Births by Race/Ethnicity (2005-2006)
Metro Area
Hispanic 6.3%
Non-Hispanic Black 10.7%
Non-Hispanic White 5.2%
Source. Harvard School of Public Health, Diversity data
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Table 10. St. Cloud Percent Homeowners by Race/Ethnicity (1990/2000)
St. Cloud: Homeownership by Race and Ethnicity, Percent Owners
1990 2000
White Households 70.90% 73.60%
Black Households 27.10% 18.60%
Hispanic Households 47.60% 43.20%
Asian Households 37.20% 38.40%
Source. The Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research.
Table 11. Comparison of Percent Homeowners by Race/Ethnicity, 1990/2000
1990 Homeownership by Race and Ethnicity, Percent Owners
St. Cloud Minneapolis-St.Paul Statewide
White Households 70.90% 71.10% 73.30%
Black Households 27.10% 30.80% 30.90%
Hispanic Households 47.60% 47.60% 46.70%
Asian Households 37.20% 41.70% 41.30%
2000 Homeownership by Race and Ethnicity, Percent Owners
St. Cloud Minneapolis-St.Paul Statewide
White Households 73.60% 76.40% 77.20%
Black Households 18.60% 31.80% 31.50%
Hispanic Households 43.20% 40.90% 42.90%
Asian Households 38.40% 53.40% 53.30%
Source. The Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research.
Table 12. High Interest Rate Loans as Share of Home Purchase Loans by Neighborhood Racial/Ethnic Composition, 2008 in St. Cloud
High Interest Rate Loans as Share of Home Purchase Loans by Neighborhood Racial/Ethnic Composition, 2008
Metro Area
Predominantly White, non-Hispanic 9.50%
Mixed Neighborhood 13.00%
Predominantly Minority N/A
Source. Analysis of 2008 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
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Table 13. High Interest Rate Loans as Share of Refinance Loans by Neighborhood Racial/Ethnic Composition, 2008, St. Cloud
High Interest Rate Loans as Share of Refinance Loans by Neighborhood Racial/Ethnic Composition, 2008 Metro Area
Predominantly White, non-Hispanic 13.30%
Mixed Neighborhood 18.90%
Predominantly minority N/A
Source. Analysis of 2008 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Table 14. Share of Renters in St. Cloud paying more than 30% of income on Rent, by Race/Ethnicity (2000)
Share of Renters Paying More than 30% of Income for Rent by Race/Ethnicity (2000)
Metro Area
Black 49.8%
Indian 34.8%
Hispanic 27.9%
Asian/Pacific Islander 33.8%
Non-Hispanic White 31.8%
Source. 2000 Census Summary File 3
Table 15. St. Cloud Unemployment Rate by Race/Ethnicity and Gender
St. Cloud Unemployment Rate by Race/Ethnicity and Gender
2000 Male Female
Black 8.0% 5.0%
American Indian 5.0% 27.0%
Asian/Pacific Islander 3.0% 6.0%
Hispanic 14.0% 4.0%
Non-Hispanic White 4.0% 3.0% Source. Harvard School of Public Health, Diversity data
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
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Table 16. St. Cloud Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity (1999)
Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity (1999)
Metro Area
Black 33.0%
American Indian 21.0%
Hispanic 22.0%
Asian/Pacific Islander 24.0%
Non-Hispanic White 8.0%
Source. Harvard School of Public Health, Diversity data
Table 17. St. Cloud Child Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity (1999)
Child Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity (1999)
Metro Area
Black 29.0%
American Indian 16.0%
Hispanic 25.0%
Asian/Pacific Islander 12.0%
Non-Hispanic White 6.0%
Source. Harvard School of Public Health, Diversity data
Table 18. Share Commuting by Public Transportation by Race/Ethnicity, St. Cloud (2000)
Share Commuting by Public Transportation by Race/Ethnicity (1999)
Metro Area
Black 8.0%
American Indian 2.0%
Hispanic 2.0%
Asian/Pacific Islander 3.0%
Non-Hispanic White 1.0%
Source. Harvard School of Public Health, Diversity data, Census 2000
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
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Table 19. St. Cloud Search Rates by Race, 2002
St. Cloud Search Rates, 2002
Total Stops Total Searches Total Search Rate
American Indian 34 4 11.80%
Asian 293 11 3.80%
Black 581 49 8.40%
Latino 126 13 10.30%
White 7,809 359 4.60%
Total People of Color 1,034 77 7.40%
Total 8,843 436 4.90%
Source. Institute on Race & Poverty, Minnesota Statewide Racial Profiling Report: St. Cloud Police Department
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
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Endnotes
1 Minnesota Minority Education Partnership, Inc. ―State of Students of Color and American Indian
Students, 2009.‖ 2009. Page 11. Available at http://www.mmep.net/2009_Report.html. 2 In the Twin Cities, African Americans are five times more likely to receive a subprime home purchase
loan than whites. Institute on Race and Poverty, ―Communities in Crisis: Race and Mortgage Lending in
the Twin Cities.‖ February 2009. Page 22. Available at
http://www.irpumn.org/uls/resources/projects/IRP_mortgage_study_Feb._11th.pdf 3 Wilkinson, Richard and Kate Pickett. The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.
Penguin, March 2009. 4 Reece, Jason et.al. ―ARRA and the Economic Crisis: One Year Later.‖ The Kirwan Institute for the Study
of Race and Ethnicity. February 2010. Available at
http://fairrecovery.org/docs/ARRAEquityOneYearAnniv_Kirwan_Institute_Feb2010.pdf 5 Amaad Rivera et. Al. Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008. United for a Fair Economy. January 15, 2008.
http://www.faireconomy.org/files/StateOfDream_01_16_08_Web.pdf 6 Children‘s Defense Fund, The State of America’s Children 2008.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/child‐researchdata‐publications/data/state‐of‐americas‐children‐2008‐repo
rt.pdf 7 Bob Herbert, ―Children in Peril.‖ New York Times Op-Ed published April 20, 2009. Herbert is quoting
Dr. Irwin Redlener, president of the Children‘s Health Fund in New York. 8 Children‘s Defense Fund, The State of America’s Children 2008. http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-
research-data-publications/data/state-of-americas-children-2008-report.pdf 9 Minnesota KIDS COUNT Data Book 2009. ―The Building Blocks for Successful Children.‖ Children‘s
Defense Fund-Minnesota. 2009. Page 6. 10 Id. 11 Id. at 12 12 Id. 13 Id. at 7 14 Id. at 6 15
Arloc Sherman. ―Stimulus Keeping 6 Million Americans Out of Poverty in 2009, Estimates Show.”
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Available online at: http://www.cbpp.org/files/9‐9‐09pov2.pdf 16
Iris J. Law, Nicholas Johnson and Elizabeth McNichol. ―Additional Federal Fiscal Relief Needed to
Help States Address Recession‘s Impacts: Without It, States Steps to Balance Budget Could Cost Economy
900,000 Jobs Next Year.‖ Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. January 28, 2010. Available on‐line at
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2988 17
Nicholas Johnson, Phil Oliff and Erica Williams. ―An Update on State Budget Cuts. Governors
Proposing New Round of Cuts for 2011; At Least 43 States Have Already Imposed Cuts That Hurt
Vulnerable Residents.‖ Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. January 28, 2010. Available on‐line at:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1214 18
Stephen J. Schellenberg, Concentration of Poverty and the Ongoing Need for Title I Reform in Hard
Work for Good Schools; Facts Not Fads in Title I Reform (The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University
1998). Page 133. 19 Quotes were edited for readability and consistency. 20
Census 2000, Income and Poverty in 1999, Summary File 3 21
Census 2000, Income and Poverty in 1999, Summary File 3 22
Census 2000, General Housing Characteristics Summary File 3 23 See W. T. Trent, ―Outcomes of School Desegregation: Findings from Longitudinal Research‖, 66 J. Negro Ed.
255 (1997). 24 Minnesota Department of Administration, State Demographic Center. January 2009. Accessed January
14, 2010. Available at http://www.demography.state.mn.us/resource.html?Id=19888 25 Id. 26 Schwei, Tamara Downs and Katherine Fennelly. ―Diversity Coalitions in Rural Minnesota
Communities.‖ Cure Reporter. Winter 2007.
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
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27 Id. at 16 28 Id. 29 Minnesota Minority Education Partnership, Inc. ―State of Students of Color and American Indian
Students, 2009.‖ 2009. Page 7. Available at http://www.mmep.net/2009_Report.html. 30 Supra n. 23 31 Notes, Community Meeting for Integration Planning held March 15, 2008. Accessed online May 14,
2010 at http://isd742.org/Integration.pdf 32 Supra n. 23 33 Supra n. 18 at 130, 137 34 Poverty and Race Research Action Council Annotated Bibliography: The Impact of School-Based
Poverty Concentration on Academic Achievement and Student Outcomes. 35 Id. at 3. 36 See Gary Orfield and John T. Yun, Deepening Segregation In American Public Schools (1997), Harvard
Project on School Desegregation. Available on-line at
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/deseg/Resegregation_American_Schools99.pdf See also,
What Matters Most: Teaching For America’s Future, A Report Of The National Commission On Teaching
America’s Future (Spring 1996): Summary Report. (Racially segregated schools more often rely upon transitory
teachers, have curricula with greater emphasis on remedial courses, higher rates of tardiness and unexcused
absence, and lower rates of extracurricular involvement). 37 Supra n. 34 38 Trammel, Ming et. al. ―African American Male Initiative.‖ The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
and Ethnicity, June 2008. Page 19. 39 Id. at 18 40 Id. at 19 41 Id. at 20. 42 Barton, Paul. 2003. ―Parsing the Achievement Gap: Baselines for Tracking Progress.‖ Policy Information
Center, Education Testing Services. Available online at:
http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICPARSING.pdf. 43 Several decades of social science research show the powerful effect of neighborhood conditions on life
outcomes for residents. For example, housing mobility programs which moved people into lower poverty
neighborhoods have shown the improvements in health, well being, education and employment for low-
income families when they can leave neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. See Orr, Feins, Jacob, and
Beecroft (Abt Associates Inc.) and Sanbonmatsu, Katz, Liebman and Kling (NBER), U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research, Moving To Opportunity
Interim Impacts Evaluation (September 2003). Living in a neighborhood of concentrated disadvantage and
poverty can severely inhibit life outcomes, especially for young children. One recent study found that the
effect of living in a neighborhood of disadvantage for young children was so severe it was equivalent to
missing an entire year of school. See Robert J. Sampson, Patrick Sharkey, and Stephen W. Raudenbush,
―Durable effects of concentrated disadvantage on verbal ability among African-American children.‖
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(3): 845-852 (October 28, 2007). 44 Consider housing opportunity in terms of building wealth. In 2007, the average white household had 15
times as much total wealth as the average African-American or Latino household. If home equity is
excluded, and only financial wealth considered, the ratio jumps to about 100:1. Homeownership is an
important means to closing the racial wealth gap, especially because homeowners of color are more reliant
than white households on housing for wealth, with 95% of wealth for Black households, and 96% of wealth
for Hispanic households derived from their primary residence, compared to 70% of white wealth. See
Dumhoff, G. William. ―Power in America: Wealth, Income, and Power.‖ September 2005 (updated April
2010). Accessed May 14, 2010 at http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html. The
recent subprime and foreclosure crisis, however, has likely increased the wealth gap. In fact, homeowners
of color are expected to lose between $164 billion and $213 billion in wealth from the fallout. See
DEMOS. ―Beyond the Mortgage Meltdown: Addressing the Current Crisis, Avoiding a Future
Catastrophe.‖ 2008. P.16. 45 Note: Predominantly White is defined as a neighborhood with less than 10% minority in 2000.
Predominantly minority neighborhoods defined as those that were 80% or more minority in 2000. Mixed
neighborhoods defined as those that were between 10% and 80% minority in 2000.
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
33
46Partnership for America‘s Economic Success. ―The Hidden Costs of the Housing Crisis: The Impact of
Housing on Young Children‘s Odds of Success.‖ Issue Brief No. 7. July 2008. Accessed May 14, 2010 at
http://www.partnershipforsuccess.org/docs/research_brief_200807_housing.pdf 47 Create Community. Housing Access. Accessed May 27, 2010 at
http://www.createcommunity.info/housing.html 48 Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Positively Minnesota.
Unemployment Statistics. March 2010. Retrieved
http://www.positivelyminnesota.com/apps/lmi/laus/CurrentStats.aspx 49
Harvard School of Public Health. Diversity Data. St. Cloud, MN: Summary Profile. Retrieved
http://diversitydata.sph.harvard.edu/Data/Profiles/Show.aspx?loc=1188¬es=True&cat=-1 50 Baran, Madeleine. ―Minnesota #2 in nation in racial gap in jobless rate.‖ Minnesota Public Radio. May
24, 2010. 51 Id. 52 Id. 53 Harvard School of Public Health. Diversity Data. St. Cloud, MN: Economic Opportunities Profile.
Retrieved from
http://diversitydata.sph.harvard.edu/Data/Profiles/Show.aspx?loc=1188¬es=True&cat=7 54 Harvard School of Public Health. Diversity Data. St. Cloud, MN: Economic Opportunities Profile.
Retrieved from
http://diversitydata.sph.harvard.edu/Data/Profiles/Show.aspx?loc=1188¬es=True&cat=7 55 Mishel, Lawrence. ―Sounding the Alarm: Update on the Economic Downturn.‖ May 21, 2009. Available
at http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/sounding_the_alarm/ 56 Grossman, Dr. Zoltan. Assistant Professor of Geography. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Somali
Immigrant Settlement in Small Communities, Presentation. Retrieved from
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=3&ved=0CCoQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fa
cademic.evergreen.edu%2Fg%2Fgrossmaz%2FSomalis2.ppt&rct=j&q=refugees+in+St.+Cloud+employme
nt&ei=GCzkS6KqJpK2NpHTkaIH&usg=AFQjCNG91LBcfmZ7wl38uQWRw96UOmapFA 57Ruckelshaus, Cathy, Amy Sugimori, Prita Lal, and Rebecca Smith. ―Holding the Wage Floor:
Enforcement of Wage and Hour Standards for Low-Wage Workers in an Era of Government Inaction and
Employer Unaccountability.‖ National Employment Law Project Immigrant and Nonstandard Worker
Project Policy Update. October 2006. Page 2. Accessed August 18, 2009 at
http://www.mobilityagenda.org/holdwage.pdf 58 For example, in an examination of working conditions and government protections for poultry processing
workers in North Carolina, researchers found extensive violations of health and safety standards, with little
to no recourse for workers. Extensive injuries on the job were found as a result of industry deregulation that
allowed for increases in line speeds of up to 91 birds a minute. Injuries included severed fingers, carpal
tunnel syndrome, and chronic leg and back pain. Workers that were injured on the job were expected to
report back to work before they were healed or risk being fired. The compensation was negligible, with line
workers earning an average of $5 to $6 an hour, for 8 to 9 hours a day, 6 days a week. While on the job,
workers were forced to stand in pools of grease and water without boots for protection, and were forced to
endure overflowing toilets. Within an eight hour day, workers were allowed two 7-minute breaks only, and
if feeling sick from the noxious odors and conditions, were sometimes forced to vomit where they worked.
Elaine Dodge and Terri Shuck. ―Lessons from Poultry Plant Fire Ignored.‖ Poverty and Race Research
Action Council. Poverty and Race. November/December 1993. Accessed April 20, 2009 at
http://www.prrac.org/full_text.php?text_id=585&item_id=5907&newsletter_id=11&header=Race+%2F+R
acism 59 St. Cloud Area Planning Association. 2035 Transportation Plan, Appendix A Federal and State Planning
Requirements. Retrieved from
http://www.stcloudapo.org/Plans/Tran_Plan_2035/Appendix%20A_Federal%20&%20State%20Planning%
20Considerations.pdf . According to their findings, there are clusters of low-income and minority
populations within the region. These areas include the Key Row, La Cruz, and La Paz communities which
have high concentrations of low- and middle- income people, along with various mobile home parks
including Bel Clare Estates and Sherwood Manor, which are located in areas with very high concentrations
of people of color. Findings from the study indicate that while proposed projects would cause short-term
ISAIAH and the Kirwan Institute September 2010
34
impacts, such impacts would not be greater than those experienced by non-low income and non-minority
people of the general public. 60 Metro Bus Media Release, Metro Bus delays route restricting plans. March 16, 2010. Retrieved from
http://www.stcloudmtc.com/userfiles/file/moving_forward/Route%20Restructure%20Delay%20News%20
Release%203_16_10.pdf 61 Metro Bus, Media Release, Metro Bus delays route restructuring plans, March 16, 2010. 62 ―And Justice for Some: Differential Treatment of Youth of Color in the Justice System.‖ National
Council on Crime and Delinquency. January 2007. National statistics are profoundly disturbing. A report
released by Human Rights Watch found dramatic disparities in incarceration rates for whites, Blacks, and
Latinos. For instance, according to the report, based on 2000 census data, Blacks and Hispanics, although
comprising 25 percent of the national population, made up 62 percent of the incarcerated population. In
some states, a staggering one in ten Black men is behind bars. Human Rights Watch. U.S.: Incarceration
Rates Reveal Striking Racial Disparities. February 26, 2002. Retrieved from
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2002/02/26/us-incarceration-rates-reveal-striking-racial-disparities 63 Myslajek, Crystal. ―Racial Disparity of Child Poverty in Minnesota: The Hidden Consequence of
Incarceration.‖ May 20099. Page 2. 64 Racial Disparities Initiative. ―The Relationship Between Racial Disparities and Minnesota‘s Changing
Demographics.‖ Retrieved from http://www.racialdisparity.org/demographics_mn_changing.php 65 Supra n. 63 at 7 66 Id. 67 Id. at 1 68 Id. at 9. In 2006 in the US, drug offenders accounted for more than half of the increase in the prison
population, and in Minnesota, drug offenders accounted for 30% of prison admissions, and 23% of total
prison population. According to estimates by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, the male drug
offender prison population is expected to increase by approximately 50% between 2008 and 2017. 69 Id. 70 Id. 71 Institute on Race & Poverty, University of Minnesota Law School. Minnesota Statewide Racial Profiling
Report: Saint Cloud Police Department Report to the Minnesota Legislature September 22, 2003, The
Council on Crime and Justice. Retrieved from
http://www1.umn.edu/irp/racialprof/St%20Cloud%20final.pdf 72 Supra n. 71 at 15 73 Id. at 27
Alliance for Metropolitan StabilityGrassroots Policy ProjectHousing Preservation ProjectThe Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of MinnesotaOrganizing Apprenticeship ProjectTransit Partners
We would like to acknowledge these organizations whose work and conversations with us have helped to shape our thinking on race, inequality, and effective organizing strategies: