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Black Women's Voices creates scholarship program for Black women in Minnesota

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Black Women's Voices creates scholarship program for Black women in Minnesota

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How Can We Help?

We are here to inform you. We work hard to be a voice for our community. Have ideas about how we could do that better? Join us!

Get Involved!

We are always looking for Voices and Topics to help us make our vision a reality. Our collective voices are demanding equality and inclusion and a place at the table of humanity.

Thank You

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Black Women's Voices - Learn and Listen from Black Women's Conversations

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How Can We Help? We are here to inform you. We work hard to be a voice for our community. Have ideas about how we could do that better? Join us! Get Involved! We are always looking for Voices and Topics to help us make our vision a reality.

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Another week, another terrible wound in our community. I will again defer to existing resources that promote relaxation, this week by the ever-fabulous Jessamyn Stanley, adding some movement with yoga.

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Couch Potato Yoga | 10 Minute Yoga with Jessamyn Stanely

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Sending love to everyone who is struggling with all that is arising in ourselves and our community as we hear painful testimony from witnesses, view video that shows George Floyd's final minutes, and all the other pain and worry that you are feeling. To that end, this week, we are taking a little extra time, just a few more minutes, to more deeply reset the nervous system.If you can commit to doing this every, or most days this week, it will be even more helpful to you to help reset and soothe the nervous system.

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10 Minute Yoga Nidra Meditation with Ally Boothroyd

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Detroit-based First Independence Bank, one of only 18 Black-owned full-service banks in the country, has filed an application to open a branch in the Twin Cities. The first branch is set to open in November.

Five banks in the Twin Cities-Bank of America, Bremer Bank, Huntington Bank, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo-are each supporting First Independence Bank's arrival with capital, research, marketing, and other services to assure its start-up and long-term success.

Gov. Tim Walz welcomed the news. "In Minnesota, we know that a strong economy is an equitable economy, and the opening of First Independence Bank is a notable milestone to achieving an economy that works for all Minnesotans," Walz said in a joint statement with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan released on Aug. 19. "I offer my warmest congratulations to First Independence Bank, and I thank our entire bankingcommunity in Minnesota for providing the support and capital to make this a reality."

"I am excited to welcome First Independence Bank to Minnesota. Black communities have been systematically excluded from opportunities in Minnesota's economy, leading to significant gaps in wealth," added Lt. Gov. Flanagan. " The opening of First Independence Bank is an incredibly important step toward a stronger economic future for all Minnesotans. I am grateful to First Independence Bank's commitment to creating a more equitable economy and look forward to their work here in Minnesota."

The Twin Cities branch of First Independence Bank will be the 51-year-old enterprise's first outside of its home state of Michigan. It will be located at 3430 University Ave. S.E. in Minneapolis. The location is a former bank branch that Wells Fargo has donated to Project for Pride in Living (PPL), which is working with First Independence Bank on its expansion into the market.

"We are fortunate to find a site on a major thoroughfare, making it accessible to the large cross-section of residents and businesses that a bank needs to be economically viable," First Independence Bank chairman and CEO Kenneth Kelly said. "Being on a light rail line and a bus route is a plus for the under-resourced communities we hope to serve, particularly the Black community. So is the opportunity to be part of an established commercial area with few nearby banking options."

He added that the site also has a drive-through for added convenience, and space to host education sessions and community gatherings.

The branch is expected to open in early November. A second location at Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue is possible in the future, Kelly noted.

"We are thrilled to be working with these five banks to open a branch in the region," Kelly said. "Banks are beacons of hope in their communities, and we intend to be that for the people of Minneapolis, St. Paul and the rest of the Twin Cities, particularly those who are unbanked or underbanked throughout the region."

Damon Jenkins, formerly Wells Fargo's district manager for Minneapolis, has joined First Independence Bank as senior vice president and Twin Cities regional market president.

Kelly said First Independence Bank's decision to open in the Twin Cities came easily after discussions that began in April with several Black business, religious, nonprofit, and other community leaders in the region.

"Since First Independence Bank prioritizes services to the Black community and under-resourced businesses and individuals, it was important to me to listen to these leaders about what the community needs and how the bank could make a difference. They welcomed me generously and offered important guidance," said Kelly.

As a result, housing will be a major focus for First Independence Bank in the Twin Cities. "Our innovative home loan programs will help reduce one of the largest disparities in the country between Black and white homeowners." The branch also will offer customers ATM and debit card use at any Huntington and Wells Fargo ATM location with no ATM service fee, a loan program to help establish a credit score or repair personal credit, virtual financial education sessions, and more.

One of the leaders with whom Kelly met was Marcus Owens, executive director of the African American Leadership Forum, who began his career in financial services. "The addition of a full-service Black-owned bank will open more opportunities to build wealth, which is critical not only for the Black community but for the entire region," he said.

Helping to bring a competitor into the market might seem counterintuitive, Laurie Nordquist, Wells Fargo's Central lead region president, observed. "But for the five of us, the case is clear. Black households are more than five times more likely than white households to be unbanked. We need to continue our efforts for outreach and inclusion while also supporting a Black-owned bank.

"This is not an 'either-or' proposition-it's a 'both-and' proposition. Supporting a bank like First Independence Bank, with its history and know-how, is part of the change we are collectively working to make in the financial services ecosystem," Nordquist said.

Jeanne Crain, president, and CEO of Bremer Financial added that, as a qualified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), First Independence Bank is able to tap into a special CDFI Fund that allows for more favorable lending rates to individuals and businesses in low-income areas. And, although Black-owned businesses exist in many industry sectors in the Twin Cities, the region lacks an established, Black-owned bank. "That's a gap that First Independence Bank is uniquely able to help fill," Crain said.

The choice to work with First Independence Bank also was easily made, according to Michael Jones, chair of Huntington for Minnesota and Colorado. "First Independence Bank has a strong track record and Kenneth Kelly is highly regarded in the industry," he said. "Several of our banks also already have relationships with First Independence Bank."

Prior to its merger with Huntington, TCF and First Independence Bank had a partnership in Detroit, which continues today under the Huntington name. U.S. Bank has worked with First Independence Bank through the Federal Treasury Mentor-Protégé Program since 2019, and Wells Fargo made an equity investment earlier this year.

"The First Independence Bank branch also will be a point of pride for the entire region," Katie Simpson, Bank of America Minneapolis/Saint Paul president said. "Of more than 5,000 banking institutions in the U.S., only 18 are Black-owned-down from 48 in 2001. Few metro areas can say that a Black-owned bank is part of their community. Now the Twin Cities will be one of them."

- Information provided in part by First Independence Bank. Find more info by go to www.firstindependence.com.

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Black-owned First Independence Bank to open in Minneapolis in November -

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Detroit-based First Independence Bank, one of only 18 Black-owned full-service banks in the country, has filed an application to open a branch in the Twin Cities. The first branch is set to open in November. Five banks in the Twin Cities-Bank of America, Bremer Bank, Huntington Bank, U.S.

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Meditations for Minneapolis: Week 4 (beginning of the trial)

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Meditations for Minneapolis: Week 4 (beginning of the trial)

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This week, I am not posting a video because the goal of this meditation is to get outside and focus on nature for a few minutes! Use this as a general framework, alter as needed!
1. Go outside. If you cannot go outside, find a window where you can see a tree or other green space. If that isn't possible, look up a nature photo online.
2. Take 5 deep breaths, in and out through the nose.
3. Continue to take deep breaths, and tap into your senses. Notice three things you see. Three things you hear, and three things you smell. Notice if you get caught up in story or judgment, if you do, that is okay! Just take 5 more breaths to regroup and try again.
4. That's it! The goal is simply to shift your attention from what is in your mind to observing nature.

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This week, take a break from worry and get present with what is happening right now!

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The Four F's: Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn

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The Four F's: Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn

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When humans are afraid their brain takes over and decides for them whether they will fight, run away (flight), feeze, or become ultra compliant (fawn). We do not know which response our brain will choose and have little to no choice in the matter. Fear causes this survival instinct to take over and once it's activated the body responds before we know what's going on. Learn more about fawn response here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/addiction-and-recovery/202008/understanding-fight-flight-freeze-and-the-fawn-response
The article below addresses fight, flight, freeze.

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The fight-flight-freeze response is your body's natural reaction to danger. It's a type of stress response that helps you react to perceived threats, like an oncoming car or growling dog.

The response instantly causes hormonal and physiological changes. These changes allow you to act quickly so you can protect yourself. It's a survival instinct that our ancient ancestors developed many years ago.

Specifically, fight-or-flight is an active defense response where you fight or flee. Your heart rate gets faster, which increases oxygen flow to your major muscles. Your pain perception drops, and your hearing sharpens. These changes help you act appropriately and rapidly.

Freezing is fight-or-flight on hold, where you further prepare to protect yourself. It's also called reactive immobility or attentive immobility. It involves similar physiological changes, but instead, you stay completely still and get ready for the next move.

Fight-flight-freeze isn't a conscious decision. It's an automatic reaction, so you can't control it. In this article, we'll further explore what this response entails, along with examples.

During a fight-flight-freeze response, many physiological changes occur.

The reaction begins in your amygdala, the part of your brain responsible for perceived fear. The amygdala responds by sending signals to the hypothalamus, which stimulates the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

The ANS consists of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system drives the fight-or-flight response, while the parasympathetic nervous system drives freezing. How you react depends on which system dominates the response at the time.

In general, when your ANS is stimulated, your body releases adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormone. These hormones are released very quickly, which can affect your:

Heart rate. Your heart beats faster to bring oxygen to your major muscles. During freezing, your heart rate might increase or decrease.

Lungs. Your breathing speeds up to deliver more oxygen to your blood. In the freeze response, you might hold your breath or restrict breathing.

Eyes. Your peripheral vision increases so you can notice your surroundings. Your pupils dilate and let in more light, which helps you see better.

Ears. Your ears "perk up" and your hearing becomes sharper.

Blood. Blood thickens, which increases clotting factors. This prepares your body for injury.

Skin. Your skin might produce more sweat or get cold. You may look pale or have goosebumps.

Hands and feet. As blood flow increases to your major muscles, your hands and feet might get cold.

Pain perception. Fight-or-flight temporarily reduces your perception of pain.

Your specific physiological reactions depend on how you usually respond to stress. You might also shift between fight-or-flight and freezing, but this is very difficult to control.

Usually, your body will return to its natural state after 20 to 30 minutes.

While the fight-flight-freeze response causes physiological reactions, it's triggered by a psychological fear.

The fear is conditioned, which means you've associated a situation or thing with negative experiences. This psychological response is initiated when you're first exposed to the situation and develops over time.

The thing that you're scared of is called a perceived threat, or something you consider to be dangerous. Perceived threats are different for each person.

When you're faced with a perceived threat, your brain thinks you're in danger. That's because it already considers the situation to be life threatening. As a result, your body automatically reacts with the fight-flight-freeze response to keep you safe.

The fight-flight-freeze response can show up in many life situations, including:

slamming on the brakes when the car in front of you suddenly stops

encountering a growling dog while walking outside

jumping out of the way of an oncoming vehicle

getting spooked by someone jumping out of a room

feeling unsafe while walking down a street

Sometimes, the fight-flight-freeze response is overactive. This happens when nonthreatening situations trigger the reaction.

Overactive responses are more common in people who have experienced:

Trauma

After a traumatic event, you may develop an exaggerated stress response. It involves a recurrent pattern of reactions related to the initial event.

This is more likely if you have a history of:

In this case, your brain reacts to related triggers to prepare you for future traumatic situations. The result is an overactive response.

An example if you've experienced trauma from a car accident. If the sound of a car horn reminds you of the event, you might have a stress response when you hear a car honking.

Anxiety

Anxiety is when you feel scared or nervous about a situation. It's a natural response that helps you react appropriately. If you have an anxiety disorder, you're more likely to feel threatened by nonthreatening stressors.

This could spark an exaggerated stress response to daily activities, like riding the bus or sitting in traffic.

There are ways to cope with an overactive stress response. This includes various strategies and treatments, such as:

Relaxation techniques

By doing activities that promote relaxation, you can counteract the stress response with the relaxation response.

Examples of relaxation techniques include:

When done regularly, these techniques can help improve how you react to stress.

Physical activity

Another strategy is regular exercise. Physical activity reduces the stress response by:

decreasing stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol

increasing endorphins

improving calmness

promoting better sleep

These benefits can increase your mood and sense of relaxation, which helps you better cope with stressful scenarios.

Social support

It's also important to nurture healthy social relationships. Social support can minimize your psychological and physiological reactions to perceived threats. It provides a sense of safety and protection, which makes you feel less fearful.

Your social support may include different people, including:

If you're in a constant state of fight-or-flight, consider visiting a mental health professional.

Specifically, you should seek help if you experience the following:

always feeling "on edge"

persistent worry, nervousness, or fear

stress that interferes with daily activities

fear of nonthreatening situations

inability to relax

A mental health professional can help you determine the underlying cause of these feelings. They can also create a plan to reduce your stress response, depending on your symptoms and mental health history.

Your body's fight-flight-freeze response is triggered by psychological fears. It's a built-in defense mechanism that causes physiological changes, like rapid heart rate and reduced perception of pain. This enables you to quickly protect yourself from a perceived threat.

If you have a history of trauma or anxiety, you might overreact to nonthreatening situations. A mental health professional can help you find ways to cope. With their guidance, you can develop the most appropriate strategies for your situation.

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Fight, Flight, or Freeze: How We Respond to Threats

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The fight-flight-freeze response is your body's natural reaction to danger. It's a type of stress response that helps you react to perceived threats, like an oncoming car or growling dog. The response instantly causes hormonal and physiological changes. These changes allow you to act quickly so you can protect yourself.

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Take a few minutes for yourself!

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Restorative practices can be done on an individual or community level. These activities are designed to promote rest and healing. They are also designed to address fundamental needs we all have; our need to feel safe, to belong, and to feel connected to one another and the world around us. This section will include new content each week to help provide restorative practices and tips for individuals, groups, and the Minneapolis community at large.

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De-escalation means to decrease the intensity of a moment so it is no longer dangerous or a crisis. This is a skill you can build over time which can be used in a group or individually. De-escalation techniques include:
-Stay calm even if you don't feel calm
-Moving predictably and slowly
-Talk at a normal pace and in a normal tone
-Do not raise your voice over theirs
-Listen

-Take an unthreatening stance: do not cross your arms, keep hands in front of you or in a pocket

-Try to get the person/people to sit down

-Sit when they sit, do not hover over them

-Let them have some distance

-Be sincere

-Don't say "I know what you're going through"

-Help them find choices or options

-Connect them with friends, family, or a mental health professional

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Mindfulness as a tool to combat racial bias

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Mindfulness as a tool to combat racial bias

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This article is the third in a series exploring the effects that unconscious racial biases have on the criminal justice system in the United States.
© Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian

When I was promoted to tenured full professor, the dean of my law school kindly had flowers sent to me at my home in Pacific Heights, an overpriced San Francisco neighborhood almost devoid of black residents. I opened the door to find a tall, young, African-American deliveryman who announced, "Delivery for Professor Magee." I, a petite black woman, dressed for a simple Saturday spent in my own home, reached for the flowers saying, "I am Professor Magee."

The deliveryman looked down at the order and back up at me. Apparently shaken from the hidden ground of his preconceptions, he looked at me again. Incredulous, he asked, "Are you sure?"

Let me be clear. I'll never know what exactly it was that caused the deliveryman to conclude, on seeing me, that I must not actually be the person to whom the flowers were to be delivered. I am not privy to what was going on inside his head. But it seems inescapable that his confusion had something to do with features of my social identity that had, for him, been coded instantly, if not unconsciously, as inconsistent with the identity of "professor" and "resident" of a home in an upscale neighborhood.

We are each reminded almost daily of the way that race intersects with judgment in our daily lives, leading to bad decisions and over-reactions-which in the context of criminal justice can have deadly consequences. As the story of my encounter with the black deliveryman indicates, none of us is immune: Black people may be as conditioned as anyone else by stereotypes and unconscious expectations.

Is there a solution? Research shows that mindfulness practices help us focus, give us greater control over our emotions, and increase our capacity to think clearly and act with purpose. Might mindfulness assist police and other public servants in minimizing the mistaken judgments that lead to such harms? Might they help the rest of us-professors and deliverymen alike-minimize our biases as well?

In a word, yes. The good news is that mindfulness and related practices do assist in increasing focus and raising awareness, and have been shown to assist in minimizing bias. While the research is ongoing, studies are beginning to show that mindfulness meditation and compassion practices serve as potent aids in the work of decreasing bias.

When we consider these new findings along with some of the already proven benefits of mindfulness, and combine them with teachings about contemporary forms of racism, the outlines of an effective set of new mindfulness-based interventions-for police, doctors, educators, and the full range of others-have already begun to emerge. I call these Mindfulness-Based ColorInsight Practices.

Colorblindness vs. mindfulness

It might sound counterintuitive to some, but both insight and analysis suggests that implicit bias may actually be heightened by the societal emphasis on colorblindness, a notion that dates at least to the Plessy v. Ferguson case in the late 19th century (Justice Harlan, dissenting), and played an important role in the civil rights movement of the mid-20th.

When embraced by conservatives in the late 20th century, however, it became a basis for largely shutting down effective understanding of race and its impact in our lives.

As most of us know from simple, everyday experience, none of us is actually blind to race or color. In fact, research confirms common disconnects between explicit and implicit cognition around race and color. Even if we try to act adopt a colorblind view in the world, it doesn't work because our brains don't actually work that way.

Indeed, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dissonance results from implicit and explicit efforts to comply with social norms against recognizing race and color. Despite professing to be more or less colorblind, social psychologists have found that when confronted with a racial Other, anxieties cause us to, for example, arrange seats farther apart than we might otherwise, to over-anticipate disagreement and conflict, to avoid potentially charged topics that actually lead to enhanced understanding. Professing to be colorblind amidst all such evidence to the contrary has been deemed by some to be a new form of racism-colorblind racism.

Obviously, we need a new way of dealing with these dynamics in our lives. What, if anything, might we do to help minimize with these pervasive reactions?

How to minimize bias

Enter mindfulness. A decade of research indicates that mindfulness and compassion practices assist in raising awareness of our emotions and sensations in a given moment, regulating emotional responses and specifically reducing anxiety, increasing empathy and perspective-taking, and increasing overall gratitude and well-being. This all suggests that mindfulness and compassion practices may be important to creating the general conditions that support minimizing bias.

For example, a recent study found that compassion practice, specifically a traditional meditation known as "lovingkindness practice," increased the sense of wellbeing among students and thus led to more effective learning in a classroom environment. Further, one study suggested that even a 10-minute mindfulness practice reduced race and age bias on the Implicit Attitude Test, possibly by reducing participants' tendencies to automatically activate associations.

And where such bias may exist, studies have shown that performance may suffer. Here again, mindfulness may assist-in this case, by supporting those vulnerable to having their performance negatively impacted by the threat of confirming a stereotype during a given exercise, providing protection against this so called "stereotype threat." In another study, a mere five-minute practice session appeared to reverse the impact of stereotype threat and prevent lower performance when compared to what would have otherwise occurred to students facing such threats in a classroom environment.

Introducing "ColorInsight"

In my own work, I identify, develop and examine the efficacy of a set of practices that intentionally link inner and outer work to raise awareness about race and racial experience in our lives, with a focus on personal, interpersonal, and systemic or structural levels.

The resulting "ColorInsight Practices " combine mindfulness-based practices with teaching and learning about race and color to increase awareness of how race and color impact us all, and give rise to insight and greater understanding. They pave the way to new experiences that help us loosen our attachments to narratives and other forms of suffering that give rise to biases along the way.

By identifying and creating personal, interpersonal and systemic teachings and practices which increase and deepen experiences of interconnection across lines of real and perceived difference, Mindfulness-Based ColorInsight Practice increases our actual capacities not only for acting in less biased ways, but also for making more authentic, positive and effective cross-race relationships in these re-segregated times.

While still under construction, the approach so far combines teaching and learning about race (including whiteness), bias, privilege and historical conditions that have contributed to their ongoing operation in our lives with regular experiential practices for opening awareness and increasing capacity for new ways of being with and minimizing racism and color-related suffering. Such practices include sitting with awareness, compassion, self-compassion and lovingkindness practices, mindful communication practice, narrative practices, circle practice, vows practices, and more, some of which are described in the sidebars that accompany this piece.

Practices such as these should become a part of basic mindfulness practice for each of us, to help each of us work more effectively with others in increasingly diverse and conflict-laden environments. They create pathways-neural, emotional, and relational-to engagements that promote not merely personal, but relational and systemic changes that support real social justice.

While more research is needed, studies show that our conscious, explicit beliefs about race and color are only part of the story about how these social facts impact our everyday lives and life chances.

Fortunately, mindfulness practices actually do help in the fight against implicit bias and its capacity to cause explicit suffering in our lives. While they won't end racism, mindfulness and other contemplative practices do support ways of being in the world that reflect less of the biases that each of us holds, whether we are deliverymen, students, teachers-or men and women with badges, authorized to shoot to kill.

And that is truly good news.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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There might be a solution to implicit racial bias, argues Rhonda Magee: cultivating moment-to-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.

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When someone experiences a traumatic experience, recovery is a long process and reminders or similar experiences can send the person back into a trauma state. This is called retraumatization.

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For people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the past can return at any moment. In response to triggering circumstances or events, which usually involve some type or sensory or emotional stimulation, they may relive or remember the traumas that affected their lives so deeply, with varying shades of intensity.

While a wide range of occurrences can affect PTSD sufferers, there are some triggers that provoke especially strong reactions, powerful enough to make it seem as if the terrible events are happening all over again.

This is known as retraumatization, and it can lead to the recurrence of acute PTSD symptoms if it is left unaddressed in treatment.

Defining Retraumatization

Retraumatization happens when people with PTSD are exposed to people, places, events, situations, or environments that cause them to re-experience past trauma as if it were fresh or new. While normal triggers can bring back unpleasant memories, or even provoke disturbing flashbacks, retraumatizing events are especially powerful triggers that somehow recreate the intense dynamics associated with the original traumatic encounters or episodes.

Vivid reexperiencing of past trauma is notable and terrifying because it returns PTSD sufferers to the most painful moments of their lives, to memories of experiences that caused significant psychological and emotional damage. Retraumatization should not be confused with revictimization, where men and women with PTSD are abused or injured in the same way again. Retraumatizing events replicate important elements of the original trauma (i.e., feelings of a loss of power, control, or personal safety) without replicating the actual events themselves.

Experiences that retraumatize may involve some degree of physical or emotional suffering. But it is their capacity to remind men and women with PTSD of times they'd rather forget that gives them their potency.

Causes of Retraumatization

With retraumatization, past traumas are relived with an air of authenticity and detail that is hard to shake, and for each sufferer the powerful triggers that cause such shocking occurrences are unwelcome reminders of how devastating and debilitating their previous experiences really were.

Possible causes of retraumatization may include some type or exposure to violence or abuse that doesn't bring direct harm to the PTSD sufferer, but still evokes vivid remembrances of past experiences, in addition to provoking compassion and empathy for the victims. This could involve the witnessing of domestic violence, for example, or child abuse, or some type of physical assault that the PTSD sufferer is helpless to prevent. Even exposure to such events in a movie, fictional television show, or news report could provoke retraumatization if there is enough similarity to the person's previous trauma.

Natural disasters, warfare, and terrorist attacks are sudden, shocking, and often cause enormous suffering and destruction. While such events are traumatic for everyone involved, they can be especially evocative and frightening for men and women with PTSD and can be a source of retraumatization even if a person's past trauma had no specific connection to such events.

Another possible cause of retraumatization could involve an exposure to an environment or situation where physical danger seems to be present, or having an encounter with someone who is perceived as a threat (possibly even the person responsible for the original trauma). The PTSD sufferer may not be assaulted, abused, or injured in this instance, but just being exposed to the possibility of harm may be enough to bring back unpleasant memories in a disturbingly intense form.

Dysfunctional or abusive relationships are yet another possible source of retraumatization. Even if the conflicts or abuse don't recreate the specifics of the old trauma, they can be a powerful reminder of the circumstances and events that brought the PTSD sufferer so much pain and misery in the past.

Good relationships that end in tragedy (the death or disappearance of a loved one) are also a potential trigger for retraumatizing episodes, if the previous trauma involved a similar loss.

You're Not Alone. We're Here to Help.

Effects of Retraumatization on PTSD Sufferers

Retraumatization won't necessarily sabotage the recovery of a PTSD sufferer. People diagnosed with PTSD know that, even as treatment progresses, triggering events can take them back to difficult times and force them to relive harsh and painful memories. The techniques they've learned to manage their symptoms can still be effective, and the perspective they've gained on their illness may not be totally lost.

Nevertheless, because of the intensity of the reaction it causes, retraumatization does represent a legitimate setback in the recovery process, and it will have consequences.

Some of the possible effects of retraumatization include:

Loss of trust and security

Feelings of pessimism, fatalism, and cynicism

Less enthusiasm for treatment or optimism about its benefits

More intense-than-normal flashbacks and nightmares

Persistent fears or paranoia that lead to a higher level of hypervigilance

Agoraphobic behavior as the person becomes reluctant to leave the house or other safe environments

Increase in vulnerability to triggers, either responding to more of them or reacting more strongly to their occurrence

Greater reactivity to stress and increased susceptibility to other psychiatric or behavioral health conditions

Higher incidence or self-harm, including attempts at suicide

Possible delusions or hallucinations related to the re-experiencing of the emotions connected to the retraumatization

PTSD sufferers won't forget what they've learned during treatment, but retraumatizing events will shake them to the core and can put their recovery on unstable ground, for at least a while. Retraumatization will revitalize PTSD and that is a reality that will need to be addressed during counseling and in peer support group meetings, assuming the individual returns to treatment (as they should).

Impact of Retraumatization on Physical and Mental Health

After retraumatization, an individual with PTSD will go through a period of heightened sensibility and renewed vulnerability to traumatic memories. This means greater stress and anxiety, and chronic stress is related to the onset or exacerbation of numerous medical conditions, including:

Cardiovascular disease

Arthritis

Diabetes

Respiratory disorders

Digestive disorders

Chronic pain

Insomnia

Loss of reproductive system functioning

These problems are associated with PTSD in general, and episodes of retraumatization will increase the risks even further.

Meanwhile, PTSD is often comorbid with other mental and behavioral health disorders, and retraumatization can have an effect on the expression and development of such conditions.

Some of the common conditions known to co-occur with PTSD include:

Retraumatization can intensify the symptoms of such conditions, lead to their initial onset, or cause a relapse among people with PTSD who are in recovery from substance abuse or an eating disorder.

Our Unique Treatment Model can Help

Recovery from Retraumatization and PTSD

People with PTSD tend to develop a range of avoidance strategies to protect themselves from possible reminders of their past trauma, and those who've been retraumatized will often double down on this strategy.

But this is exactly the wrong approach. While it is understandable that those who suffer retraumatization might become pessimistic and discouraged about the possibility of overcoming PTSD, in the wake of a retraumatizing episode treatment is more important than ever-as is confidence that it will work.

Retraumatization is a step backwards, but it doesn't put the PTSD sufferer back to square one. Retraumatization is relapse, but relapse is common among people striving to overcome persistent behavioral or mental health condition, and the occurrence of relapse should never be used as an excuse for surrender.

During treatment for PTSD it is important to remain focused on the future and to do so with hope and positive feelings, and retraumatization doesn't negate the necessity of taking that approach. To get back on track, PTSD sufferers who've encountered a bump in the road can benefit tremendously from additional time spent in inpatient or intensive outpatient treatment, where they can recommit to healing in a supportive environment among peers who understand the obstacles and detours that can occasionally deflect someone off the right path.

In residential care, people with PTSD can pick up tips for survivors of a disaster or personal tragedy that can help them avoid the extreme responses that lead to retraumatization. They can also learn PTSD prevention strategies that may decrease their chances of being exposed to retraumatizing incidents in the first place.

Treatment for PTSD isn't a quick fix or a linear route. Recovery from PTSD is a long-term process, and everyone's pace of healing is different. Successful recovery requires time, commitment, patience, and self-acceptance, and if all are present retraumatization may turn out to be nothing more than a temporary setback-painful, but still temporary.

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For people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the past can return at any moment. In response to triggering circumstances or events, which usually involve some type or sensory or emotional stimulation, they may relive or remember the traumas that affected their lives so deeply, with varying shades of intensity.

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Meditation is a useful tool for most people, but especially individuals who are experiencing a lot of stress, uncertainty, or difficult decisions. Learning to be present and observe thoughts, feelings and sensations can help us relax, make more informed decisions, and better connect to others. To that end, during the upcoming trial, I (Christine) will be posting weekly meditations to provide a brief opportunity to check-in with ourselves as we navigate the uncertainty, fear, and anxiety that are associated with this trial.

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When we want community healing we must first start with ourselves. Learning about our reactions, about the people around us, and about unhelpful beliefs we might hold helps us grow and find how to heal. Growth is always uncomfortable and humbling. Not growing sometimes feels safer yet is detrimental to you and your community. If we skip starting with ourselves we have the potential if hurting much more than helping even if we have good intentions. This column will sometimes be hard to read yet it’s here to help you ask hard questions, find answers, and connect with your community in a way that promotes healing.

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Get involved in your neighborhood organization

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Get involved in your neighborhood organization

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Becoming an active member of your community may sound intimidating, but small steps can connect you in big ways.

Investigate
Learn what neighborhood organizations do in Minneapolis

Locate
Find your neighborhood organization

Listen
Begin attending meetings to learn what topics are being addressed in your neighborhood.

Act
As you feel comfortable, you might volunteer to become more involved as a block leader, canvasser, or even run for office as a board member.

Warning
Do not rely on neighborhood apps to get accurate information.

Learn more
Benefits of community organizing

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This is a simple practice that can be done before bed, or any time you want to relax your body and mind.

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10-minute Bedtime Yoga with Mel Douglas of the Black Women's Yoga Collective

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Not understanding causes fear, learning decreases fear

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Not understanding causes fear, learning decreases fear

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It’s normal for fear to show up when we encounter an unknown. Whether it’s a person, group, activity, or event, the more we learn about it the less unknown it is and the more room we have for other emotions which help us decide what to do next. Not learning about the unknown causes ignorance which increases fear. As Tuvok from Star Trek said “We often fear what we do not understand; our best defense is knowledge.”

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How fear and ignorance are linked and why ignorance makes you scared

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We are filled with many fears. Fear of the unknown, fear of the unpredictable, and one of the most important of all: fear and ignorance

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We often want to dismiss opposing views, walk away, or argue yet those don't create change or heal divides. Calm and inquisitive conversations, what Zachary R. Wood calls "uncomfortable learning", can help us understand what motivates and fuels the other person's belief. It can create a space for discussion and mutual learning.

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Many people tend to ignore or scoff at statements made by the opposite side of the political spectrum; I know I've done it.

No matter which side you sit in an argument, it's exhausting to hear opposing views over and over. Your mind is strongly set on what you think is right and you know that the other side is just as stubborn.

But, ignoring opposing viewpoints isn't a solution - nor does it effect change or make the views go away. The other half of the country still agrees with the statements.

So, what's a better solution?

In his TED talk "Why it's worth listening to people you disagree with", Zachary R. Wood outlines something that he calls "uncomfortable learning". This is a communication strategy that he uses to engage with a person who has directly opposing views to his and, quite simply, have a calm conversation with them. He speaks with them to discover their motives and logic.

Zach arrives to the conversation ready to understand - not fight. He converses with the sole purpose of learning why the person feels so differently about an important topic than he does - not to change hearts and minds.

Easier said than done? Probably. In fact, we recommend you review these helpful tips from a legit psychologist on how to talk to people you can't agree with.

But, "uncomfortable learning" is absolutely a practice that we should all employ in our daily lives. There is always something to learn from the perspective of others, even when doing so might be difficult.

This kind of mutual understanding can help us become better humans and a better nation. Imagine living in a country where the government doesn't shut down because of polarizing disagreements.

Let's turn the hatred into understanding. Let's turn being "The Other" into being together.

And that starts with you - and me. At the next family dinner with that uncle who waxes philosophical about his favorite politician or the next time you're at happy hour with that fun-but-insanely-outspoken friend of yours: that's where it begins.

Zach says it best: "It's my belief that to achieve progress in the face of adversity, we need a genuine commitment to gaining a deeper understanding of humanity."

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Understanding the "other side" through uncomfortable learning - The Black Sheep Agency

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Many people tend to ignore or scoff at statements made by the opposite side of the political spectrum; I know I've done it. No matter which side you sit in an argument, it's exhausting to hear opposing views over and over.

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Sometimes we feel like a community is more or less safe than it really is based on what we hear, see, or experience. This is called perceived safety. For example, if you read an article about crime in a neighborhood you don't frequent or you drive through a neighborhood that looks different than your neighborhood you might have the perception that it's less safe than your neighborhood. The risk is that our perceptions are not always accurate yet shape how to interact, police, and govern that community. If you were to talk to people who live in the neighborhood in the article or that you drove through, did research on the neighborhood's history, or read other news stories you would have a more accurate view of the actual safety. Perceived safety is complicated and is impacted by many aspects which include race, age, gender identity, personal history or experience, and socioeconomic status. Knowing that our perceptions are different and learning why others feel differently is important in building communities.

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Why the Perception of Safety is Important

June 7, 2015 by designerwebsites

Community safety is a concept that is concerned with achieving a positive state of well-being among people within social and physical environments. Not only is it about reducing and preventing injury and crime, it is about building strong, cohesive, vibrant, participatory communities. This means the perception of safety is as important as measuring injury and crime rates.

But what is perception and why is it important in terms of community safety?

Perception is the way a person thinks about or understands something. What a person perceives is what they see as `real'. And it is this perception of reality that shapes their behaviours. However, is what people perceive real? Is a neighbourhood unsafe because the media report make a big deal of an attack in it? What is the impact of a parent who doesn't let their children walk to school because they perceive it as too dangerous? Is this useful in teaching the children road safety?

Perception is complex; it is individual and dependent on numerous factors; life experiences, beliefs, type of community (urban vs rural), age, socioeconomic status, type of job and employment status, race and economic structure of the community are some of the factors which influence perception of safety. Hence, within a community, there will be diverse perceptions of safety which need to be addressed. Community safety initiatives need to ensure that these are included, in addition to the interventions for reducing the factors which cause injuries, to develop and support injury-free families/whanau, homes and communities.
Image courtesy of nattavut at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Safe Communities :: Why the Perception of Safety is Important

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Home Blog Why the Perception of Safety is Important June 7, 2015 by designerwebsites Community safety is a concept that is concerned with achieving a positive state of well-being among people within social and physical environments. Not only is it about reducing and preventing injury and crime, it is about building strong, cohesive, vibrant, participatory communities.

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Why do people experience situations differently?

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Why do people experience situations differently?

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People are impacted by events differently because of personal history, socioeconomic status, race, gender identity, and other factors. How we view the world impacts how we view other people and how we view change. Understanding how other people view the world helps us get outside of our own singular experience and get a broader picture of a situation. It also helps us understand that we all have different things to heal from or different aspects of the same experience to heal from.

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People See Things Differently

People see things differently and understanding this can make a big difference in how we deal with others. The phrase, "their perspective" what does it really mean? In this post, I may repeat things because of the importance of really understanding what I'm talking about.

You've heard "the world according to...", or "it' your opinion", or "everyone has their own perspective".

It's easy to say that everyone has their own perspective, but saying or hearing it is different from really understanding it. If you did have an understanding of how people see things differently, then maybe it would mean more to you and how you view your clients.

There is true and there is the truth. We can say that "true" is what is true to each individual, their belief; and "truth" would be a universal truth, what everyone would agree on. Like the world is round, that would be "truth: Everyone has their own "true" based on their viewpoints. We see things differently because each person has their own "true", and it is this "true" that I am talking about.

Example: You have two kids that go into the ocean. They both come out and one says they loved it, the waves were amazing, they feel really refreshed. The other kids says, I hated it, I got sand all over me, the water was too rough. They both did the same thing but their experiences were different.

If we all could understand how people are programmed then it may be easier not to judge them, knowing that in each persons' mind, they feel they are correct.

How Do People Get Their Opinion or View of the World?

It's based on our own personal experiences and how we filter the information that comes into our heads.

Basically, the information goes into our brains, then it's filtered then it comes out. Our filters and the way we see things are based on our experiences are values, which includes everything from the time we are born.

If you receive lots of love you will see the world one way, if you encounter abuse in your life you will see the world a different way. So now take in every experience we've encountered and it forms part of who we are and how we view the world.

Information is taken in by our senses by either hearing, seeing and/or feeling something.

Since we take in millions of information at one time we would have to filter it or we would have an overload. There are 3 filters that do this. 1. Deletion, 2. Distortion and 3. Generalization. These filters in addition to our beliefs, values, attitudes, and experience cause us to see the world a certain way.

What Does All This Do For You?

Now that you have an understanding of how people see things differently, does it make sense that each person's views are their own?

Who are we to say they are wrong, in their mind they are right. Because it's their own personal way of looking at things based on their experiences, values, etc?

We all have different viewpoints which are based on having our own personal experiences which affect our belief system.

So instead of judging someone or arguing with them, maybe just see them as someone with a different viewpoint, that they see things differently.

Knowing that each person views things differently should eliminate the salesperson from trying to sell to their prospects based on their (the salespersons) belief system. Instead, the salesperson can ask questions to determine how their prospects see things. Then based on that information, they can then present in a way that the prospect will relate to.

Everything said and done, it is still very possible to change someone's viewpoint. The question is, how can it be done without insulting or being argumentative? I'll save that for another post.

Next time you meet someone which has a different opinion, you will hopefully understand how people see things differently, that in their mind they are right and maybe you can you deal with them in a positive constructive way.

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Understanding How People See Things Differently Contributes to Success | Aim Smart Coaching

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People see things differently and understanding this can make a big difference in how we deal with others. The phrase, "their perspective" what does it really mean? In this post, I may repeat things because of the importance of really understanding what I'm talking about.

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A helpful article that outlines what exactly racism is, harmful ideas about race that you might not realize you hold, and factors that contribute to racism.

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The psychological study of racism can be summed up in one word: evolving. How society thinks about race and racism has changed and with it, the psychological discourse has changed as well.

Many Americans, particularly White Americans, were complacent going into the year 2020. When the coronavirus pandemic started, the complacency started to wane and was replaced with fear and a sense of unrest. When George Floyd was killed in police custody on May 25, 2020, a bright spotlight was redirected to an uncomfortable reality that most BIPOC Americans already knew: Racism is still alive and well in America.

With the added spotlight has come a renewed interest in understanding racism. This article discusses the psychology of racism, including historical perspectives as well as more current views on the individual and systemic nature of racism.

Psychological History of Racism

The psychological understanding of racism has historically been focused on individual psychology-how racism is driven by the beliefs and behaviors of individual people (the social-psychological approach). But there are severe limitations to viewing racism solely through this lens.

Today, some researchers are using and advocating for a cultural-psychological approach, which views racism as ideas and practices embedded in culture, where individuals shape culture and culture shapes individuals.

Early Theories of Racism

Early psychological theories of racism justified the domination of one race over another because of Charles Darwin's concept of survival of the fittest. It was theorized that there was some survival advantage to being racist. However, modern hunter-gatherer tribes were not found to exclude out-groups (people not included in a particular group), and this problematic theory was rejected.

Then, race psychology theorized that there were brain differences between races and that intelligence tests and segregation were the answer. Later in 1954, American psychologist Gordon Allport argued in his book, "The Nature of Prejudice," that people use categories to understand their world better and that racism was simply an artifact of that process.

Whatever the history of the psychology of racism is in the United States, the actual history of racism is that White people have been and continue to be afforded benefits in society because of a system that was set up for their benefit. Racism is real regardless of whether White people recognize or accept it.

Recap

Prejudice vs. Racism

Many people misunderstand and confuse the definitions of racism and prejudice. Though related, they are different.

Prejudice is a negative preconception or attitude toward members of a group based on shared characteristics such as race, ethnicity, sex, sexuality, age, religion, language, class, or culture. Prejudice can be racial, but it can also be sexist, ageist, or classist, for example.

Prejudiced beliefs are usually learned early in life and can affect behavior in subtle and overt ways. For example, a teacher with prejudice might hold the belief that girls aren't good at math. That belief would then affect the teacher's behavior with their students, whether consciously or subconsciously.

In contrast, racism is directed at a particular racial group and is based on systems of power and oppression. Racism is often seen as being a problem with individual racial prejudice, but it is important to recognize that it is much more multifaceted and systemic.

People commonly think of racism in terms of overt individual actions and ideologies (the social-psychological understanding), but it also exists within systems, organizations, and cultures (the cultural-psychological understanding). In this way, racism is embedded in the reality of everyday life.

Since racism is part of daily life, cultural patterns, and historical narratives in the U.S., it is often difficult for people to see how familiar and normalized ideas promote racialized views and behaviors.

Racism isn't just about individuals demonstrating racial prejudice or engaging in direct acts of racial discrimination; it is often less immediately obvious and much more insidious, affecting institutions like the justice system, in which Black defendants regularly face harsher sentences than White defendants for the same crimes, for example.

Phia S. Salter, Glenn Adams, and Michael J. Perez in "Current Directions in Psychological Science"

While most blatant individual demonstrations of racism are no longer tolerated or viewed as acceptable in "mainstream" contemporary American society, our society's understanding of what is racist continues to evolve. In reality, our institutions are not so far removed from the years of colonialism, slavery, and segregation, and racism is still ignored, condoned, or even actively supported in many facets of American life.

Recap

Cultural Tools That Perpetuate Racism

The dominant American culture's discomfort with race and racism continues to result in harmful beliefs and sentiments that promote ignorance about racism and uphold the racial status quo. Perhaps you've heard someone say that they are "color-blind," "don't see color," or that "race doesn't matter." Maybe you've even said something to that effect yourself.

Those ideas, though often promoted as inclusive, actually shut down important conversations about race and deny the fact that racism exists not only on an individual level but as a systemic problem. It's the same responding to " Black Lives Matter" with "All Lives Matter."

This denial of the significance of race is a tool that allows the dominant racial group to legitimize the effectsof racism under the guise of individual merit. Through this lens, people in positions of power can credit their successes to their own hard work while positioning the disadvantages oppressed racial groups face to personal rather than systemic failures.

Continuing to support this individualistic American narrative results in blindness to the realities of America's racist systems. For example, research has shown in no uncertain terms that Black Americans experience disparities in income, employment, education, and health. But research shows that White Americans still tend to be less aware of these racial realities than people who are part of racial minority groups.

Explanations for Racism

As more attention is being given to the racism ingrained in our society, many more people are seeking explanations for it. Is it survival of the fittest, or a psychological defense mechanism to help people identify with a primary group and feel more secure? Below is a list of possible psychological explanations for why racism exists.

Personal Insecurity

It's true that those who lack an identity and struggle with insecurity may seek group membership. Consequently, after finding a group, members of the group may start to alienate non-group members. Sometimes, hostility arises toward those people who have been alienated.

While in a clique, people tend to think and behave more like the people they surround themselves with. It becomes much easier to attack others when you're among people who share the same viewpoint. Racism comes in when groups are formed based on characteristics like race, bolstered by beliefs of superiority, and supported by systems of oppression.

Lack of Compassion

Alienation of others eventually leads to less compassion for those who have been ostracized. People begin to only show compassion and empathy for those they regularly associate with.

Consider, for example, television segments asking viewers to donate to causes that support food security for families in Africa. These messages may be easier for a person to dismiss if they don't identify with the group or culture in need. This dismissal may or may not be overt racism, but it begins with a lack of empathy.

Projection of Flaws

When people feel bad about themselves or recognize their shortcomings, instead of dealing with them and trying to fix them, they may project their self-loathing onto others. Alienated groups can easily become scapegoats for those who ignore their own personal flaws.

Poor Mental Health

Is racism a sign of poor mental health? Not necessarily, but it can be. For example, paranoid personality disorder and narcissism are both mental health disorders that are characterized in part by feelings of insecurity, which may make a person more likely to hold racist beliefs or engage in racist behaviors. But it's important to recognize that racist beliefs and actions are certainly not limited to people with mental health disorders.

Hatred and Fear

Extreme hatred is almost always based on fear. People may feel threatened by people they view as "different" or "foreign." They may fear losing power. To combat this fear, some people may seek social support from others with similar fears, perpetuating the cycle.

Recap

Factors That Contribute to Racism

In a 2020 paper published in the journal American Psychologist, Steven O. Roberts, a Stanford psychologist, and Michael T. Rizzo, a New York University postdoctoral fellow, discuss what leads to racism. With their paper, the authors aimed to provide an overview of several of the major factors theorized to contribute to racism in America. Those factors are the following.

Categories

Humans learn to group people into categories based on race from a young age. Roberts and Rizzo hold that racial categories are not inborn but become significant because "they are federally sanctioned (e.g., by the U.S. Census Bureau), easily employed by individuals, and because they directly tell people which racial categories to form."

Category labels can support a belief that category members have a shared identity, which promotes stereotypes. This categorical grouping and the concept of shared identity later lead to factions.

Categories lead to factions in which people are assigned to a racial group and begin to strongly identify with their racial ingroup. Positive perceptions of their assigned racial group and the desire to show cooperation, loyalty, and empathy to the group commonly lead to behavior that benefits the group, even to the detriment of another group.

Beyond loyalty to their own group, group members can also begin to show hostility toward other groups as a result of real or perceived competition or threats to their self-image, values, or resources.

Segregation

Being segregated from other racial groups greatly influences attitudes and feelings about race. Lack of contact with other racial groups tends to narrow and harden a person's beliefs and opinions about others and offers few chances for negative beliefs to be challenged. That is why segregation by race early in life can influence the development of racist attitudes.

A hierarchical system assigns wealth, power, and influence unevenly across groups. Hierarchies are further reinforced by beliefs that attribute power and status to individual characteristics rather than systematic influences, ultimately resulting in the dominant group believing that they are, in fact, superior to non-dominant groups.

Power grants groups the ability to build a society that benefits them. It also allows them to create what are considered to be culturally acceptable standards. They control resources and are allowed to exploit others and assume dominance. When power is distributed along racial divides as it is in the U.S., so are advantages.

The media plays a role in sustaining racism. On one level there is simply representation (or lack thereof). When media consistently portrays a mostly White cast of actors in magazines, television shows, and movies, it makes the White culture the "dominant" or "normal" American culture.

On another level, there is how the media portrays racial groups. When media reinforces racial stereotypes in its representation of different racial groups, it also reinforces individual racial prejudice and the systems that perpetuate institutionalized racism.

The final factor Roberts and Rizzo describe is perhaps the most important. It is the passive racism that results from ignorance, apathy, or denial. When racism is systemic and ingrained in social structures, all that is required to sustain it is inaction. People do not need to be actively racist in their beliefs and actions to support racist systems-they simply need to do nothing to change those systems.

Recap

Combating Racism and Promoting Anti-Racism

When faced with the sheer magnitude of racism in America, it can be easy to feel powerless. But there are things you can do on an individual level to influence both interpersonal racism and systemic racism. Below are some ways in which racism can be combated on an individual level:

Build a system of equity in which all communities are equally engaged.

Direct attention to the problem of racism instead of sweeping it under the rug or pretending that it does not exist.

When you hear racist attitudes, challenge them; ask people for the reason behind their thinking and encourage them to consider alternatives.

Remember that change does not occur overnight and be patient when it seems like the progress being made is slow; even small changes can lead to big results when you are consistent in your actions.

Teach children inclusion and empathy from a young age so that they grow up to be adults who can identify racism and challenge it.

Conduct psychological research on how social norms change and how best to implement systems that result in the changing attitudes of people in the dominant group so that systems will also be affected.

Design a curriculum that addresses the legacy of the United States' history of racism and teaches students how to be aware of their own inherent biases.

Engage in contact in favorable conditions with other groups, and work toward shared goals with people from different races.

Seek and foster friendships across racial lines so that you can start seeing people as individuals rather than as just part of a race.

The way children learn about American history can affect their understanding of racism. For example, one study looked at how Black History Month was taught in predominantly White and predominantly Black schools. The researchers found marked differences in how information was presented.

In mostly White schools, students were exposed to displays and discussions that were highly abstract and focused more on individual achievements rather than addressing racism. At mostly Black schools, however, information more directly addressed racism and the effects of racial barriers.

Recap

A Word From Verywell

For too long, racism has been relegated to the past or reduced to individual beliefs and actions. As a result, America's lingering systemic and institutionalized racism has been overlooked and allowed to persist and progress. But cultural-psychological approaches to understanding racism challenge these ideas. Racism is in more ways a cultural phenomenon than an individual psychological occurrence.

What this means is that you do not need to be racist to uphold racist systems. We each have a personal responsibility to challenge racism on an individual level, but we also must look toward the cultural structures that perpetuate individual bias and the injustice that racism causes.

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Learn about the psychology of racism with this complete examination of what it means to be racist from a psychological perspective.

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It can be hard to understand why someone, especially loved ones, get involved in extremist groups. Feeling lonely, undervalued, hating another group, disagreeing with government policies, feeling like they have limited ability to succeed, and feeling stressed by an event are things that make people vulnerable for group recruiters.

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Experts say feeling lonely and not feeling valued can lead people to join groups like the KKK or ISIS. However, a public health model may help ease the problem.

It's hard to grasp what makes people engage in violent terror attacks.

What is the motivation for attacks such as 9/11, the suicide bombing in St. Petersburg, Russia, or a vehicle plowing through a crowd in Charlottesville, Va.?

What were the attackers thinking? Why would they go to such extremes?

While reasons and motives behind terrorism may vary and are often a mystery, many extremists who carry out these acts share underlying traits.

"These vulnerabilities apply across the board and are not just linked to Islamic terrorists, but to any kind of violent extremist," Carol Rollie Flynn, a 30-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a professor at Georgetown University, told Healthline.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reiterates her sentiment, reporting that the following makes people more prone to radicalization:

feeling alone or lacking meaning and purpose in life

being emotionally upset after a stressful event

disagreeing with government policy

not feeling valued or appreciated by society

believing they have limited chances to succeed

feeling hatred toward certain types of people

"People with these vulnerabilities are taken advantage of by recruiters in a classic intelligence recruitment approach," Flynn said. "This is the way intelligence services recruit spies. They look for vulnerabilities in the person who needs more money, isn't happy, has a drinking or drug problem, or who is looking for a solution to their problems, a sense of personal significance or meaning in their life, or a connection to a new community."

For groups like ISIS, Flynn noted that leaders encourage recruits to withdraw from family and friends.

"They counsel them not to be obvious about it, and over time, the group takes the place of their family and friends, and in a sense they become isolated from their community and loved ones," she explained. "By doing this, the recruited individuals get their information and opinions from the radical group and are no longer in a position to hear the counter arguments to what [the group] is saying."

Many extremist groups thrive on righting what they perceive as a historic wrong.

"If you look at Palestinians, for instance, many feel like the Israelis have given them a bad deal. Or in a more historic example, the IRA in Northern Ireland felt that the U.K. had wronged them. In many cases, such as the IRA, when the historical reason for violent opposition goes away, the terrorist group goes away," said Flynn.

Victimhood is a core ideology of white supremacists, who believe that "white men built this country," and their birthright is constantly in the process of being taken away, explained Mitch Berbrier, PhD, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences, and professor of sociology at the University of Alabama.

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) most fears that whites are becoming a demographic minority and recruits based on this fear, he said.

"Victimhood is a powerful organizing strategy for all sorts of groups. As a result, a lot of public rhetoric involves what some sociologists have called 'victim contests,'" Berbrier told Healthline. "However, the Klan's rhetoric that whites are victims has little basis in empirical reality, and so it is difficult for them to win victim contests. Much of their argument devolves into classic conspiracy theories."

Still, the victim approach is often successful at using fear to recruit KKK members and justifying their actions.

"Arguments claiming victimhood are designed to instill fear among whites," Berbrier said. "One of the oldest claims among white supremacists in the USA has been that black crime is rampant, and particularly, black male on white female sex crimes. This is a very different kind of fear than the idea that your whiteness will lead to fewer jobs for you, or that a cabal of Jews is running the world," Berbrier explained.

A shared sense of victimhood is often what bonds extremists like the KKK.

In fact, Flynn said the most common reason people become radicalized is because someone they know is.

Joining the cause with the known person gives them the sense of community or belonging they crave.

When a person conducts a violent act alone, their motives may be inspired by similar factors or different ones than those carried out by a group of extremists.

In 2016, Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies defined lone wolf terrorism as the following:

"The deliberate creation and exploitation of fear through violence or threat of violence committed by a single actor who pursues political change linked to a formulated ideology, whether his own or that of a larger organization, and who does not receive orders, direction, or material support from outside sources."

The task force also studied the phenomenon of the lone wolf and discovered the following related to that person's actions:

increased targeting of military and law enforcement personnel

expanded use of social media and the internet for radicalization

preferred use of firearms because of availability in the United States

diminished affinity of lone wolf attackers for established terrorist groups

The task force also concluded that profiling is not an effective way to detect the lone wolf.

"If you look at lone wolves, no matter their ideology, it's very difficult to profile them," said Flynn. "Most are males in their 20s or 30s. Slight majority are unmarried. Many have had brushes with the law, sometimes minor, sometimes more serious. But the trouble with this profile is that a large percentage of the population fits this, so profiling doesn't really work or help to identify potential lone wolves."

While the CIA and FBI are constantly working to stop and prevent terrorism, Flynn points to a unique approach for analyzing this problem - the public health model.

The model was originally designed to reduce risks or threats to health, such as heart disease, in the following ways:

Primary prevention aims to prevent disease or injury before it ever occurs through good diet, exercise, etc.

Secondary prevention aims to reduce the impact of a disease or injury that already exists, such as high cholesterol and elevated blood pressure.

Tertiary prevention aims to manage chronic illness or injury that has lasting effects, such as open-heart surgery.

A 2016 report by Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies applied the public health model as an approach to counter violent terrorism in the following ways:

Primary prevention uses education, health services, social engagement, cultural awareness, and personal development programs to address social grievances that can drive populations to violent extremism.

Secondary prevention utilizes intervention, community engagement, and counter messaging to stop radicalization among people identified as at-risk for violent extremism.

Tertiary prevention uses disengagement, de-radicalization, isolation, and redirection of people who are actively planning attacks or recruiting others to partake in violence.

"A big finding is that the underlying causes of violent extremism are very similar to the underlying causes for other social issues, such as drug abuse, alcoholism, gang activity, and criminality," said Flynn. "The cure is really the same for everything that affects society, which is a good public health system, education, job training, and strong sense of community support."

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Experts say feeling lonely and not feeling valued can lead people to join groups like the KKK or ISIS. However, a public health model may help ease the problem. It's hard to grasp what makes people engage in violent terror attacks. What is the motivation for attacks such as 9/11, the suicide bombing in St.

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It is your responsibility as a citizen to fully research the city budget and allocations in order to form fact-based opinions and move into action on behalf of yourself, your family, and your community.

Minneapolis 2021 Adopted Budget

Safety for All Budget that was proposed and adopted with few amendments on December 9, 2020

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The Ins and Outs of Your City Budget

A How-To Guide for Making Sense of Your City’s Budget

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Charitable contributions can happen in many forms, but mutual aid is the most direct and efficient way to help marginalized people in your community.

Twin Cities Mutual Aid Project

North Side Blessings

GoFundMe (use the search function to look for "Minneapolis")

MN Healing Justice Network

Learn more
Seek solidarity, not charity

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Form a positive relationship and communicate with your representatives.

Locate
MN State Representatives

Minneapolis Representatives

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Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy

MN Department of Public Safety

Minneapolis Community Safety Program and Timeline

Plan
Tips on Meeting with Your Elected Officials

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Our mission is to collect and share resources for the residents of Minneapolis that promote safety, healing, justice, and knowledge, while reducing divisiveness and misinformation.

Goals
1) Encourage discussion, engagement, and action toward a more racially and socially just Minneapolis.

2) Help residents imagine a safer city for all residents.

3) Provide avenues for personal and community healing.

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Discomfort is something we like to avoid. It feels terrible which we often equate to being bad. Yet no matter how much we try to hide from it it's still inevitable. If you're open to it, discomfort can be a place of personal growth through better understanding ourselves, others, and the world around us.

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I've written before about sitting with discomfort. It's a big piece of the puzzle that is "mindfulness," and something I think about a lot. As Americans (not to exclude everyone else, I'm sure this happens everywhere), we tend to view discomfort as this untamable beast that will destroy our picture-perfect lives if we let it show its teeth.

But discomfort is a fact of life. It's going to part of our experience no matter how hard we try to protect ourselves and our loved ones from it. And it goes further: discomfort is where the most of our personal growth happens. It's not even a bad thing. If we are to expand our boundaries and comfort zones, we have to accept that discomfort is a part of life and even embrace it at times.

There are five main strategies we have for dealing with discomfort. We can either try to avoid it in the first place, ignore it and push through, sit with it and observe, deal with it ourselves, or ask for help. My experience with mindfulness is that it has shifted how I respond to discomfort from avoiding and ignoring to observing and healing.

I made this awesome pie chart to how regular contemplative practice can change our experience with dealing with discomfort. This data is 100% made up, but the colors are great and having a chart on a blog makes it look so real. SO REAL! Check it.

Let's take a quick look at each one.

Avoid it. Classic move. Here we don't even get far enough to admit that the discomfort could be a possibility. We go to great lengths to avoid it, in all likelihood creating more discomfort (or else building up internal shame and repression) along the way. This is generally bad news. There are certainly some discomforts that we should avoid (Life Pro Tip: Get a good mattress. Long-term back pain is not worth the cheaper alternative.), but for small, natural discomforts, it's better to just face them and get some good practice dealing with it. Sore from going to the gym? Learn to love it!

Ignore it. Again, this is a favorite of the success-driven world. Power through! Haven't gotten enough sleep for a few nights (or weeks)? Drink more coffee! Energy drinks (eww)! This is a big one in relationships. We ignore the difficult conversations we need to be having, and instead opt for business-as-usual. Ignoring discomfort tends to allow it to build up until it reaches some kind of breaking point, which won't be pretty. Sometimes we need to do this for short stretches to meet deadlines, create meaningful work, and provide for our families, but we should always be aware of what's happening and keep in mind that it should be temporary.

Sit with it. This is the main point of the post I linked to earlier on. By sitting with discomfort and just observing it, we learn to be comfortable in more challenging situations. This allows us to grow and develop a deep sense of happiness.

Deal with it. Some discomforts aren't good to sit with for a long time, particularly if they are related to an injury (physical or emotional) in the body. Often when I've been neglecting my yoga practice, my body feels discomfort in the form of tightness and aches. I've learned that this is a sign that I need to get back into it and deal with those discomforts. Right now I'm icing my hamstring for a minor strain. I know I'll feel better about everything if I clean my house. Take action!

Ask for help. Oh boy, this is a hard one. Sometimes we need a good friend, and sometimes we need a professional. We can't do everything for ourselves all the time, and we'll run ourselves into the ground if we try. Western medicine has taken an approach of only focusing on the extreme cases where something is obviously damaged. Most of the time we're not in this situation, but we may still need healing or help. Seeing a therapist is always a good idea, regardless of how positive we're feeling. Acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, meditation, reiki, and whatever else you're into, can all help us go beyond our baseline feeling of "not injured" to feeling great (they can also deal with some of those injuries!).

Once we recognize these different approaches to discomfort, our contemplative practice will begin to provide us the wisdom to know which is the most appropriate route, or combination of routes, to take at any given time.

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Strategies for Dealing with Discomfort - Max Calabro

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I've written before about sitting with discomfort. It's a big piece of the puzzle that is "mindfulness," and something I think about a lot. As Americans (not to exclude everyone else, I'm sure this happens everywhere), we tend to view discomfort as this untamable beast that will destroy our picture-perfect lives if we let it ...

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Benefits from learning about different cultures

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Benefits from learning about different cultures

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We, as a community and as individuals, benefit from being open and learning about other cultures because we gain a better understanding about the world and our community, we learn new ways of doing things, it minimizes stereotypes, helps prevent ethnic or racial divides, and much more.

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Today, the world is fast becoming a global village, with many countries enjoying a multicultural environment. Understanding different cultures is not only critical, but it also promotes ample coexistence. As we learn about diverse cultures, it is worth noting that all of us are individuals. Rather than generalizing, we should treat each other as individuals. This will go a long way in creating a better environment where we can all thrive.

What is Culture?

Culture is everything that describes a particular group of people. The group can be; a family, a religious group, or people from a different town, neighborhood, country, or city. It can also be people who share a similar ethnic background, life dynamics, or work culture. Many times, culture is used to describe the features that are exhibited through history, language, food, arts, geography, family values, and beliefs.

One person can have diverse cultures such as; family culture, religious culture, age group culture, or work culture. When all these cultures are combined, they give each individual their personal culture. There are various ways that both children and adults can learn about different cultures. These include:

Diversify Your Reading Practice

Rather than reading books written by people you identify with, adopt a practice of reading books written by different people from different cultures. This helps you learn numerous facts about the culture. Further, you'll be able to identify with the culture better.

Understand Different Geography and Economic Practices

Economics and geography of any country are critical and closely associated. You can begin by establishing the following.

What are the trading practices of this culture? Do they use trade or money?

Does the culture have any resources?

Does the culture specialize in exports? If they do, what do they mainly export?

What role do these things play in terms of their cultural practices and beliefs?

Interact with People who come from Diverse Cultures

This is one of the ideal ways of learning and understanding other people's cultures. One way of achieving this is going for international camps. The advantage of attending these camps is that you meet people from different countries and races. Not only do you learn about their culture, but you also teach them your culture.

Having a one on one interaction with people helps you hear their stories first hand. Leverage this opportunity to ask questions you may have about the culture, and teach them everything they want to know. This way, you learn from each other.

Sample Food from Other Cultures

Food plays a critical function in human existence. Further, the food we all consume is connected to our culture. You can learn and understand a specific culture by sampling their food. There would be no way of comprehensively defining culture without evaluating its cuisine.

Food is an extensive need, and regardless of where you are, or where you come from, you need food. Chances are that many of our social cultures emanated from food. In the past, for instance, people would wander through the land to hunt and gather food. While food practices have changed in the modern-day, it remains one of the uniting factors for people across the world.

What are the Benefits of Learning Different Cultures?

In today's ever-changing world, people world over are fast realizing the importance of learning, understanding, and appreciating diverse cultures. Why is this necessary? It plays a major role in developing communities that excel in problem-solving and enhancing varying conditions. Let's discuss the benefits of understanding different cultures.

· You get to understand the World Better

The world comprises of people with diverse cultures. Where possible, being exposed to different cultures helps you embrace and appreciate people that are different from you. Further, the more your children interact with other children from different cultures, the more they respect and value them.

Going for summer camps are a great way of exposing your children to diverse cultures and practices. Whether they will interact with other children from different countries or regions, they will learn something new during camp.

· Minimize Stereotypes

When your children learn about people and their different cultures, they'll be less likely to classify them depending on stereotypes. Remember, everybody is different and what one person does shouldn't be used to define an entire community.

· Helps Prevent and Overcome Ethnic and Racial Divisions

Ethnic and racial divisions can hurt society. For instance, it could lead to a lack of opportunities, misunderstandings, and in the worst cases, violence. Communities marred by ethnic and racial rivalry often suffer from both human and financial resources. These vices distract communities from finding concrete solutions to their budding issues.

· Enhances Effective Communication

Language is a critical part of human communication. However, it's not the only contributing factor to effective communication. Culture enhances communication in varying ways. For instance, culture can influence speaking tendencies such as; figurative language, speed, and presentation. Culture also contributes to the way people depict their gestures and body language.

· Creates Opportunity to Meet New People

There are different ways of meeting new people. For instance, participate in different celebrations, attend camp, visit people from diverse cultures, and celebrate special days. This enables students, especially, to meet, interact with, and make new friends. This is an ideal way of expanding a student's social circle and creating room for them to learn about different cultures.

· Exposure to New Experiences

Children can get exposed through; sampling new foods, participating in different cultural celebrations and listening to stories. Further, engaging in different activities such as art or even learning how to play a new musical instrument. Exposure to new things helps children to explore the world better.

Why Should You Learn Different Cultures?

Learning and understanding different cultures are critical in day to day life. Here are the reasons why you should be conversant with diverse cultures.

· They are Interesting

Learning about other cultures is interesting. Today we live in a digital world where children spend most of their time with their gadgets. To discourage a sedentary lifestyle, expose your children to different cultures from an early stage. Sending your children to camp is one way of achieving this. While on camp, your children will be exposed to different culture promoting activities. Having hands-on experience is better than reading or even watching the same on television.

· It Stimulates the Mind

Being exposed to culture learning opportunities stimulates your mind, and helps you think in diverse ways. It's an ideal way of challenging your thought development and enhancing how you refine information.

· It Promotes Understanding

Lots of problems can arise from misunderstandings, especially because we live in a multicultural world. By learning and understanding different cultures you understand why people do things the way they do. When you identify with other people, you sympathize with their situation. This facilitates understanding and prevents misunderstandings.

· You understand various ways of doing things

Cultural practices shouldn't be the reason why people oppress one another. While discarding some practices is impossible, some sections of different cultures need to be renounced. Learning about diverse cultures helps you realize that there are numerous approaches to life, and you may not be the best.

Many times, interacting with people from different cultures helps you view life from a different perspective. When you learn about different cultures, you establish new ways of thinking and approaching and solving problems.

· You become more prepared to cope with the Ever-Changing World

In today's techno-savvy times, the world is rapidly becoming smaller. As people travel far and wide, there are high chances that you will encounter people with varying cultures. You'll need to master the art of tolerating each other. Remember, you'll also want people to tolerate you and the best way of achieving this is by being understanding.

This plays a major role in living in an all-round community and making you a versatile human being. If your children will be going to camp, they'll need to learn about other cultures to avoid misunderstandings. Learning about other people's customs and cultures gives enriches the children's experience everywhere they go.

What's the relationship between Language and Culture?

Language enables you to express your feelings and thoughts, facilitates communication, and allows you to exchange knowledge with others. To fully master a different language, you'll need to understand the culture. It's worth noting that to understand a different culture, you should strive to study the language associated with the culture.

This is attributed to the fact that language is highly depended on various factors. They include the ever-changing customs, values, and views of the people who speak it. Remember, language mirrors the beliefs and values of a culture, as well as our perception of the world. The difference between two cultures can be expressed through their languages, and understanding the differences helps you relate with people better.

Finally

There are various cultures, practices, beliefs, and norms in the world. Teaching children how to be culturally conscious and respectful of others prepares them to face the world. It's an ideal way of reminding children that what they are conversant with may not always be the right way. By learning different cultures, children will have an easy time interacting with, and making new friends. Further, they will be able to solve culturally-based issues before they crop up.

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What are the benefits of understanding different cultures

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Today, the world is fast becoming a global village, with many countries enjoying a multicultural environment. Understanding different cultures is not only critical, but it also promotes ample coexistence. As we learn about diverse cultures, it is worth noting that all of us are individuals. Rather than generalizing, we should treat each other as individuals.

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History can be and often is biased. The person or people deciding what is historical have their own view of what's important to pass on. In the United States those people have been and often still are white men. It's healthy and helpful to learn about history through the eyes of someone who didn't write the history book you had in school. Whether it's books like Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi or An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz follow the history of repressed groups, resources like the tagged website were created to educate and heal damage done by history we want to forget, or biographies about BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) activists or icons, learning about all aspects of our history helps us learn where to make amends and can keep us from future mistakes.

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We can be aware of both what’s going on outside of us (family, friends, community, etc.) as well as inside of us (emotions, feelings, how our body feels, etc). Sometimes we have to learn how to be aware and often we are better at being aware of one more than the other. How often do you stop to think about the people and things around you? How often do you check in with what’s going on in your body and mind? Working on both ways of being aware will help you interact more effectively with others and manage your own needs.

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Awareness is the Key to Everything | SoloWords

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How many things are happening around and within us and we don't know or understand what is going on? Awareness is the key to everything. While I was

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Crime has increased in Minneapolis. Maintain your safety while gathering accurate information about the crime in your neighborhood.

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Minneapolis crime maps and dashboards

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MPD Crime Prevention Specialists

Warning
Crime apps, crime reported on apps, and crime groups on apps are often biased by design and misinformed. There have been many instances of people getting kicked out of groups and threads for calling out racism.

Learn more
Cop’s Don’t Stop Violence
"A seminal year-long study of 'preventive patrol' or increasing police presence beyond responding to calls for assistance in Kansas City neighborhoods found that increased police patrols did not affect crime rates, including violent crime, nor did they make people feel more safe."

Media and social media’s impact on citizens’ perception of the frequency of crime occurrence in the United States
"Overall, the results suggest that frequency of seeing social media posts on crime that occurred in the U.S. had a greater influence on the participants’ perception of how often crime occurs in America."

Crime and its fear in social media

"Thus, social media is shown not to be highly useful for detecting trends in crime itself, but what they do demonstrate is rather a reflection of the level of the fear of crime."

The rise in murders in the US, explained

Experts cautioned that they can't know for sure, but their theories centered on the pandemic, fewer police, distrust of police, more gun purchases, overwhelmed healthcare systems, closed schools and support systems, and a failing economy.

What the data says (and doesn’t say) about crime in the United States

Pew Research Center data

All articles I (Shanda) consulted on the rise in crime echoed the same conclusion - 2020 was unusual in many ways, making it difficult to pinpoint a "reason." They believe crime trends will likely change.

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We are three white women who live in Minneapolis. Shanda Hunt (she/her/hers) is an academic librarian. Alissa Kaasa (she/her/hers) is a therapist who specializes in grief and chronic mental and physical illness. Christine Petrich (she/her/hers) is a health and wellness educator.

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Call for submissions
If you feel you have items to contribute to this publication, please email us at mplssafetysnacks@gmail.com.

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If you're like us, then this summer you found yourself wondering who and what is the charter commission, and why do they have so much control?

Minneapolis Charter Commission
A group of 15 unelected people who decide what Minneapolis residents get to vote on (or not). They are appointed by the Hennepin County District Court's chief judge.

Learn more
League of Minnesota Cities
One of the values of the home rule charter is that it allows each city to tailor its charter. City residents draft, adopt, and amend the city’s charter. If the citizens feel it necessary, the charter can include initiative, referendum, and possibly recall provisions as additional checks to prevent the abuse of power. The district court usually makes charter commission appointments. The only statutory qualification for members of charter commissions is that they be qualified voters of the city. A charter commission must propose amendments upon receiving a petition signed by a number of registered voters equal to 5 percent of the total votes cast at the previous state general election in the city.

Question
Is this group an accurate representation of Minneapolis residents?

How many commissioners are wealthy white individuals, and how many are not?

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Many Minneapolis residents are talking about recalling members of the previously low-profile Minneapolis Charter Commission or abolishing the body altogether after it blocked a police reform amendment from reaching the ballot this November.

But getting rid of them wouldn't be easy. It'd require unprecedented action from the Hennepin County District Court chief judge or an amendment to the state constitution.

The 15-member board has been castigated in public hearings and on social media for being too old, too white, too wealthy and too out of touch for the volunteer job, with some threatening to have them recalled for what they perceive as intentionally delaying a vote on amending the city charter.

The Charter Commission voted 10-5 Wednesday to take 90 more days to study a City Council proposed amendment that would eliminate the Police Department and create a new public safety department. That delay means the council won't have enough time to get the issue on the ballot this November, which has led to cries for recalls or a citizen-led petition amendment.

But voters can't recall charter commissioners like they could elected officials because they are appointed by the chief judge of the Hennepin County District Court. You could complain to the chief judge, because state law says "Any member may be removed at any time from office, by written order of the district court, the reason for such removal being stated in the order."

Toddrick Barnette became chief judge on the Hennepin County District Court on July 1. The odds that he would remove charter commissioners seem slim. Charter Commission Chair Barry Clegg, who has been on the commission 17 years, can't recall a commissioner being removed by a judge.

The only grounds for removal specified in state law is when they've failed to perform the duties of office or missed four unexcused consecutive meetings, but Clegg said they could be removed for other reasons, too, as long as the reason is stated in the removal order.

So if the judge won't remove them, the other option is amending the state constitution, which would be much harder than gathering a few thousand signatures to recall an official. A simple majority of both legislative chambers - both the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate - would have to approve the amendment, to put it to a vote of Minnesotans.

Let's say Democrats take control of both houses in November and agree to put it on the ballot: The next hurdle is a majority of all the voters casting ballots would have to vote for the amendment, including those who skip the ballot question.

Some testifiers at the Charter Commission derided the fact that commissioners are appointed and not elected, but Clegg said during Wednesday's commission meeting that's not a "legislative accident."

"Charter commissioners are appointed by judges to preserve their independence," he said. "None of us are running for office and we don't have to be concerned about mayoral or council politics. It sounds simplistic, but our job is to forward amendments that are appropriate, reject those that are not, and request more time when more time is needed to make the determination."

But what constitutes an appropriate charter amendment? Clegg said there's understandably confusion about that because there's no statutory or case law guidance on evaluating proposed amendments, so "charter commissioners are left to their own devices."

Left to their own devices, the commission decided to take more time to study the council's amendment, which is why some people want to recall them now.

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Abolish the Minneapolis Charter Commission? That's harder than the Police Department - Minnesota Reformer

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Many Minneapolis residents are talking about recalling members of the previously low-profile Minneapolis Charter Commission or abolishing the body altogether after it blocked a police reform amendment from reaching the ballot this November. But getting rid of them wouldn't be easy.

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Vigilantism, which is on the rise around the country and reared its head in Minneapolis this summer, does not deter crime and creates divides in communities.

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It's a contentious time in the U.S., with a pandemic, racial equality, police violence and a presidential election all occupying people's attention. Given all that stress, it can seem like people are taking the law into their own hands more often.

It's not just in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In recent weeks, there have been confrontations over removing monuments to the Confederacy, clashes over the use of face masks, attempts to protect - or intimidate - Black Lives Matter protesters and even a renewed interest in " citizen's arrests." Some of these events have turned tragically violent and deadly.

These events show Americans moving beyond differences of opinion and free speech into private displays of force. Their participants may be trying to enforce their own ideas of what the law is, or protect property or defend their communities against threats - especially in light of the failures of police to provide a fair system of justice.

Attorney General William Barr has claimed, by contrast, that this vigilantism might be a premonition of the disorder yet to come if police funding is in fact slashed in communities nationwide.

As a scholar of vigilantism in U.S. history and a political scientist interested in how the state and law develop over time, I have found, as have others, that for many Americans, law and order has long been as much a private matter as something for the government to handle.

Two sparks for vigilantism

Vigilantism - the private, violent enforcement of public moral or legal standards - tends to rise in two types of situations, neither of which may be what people expect. It doesn't come from a government being weak or absent, leaving citizens on their own, but rather when the very principles that make up a government and its people themselves seem to be changing.

And it doesn't necessarily come from situations where one ethnic or racial group clearly dominates others - but rather in times and places where who belongs to a particular community is up for debate. Vigilantism is often about the attempt to establish power rather than a reflection of preexisting hierarchies.

[ Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]

Many Americans are feeling like the rules of the game are changing in unfair ways and have a sense of unease about what the nation is going to look like in the future. As scholars and pundits opine about the serious possibility of another American civil war, the grave implications of domestic political violence loom more than at any point in the past 50 years.

These fears are reinforced by a president who seems to encourage division and fear between Americans, even as Black people's voices are attracting more attention in the public and the halls of power.

Vigilantism is American law enforcement

Through U.S. history, the distinctions between vigilantism and lawful arrest and punishment have always been murky. Frequently, vigilantism has been used not in opposition to police efforts, but rather with their active encouragement. Indeed, in some recent protests that still seems to be the case.

Before police departments existed, arrests were made under traditional common law, which depended on private participation in legally organized posses and serving as deputies. Institutions like slave patrols required that non-slave owners were willing to use, or at least permit, violence to maintain white supremacy. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, private detectives and security guards also possessed powers of arrest similar to those of police officers.

Even the spate of " stand your ground " laws passed in the last 15 years borders on vigilantism, giving private citizens lots of freedom about how to use force to protect themselves.

Vigilantism is also American culture

American vigilantism is primarily associated with the terrible lynching campaigns of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that targeted Black Americans and other racial minorities. But that isn't the whole story.

Political scientist Eleonora Mattiacci and I studied what were called " vigilance committees," private groups organized in the decades before the Civil War that typically promoted anti-immigrant sentiment in areas, including cities, precisely as the laws concerning the powers of local governments were rapidly changing.

In fact, though it has been most often used to try to establish racial and economic hierarchies, vigilantism - including actual lynching - has also, at times, been used by disadvantaged communities for self-defense.

Take recent events in Milwaukee, for instance: A small gathering of people in a predominantly African American neighborhood violently confronted residents of a house where two girls were believed to be held in a sex-trafficking ring. This follows a long tradition of people of color using private force to protect themselves and defend their communities.

Vigilantism has often abetted the worst instincts in the politics of crime in the U.S., making justice appear to depend on what the people want rather than the rule of law.

But it is also evidence of the complicated relationship between violence and justice at the core of American democracy. The founders thought seriously about self and community protection and believed that popular participation in law enforcement and defense could be an important corrective to an unresponsive and oppressive legal system.

But allowing the majority to impose justice can have unequal effects on disadvantaged members of the nation, granting the police a mandate to act violently precisely because that seems to be what the people want.

As Americans focus on the way in which people of color, in particular, have been policed in this country, they should disentangle the damaging forms of vigilantism from a deeper notion that democracy might require ordinary citizens to rely at least partly on themselves to enforce the law.

Democracy requires Americans to somehow be vigilant over the use of force in their midst - without themselves becoming vigilantes.
Editor's note: This is an updated version of an article first published July 9, 2020.

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Vigilantism, again in the news, is an American tradition

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It's a contentious time in the U.S., with a pandemic, racial equality, police violence and a presidential election all occupying people's attention. Given all that stress, it can seem like people are taking the law into their own hands more often. It's not just in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

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Subscribe to BIPOC-led news to gain a broader perspective of community issues. There are many, but the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder is the oldest Black-owned news source in Minneapolis.

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The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (MSR) enjoys a living legacy as the oldest Black-owned newspaper in the state of Minnesota and one of the longest-standing, family-owned newspapers in the country.

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We plan to add new resources weekly. If you have an issue or topic you'd like to learn more about, please email us at mplssafetysnacks@gmail.com.

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From the report: "We define community public safety investment as directing public resources to local community-driven public safety strategies that extend beyond traditional law enforcement and corrections players. This approach can help achieve the typical public safety goals of crime prevention in a wide a range of ways, including 1) building and reinforcing community relationships, 2) increasing employment, education, and economic opportunity, 3) increasing access to healing and trauma recovery supports, 4) fostering participatory policymaking and political mobilization, 5) seeking racial justice and helping repair past harms, 6) improving public health and community well-being, 7) supporting safe and stable housing, 8) reducing exposure to the criminal justice system and its attendant consequences, and 9) strengthening community infrastructure.

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From the pandemic to protests to arson, Du Nord Craft Spirits has dealt with repeated turmoil and emerged with a new purpose.

Chris and Shanelle Montana at Du Nord Craft Spirits, which has been closed since its building burned on May 29. Credit... Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

When Chris and Shanelle Montana founded Du Nord Craft Spirits in 2013, they chose the Longfellow neighborhood in southern Minneapolis, "in part because it was a little quieter," Mr. Montana said.

It didn't work out that way. Over the past four months, Du Nord has been buffeted and transformed by each new trauma to shake the city, and the world.

In mid-March, with the coronavirus converging on the United States, the couple, like many other distillers, ceased making their gin, vodka, whiskey and liqueurs, and began manufacturing much-needed hand sanitizer.

Mr. Montana handed out that sanitizer to protesters outside the nearby Third Precinct police station after the killing of George Floyd on May 25. The distiller was tear-gassed twice for his trouble.

In the early hours of May 29, Du Nord, like many businesses in the neighborhood, was in flames. The fire activated its sprinkler system, which added water damage to the devastation. The night after that, the Montanas' East Lake Street apartment building was set on fire.

Image

Bottles charred in the fire at Du Nord on May 29, the night the nearby Third Precinct police station burned. Credit... Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

No sooner had Du Nord begun to clean up than Mr. Montana quickly pivoted, converting what was left of the building, where he leases space, into an impromptu food bank to aid the reeling neighborhood.

"I think one of the things that has made it easier personally is there's just so much to do," said Mr. Montana, 37. "You don't really have time to sit down and soak it all in. I might be bummed because some people set fire to my distillery. That saddens me and angered me. But right now, I have food every night. I'm fine. There are people doing so much worse than I am."

Du Nord's experience is all the more remarkable in the current cultural context because Mr. Montana is one of the few Black distillery owners in the United States.

A door at Du Nord was broken into during the unrest following George Floyd's killing. Credit... Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

During the protests and ensuing unrest that engulfed much of East Lake Street, he had to weigh his instincts as a business owner against the dangers that might await him outside. When he heard at 2 a.m. on May 29 that his distillery was on fire, he did not rush to the site, but waited until daybreak.

"That was very scary," said Shanelle Montana, 36, "the thought of his going back to a burning distillery when the police walk by. Are they going to think he's a distillery owner mourning his distillery?"

Employees salvaged some whiskey from the fire. Credit... Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

Though the Montanas, who have three young children, have enough to contend with on their own, their focus has been helping the community. The food bank in the distillery has paused while critical repairs are made to the waterlogged building, but Du Nord is likely to reopen it, based on community need in the coming months.

When friends started GoFundMe accounts for them, the couple's reaction was to answer those efforts with a fund-raising drive of their own to help other businesses in the area owned by people of color. "I knew a lot of them were uninsured or underinsured," Mr. Montana said.

The Du Nord Craft Spirits Riot Recovery Fund, administered by the newly created nonprofit Du Nord Foundation, has since raised roughly two-thirds of its $1 million goal. "We're hoping that within the next two weeks, we're going to start writing checks," said Mr. Montana, who hopes to get back to producing spirits by the fall.

This generosity in the face of personal adversity has not surprised the couple's friends and colleagues. "He's always making the best of whatever situation is handed to him," said Jon Kreidler, a co-founder of Tattersall Distilling, a Minneapolis company that teamed up with Du Nord on sanitizer production.

Jon Kreidler, a founder of Tattersall Distillery, which joined with Du Nord to make hand sanitizer. Credit... Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

"Chris and Shanelle would never turn down an opportunity to serve the community," said Jessica Ward-Denison, an organizer of the food bank. "With the scariness and sadness of the days leading up to this, I think there was a great need for something positive."

Ms. Montana, who is white, took more time getting to that positive place.

"I was very angry for a long time," she said of the destruction. "A lot that were hit were small mom-and-pop businesses by people of color that had been in business for a long time.

"But as I talked to people, a lot of them said, 'If this is what it takes to change things, then this is what it takes.' It really changed my perspective. I got there. It took me longer, but I got there, to see the hope in this and to separate the damage from the change it might bring."

Mr. Montana benefited from a broader view, informed by his childhood. Soon after his family moved to Minnesota from Indiana, in 1991, he recalled a rally and chants of "No justice, no peace."

"Then, it was about Rodney King," he said. "It occurred to me that here we are, almost 30 years on, the chants are the same, the problems are the same."

This time, though, he senses a shift.

"I don't condone the property damage, but I do understand it," Mr. Montana said. "If that means there's going to be attention paid to this fundamental issue in our country, then it's worth it. I don't know if there's a person of color in this country that, whether they own the business or not, who would not pay that price over and over again."

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A Black-Owned Distillery in Minneapolis Pushes Forward

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From the pandemic to protests to arson, Du Nord Craft Spirits has dealt with repeated turmoil and emerged with a new purpose. When Chris and Shanelle Montana founded Du Nord Craft Spirits in 2013, they chose the Longfellow neighborhood in southern Minneapolis, "in part because it was a little quieter," Mr. Montana said.

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The death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis police custody forced Americans to examine racial equity gaps, particularly among Black people.

U.S. Bank, which pledged in June to provide $100 million a year in additional capital to African American owned and led businesses or organizations, announced a comprehensive plan Wednesday to help Black families build wealth.

The U.S. Bank Access Commitment is targeted to "diverse communities," but the Minneapolis-based bank says it will initially place an emphasis on wealth building among Blacks.

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"We believe access to capital for minority small business, housing and homeownership, and workforce advancement creates opportunities for systemic change," U.S. Bank CEO Andy Cecere said in a prepared statement. "We are committed to be part of the solution."

The bank's leaders intend to pursue a series of initiatives in 2021 and beyond that address three areas.

Business support: A new $25 million microbusiness fund will provide grants and make investments in businesses owned by women of color.

Funding for this effort is coming from the U.S. Bank Foundation and the U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp. The latter will provide $20 million in debt capital to Black-led and women-focused community development financial institutions, known as CDFIs. The remaining $5 million from the foundation will be awarded as grants, and used to support expansion, capacity building, technical assistance, mentoring, and networking.

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As a large corporation, U.S. Bank can make a difference by choosing to do business with more companies led by people of color. The bank reported Wednesday that it's on track to meet its goal of doubling its business relationships with Black-owned suppliers. U.S. Bank also is expanding global trade financing to diverse businesses.

Wealth building: Among its efforts to build wealth is the DREAM (Delivering Resources that Enable Access to Mortgage) Initiative. U.S. Bank aims to boost Black homeownership and also increase the number of people from underrepresented communities working as mortgage loan officers.

U.S. Bank recently made an equity investment in Goalsetter, which is a Black-owned finance app that focuses on financial literacy for American children and teens. After surveying minority communities on their needs, U.S. Bank is currently developing other responses to expand wealth building efforts.

In a recent TCB interview, Greg Cunningham, U.S. Bank's chief diversity officer, said, "The two fundamental things that drive wealth are small businesses and homeownership. Owning a home is a path to self-respect and self-worth, and it's the most efficient way to build wealth and pass it along."

Only one in four Black households own their homes in Minnesota, in contrast to 77 percent of white households, according to Minnesota Compass.

Career opportunities: U.S. Bank is taking multiple steps to increase hiring and promotions of people of color.

"The company offers leadership development for all employees and will expand opportunities for both early- and mid-career employees and Black executives in partnership with the McKinsey Black Leadership Academy," the bank said in a Wednesday statement.

U.S. Bank also has overhauled its hiring practices to ensure diverse candidate slates. For each job opening, at least one woman or person of color will be interviewed.

In the past month, U.S. Bank announced the selection of people for three prominent roles. All of the new leaders are Black.

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In late January, U.S. Bancorp reported that Kimberly Ellison-Taylor had been elected to the board of directors. She is executive director of finance thought leadership for Oracle Corp.

The bank issued news releases this month on two external hires, both Black men.

Scott Ford was hired to become president of Wealth Management Affluent. He previously served as a wealth management regional director for JP Morgan Chase. He also has held a leadership position within Citibank.

Marcus Martin was appointed managing director and head of U.S. Bank's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) for its Fixed Income and Capital Markets business. Martin has 20 years of industry experience, including six years as the founder and CEO of Global Oak Capital Markets.

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U.S. Bank aims to build wealth among Black Americans | MinnPost

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The death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis police custody forced Americans to examine racial equity gaps, particularly among Black people. U.S. Bank, which pledged in June to provide $100 million a year in additional capital to African American owned and led businesses or organizations, announced a comprehensive plan Wednesday to help Black families build wealth.

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New year, same pandemic, and Luis Patiño is doing what he can. Which is everything he can.

"I am super-grateful that I am able to wake up every single day and do what I love - cutting vegetables and washing dishes," said Patiño, who owns Café Racer Kitchen in Minneapolis.

Like so many small-business people, Patiño adapted to the rolling catastrophes of 2020. He changed his business model, he innovated, he applied for every grant and grabbed at every lifeline his community tossed him. He had rent to pay, he had payroll to meet, he had food to put on your table. He had vegetables to chop.

"The amount of vegetables I have to cut is the hope I have," Patiño said. "I hope that I sell this much food. I hope that I can put out this much product."

As COVID-19 endangered his staff, his customers and the business he'd built up from a food truck, Patiño tried everything. He lined up a contract to make school lunches for local charter schools; he shifted his business to carryout; he offered heat-and-eat meals so people could fill their ovens with pulled pork, arepas or sweet fried plantains. The comfort foods of Patiño's native Colombia, comforting his hometown of Minneapolis.

When Hennepin County threw him a lifeline, he grabbed it. Since May, the county has given out more than $46 million in grants - backed by CARES Act dollars and state pandemic relief funds - to help more than 4,600 small businesses and nonprofits hurt by the shutdowns, recession and unrest of the past year. Last week, the county began sifting through 3,700 applications for a fifth round of small-business aid.

Nearly half the county's aid so far has gone to minority-owned businesses. It was a conscious decision by a community with a glaring racial wealth gap - and an ugly history of discrimination, racial covenants and ramming highways through Black business districts.

Only 10% of Hennepin County's businesses are minority-owned. Hennepin County was going to save as many as it could.

"The pandemic is already disproportionately affecting communities of color from a health perspective," said Patricia Fitzgerald, community and economic development manager for Hennepin County Housing and Economic Development. "We needed to be extremely intentional to make sure these relief funds would be targeted equitably."

There are small-business relief programs like this at the federal, state and local levels, and all of it helps. Shopping locally helps. Ordering a meal helps. Wearing a mask. Buying a gift card.

Every business you save saves others. Restaurants, gyms, arts organizations, dry cleaners. These grants helped mom-and-pop shops pay landlords, pay workers, pay vendors, keep the lights on.

Most small businesses have enough cash reserves to carry them for about two weeks. Minnesota's first pandemic shutdown order was 43 weeks ago. Businesses shut down and scaled back to save the community. The community owes them.

"Small businesses are the backbone of our economy," Fitzgerald said. "Ninety-six percent of Hennepin County businesses have fewer than 100 employees."

As the community gave to Café Racer, Patiño gave back. The restaurant has a longstanding tradition of offering free meals to anyone who needs one. In the pandemic, the restaurant's Breaking Bread program transformed into a meals-on-wheels operation, with volunteers delivering to those in need.

He misses the days when he could offer free plates in his restaurant - free to someone hungry and in need, and free to the customer next to them, so they can share a meal together. Getting Minnesotans to accept a free meal was always tough, Patiño found. This is a place where people cut the last brownie into smaller and smaller pieces, just so there's something left if someone hungrier comes along.

"Minnesotans think they're taking it from someone else," Patiño said. "When in reality, what I need you to do is just sit there and just break bread with another person. It's not a gift of a free meal. The gift is just taking commerce out of it."

The pandemic took shared meals in crowded restaurants away from us. But we haven't lost what matters most.

"The things that matter are your family and friends and sharing food with them," said Patiño. "Anything more complicated than that, you have made it up."

Back at Café Racer, Patiño cuts his vegetables at the start of each workday, and hopes for dirty dishes at the end.

"The dishes represent the actual completion of being able to provide food for my community. Good, healthy, nourishing food," he said. "How lucky we are to serve the purpose that we serve."

For more information about Café Racer and its Breaking Bread free meal program, visitcaferacermn.com.

jennifer.brooks@startribune.com * 612-673-4008

Follow Jennifer on Twitter: @stribrooks

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Brooks: Hennepin County tosses a lifeline to small businesses battered by the pandemic

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New year, same pandemic, and Luis Patiño is doing what he can. Which is everything he can. "I am super-grateful that I am able to wake up every single day and do what I love - cutting vegetables and washing dishes," said Patiño, who owns Café Racer Kitchen in Minneapolis.

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Healing Justice Practitioners in Minneapolis: Photographs by Nina Robinson

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"We're grieving. We're fighting for black life. We've been hurt," Christie Marie Owens, a teacher and healer in Minneapolis, tells photographer Nina Robinson, who captured a variety of ...

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Yoga nidra is a restorative practice that is done in a restful position, lying on a mat or bed in savasana. To receive maximum benefits from this practice, make sure to find a space where you won't be interrupted by people, pets, or other distractions that can interrupt the process. This is a wonderful and accessible practice for most people, but is especially effective for those who are experiencing issues with sleep, chronic stress, and as a compliment to other healing modalities. It can be helpful for grief, trauma, and prolonged stress.

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Want to make sure everyone's voices are heard? Struggling to figure out how to have difficult conversations with a group of people? Restorative circles can provide a framework that allows for all voices to be heard. While this article focuses on tips for circles in educational settings, the ideas presented here can be beneficial in all settings, from neighborhood block groups to larger community conversations.

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A technique for proactively building the skills and relationships students will need when challenges arise.

Our students come to school with many issues on their minds and in their hearts. As educators, we can help them process their thoughts and feelings so they can better handle their situations and be more present in class.

Restorative circles are a useful practice to do just that. While frequently used to replace punitive forms of discipline, restorative circles are equally important in proactively building the relationships and skills students need to support one another and collectively address the challenges they face.

Restorative circles are most effective when they're an integral part of school culture. After all, you can't "restore" a community that you haven't built or sustained.

7 Steps for Facilitating Meaningful Circles

1. Cocreate a safe, supportive space: Circles work best if teachers invest time up front to build relationships, skills, and practices to draw on throughout the school year-especially if the going gets tough.

Early in the process, teachers and students together explore values-like empathy, patience, kindness, courage, and open-mindedness-that need to be respected for people to be willing to share openly and honestly in circle. They also determine best ways of working together (circle practices). These include honoring the talking piece, which goes around the circle as an invitation to share while everyone else listens (participants may pass if they don't wish to talk). People are encouraged to speak and listen from the heart. And what is shared in circle, stays in circle, though educators should let students know at the outset that we are mandated by law to report when a student threatens to harm themselves or others, or when students divulge abuse.

2. Be prepared: Make sure that you, the facilitator, are well rested, calm, and focused.

To hold the circle space effectively, it's important to be fully present and able to sit with other people's stories and feelings as well as your own. Center yourself. If you're exploring sensitive issues that may require follow up, consider alerting support staff.

3. Plan ahead: Decide together on a topic or theme that sustains students' interest.

Find a relevant opening ceremony to open the circle space, such as a poem, quote, or piece of music. A mindfulness activity can also be used to bring students into the space after a particularly stressful class or noisy hallway experience.

Look for information to ground the conversation, and develop questions and prompts to invite student perspectives into the circle.

Keep in mind that the bigger the circle, the more time you'll need for the talking piece to go around. Think about how things might unfold and be ready to adapt to what comes up.

Make sure to leave time for a closing ceremony, giving students a chance to transition into spaces that may be less conducive to being vulnerable. A closing ceremony can be a commitment to safeguarding the stories shared in circle, or a breathing exercise in which we provide students with prompts and time to put themselves back together again.

4. Invite student experiences into the space: Encourage students to connect with the circle content by sharing stories from their own lives.

Include storytelling rounds by asking students to talk about "a person in your life who..." or "a time when...." Share authentically of yourself. This gives others permission to do the same. Model good listening as the talking piece goes around the circle. Be fully present as others speak. Remind everyone that listening is the key ingredient in circles. True listening can create the kind of welcoming space that encourages even the quietest voices to speak.

5. Acknowledge, paraphrase, summarize, and practice empathy: Listen closely to what students share so that you can build on their experiences.

When the talking piece comes back to you, touch on what you felt, noticed, or heard. If you sense that there's more than surfaced in the first round, send the talking piece around a second or third time, asking students for their connections, reflections, or additions.

If challenging or painful issues come up, model agreed-upon circle practices for students to follow. Listening mindfully and being present with other people's ordeals and hardships can create supportive, healing experiences that strengthen community connections and build empathy.

If needed, let students know you're available to check in with them later in the day or week. You might also have them consider speaking with other supportive adults or students to find solace if they're troubled.

6. Explore what it means to be an effective ally: Beyond creating a supportive listening environment, ask what else, if anything, students need from you and from each other.

Explore how to be better allies in circle so that students know they don't need to face their challenges alone. Invite them to talk about a person in their lives who is a good friend or ally, or a person they'd like to be a better friend or ally. Discuss the qualities these people have (or lack) and how they make us feel. Invite students to talk about a time they've been a good friend or ally themselves, and what gets in the way of being our best selves with one another.

7. Zoom out to promote understanding on the systems level: Explore whether there are larger systemic forces that underlie the challenges students have touched on (such as racism, sexism, or lack of access to resources). Introduce information, stories, and voices that might shed light on how these systems operate. Look for examples of people who took action to interrupt these and other oppressive systems.

Invite students to connect to this information by sharing their thoughts, feelings, and related experiences.

Studying larger, systemic forces in society can help students better understand their situation, and can be a useful starting point for students to become more active themselves. Action and activism can inspire hope, connection, and healing.

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Building Community With Restorative Circles

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A technique for proactively building the skills and relationships students will need when challenges arise.

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No matter the season, we can all benefit from time in nature. Minneapolis has a variety of parks, trails, and forest settings that can provide a healing break from the busy-ness of city life!

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Physical activity. Beautiful scenery. Who doesn't like the occasional hike in the great outdoors? And when you add a little extra awareness to the experience, your outing can benefit both your body and your mind.

Hiking with friends while enjoying great conversation and laughter is one of my favorite activities. But unless we make a conscious effort to stop every now and again and really pay attention to where we are and what we are doing, we can miss a tremendous amount. Stopping and consciously engaging our senses when out hiking not only calms and grounds us-relaxing both mind and body-but it also deepens our connection to the natural world. Excuse the cliché, but mindful hiking is really about remembering to stop and smell the roses (or the eucalyptus, as the case may be).

I've always loved being in nature. It's when I feel an almost instantaneous sense of calm and peace, coupled with an intense awareness of being alive. It's also where I feel happiest and most at ease. One of my most memorable childhood experiences was hiking The Overland Track, a six-day hike from Cradle Mountain to Lake St. Clair in Tasmania with my parents when I was 12. I loved being far away from civilization, carrying a large pack on my back. I was captivated by the breathtaking beauty of the ever-changing landscape-scrambling to the top of Cradle Mountain or sitting by the campfire at night under tall, majestic gum trees. It was a great adventure, one that cemented a life-long love of hiking and the outdoors.

Later, during my twenties, I spent far less time in nature than I would have liked. I didn't know many people who were interested in hiking and I was too shy to join a hiking group. Around then, I started meditating as a way of relieving stress and anxiety. I've since realized that, for me, meditation and being in nature are the two things that, without fail, calm my mind and relax my body.

Spending time in nature has healing and restorative power. Being outdoors increases well-being, helps alleviate stress and anxiety, promotes creativity, assists with recovery from mental fatigue, helps restore attention, boosts the brain's ability to think, and engages the senses.

While a regular seated meditation practice is a very important part of my life, I find opportunities to practice mindfulness in many other ways. Short, simple mindfulness exercises incorporated into an activity such as hiking are an easy, enjoyable, and surprisingly effective way of being more mindful.

Next time you head out for a hike, why not make it a mindful hike?

Stop Before You Start

We rarely pause between activities. As a result, we can carry the stress and tension of a previous activity, conversation, or train of thought over into what we are about to do. Before setting off on your hike, take a few moments to allow yourself to come into the present moment (try the "Note the Pause between Breaths" practice), letting go of any thoughts or concerns that might be on your mind.

Consciously Engage Your Senses

Making the effort to stop along the way and bring conscious awareness to your senses will not only bring you into the present moment and deepen your connection to your surroundings, it will also bring your mind and body back into a state of balance. Your body will start to relax and your mind will begin to settle.

It is estimated that approximately 90% of our attention is taken up with our thoughts. That leaves just about 10% of our attention for our bodies. By consciously holding our awareness in our bodies, without forcing anything, we can encourage the body to begin to soften and relax. Throughout your hike, stop every now and again and try one or more of the following exercises:

It is estimated that approximately 90% of our attention is taken up with our thoughts. That leaves just about 10% of our attention for our bodies. By consciously holding our awareness in our bodies, without forcing anything, we can encourage the body to begin to soften and relax.

Sense Practices - Look

Enjoy a few moments in silence as you look around and consciously engage your sense of sight. Start by turning around slowly and deliberately taking in the 360-degree view as you do.

Look up-explore the sky, the patterns in the clouds, the canopy of trees above. Look down-notice shadows, patterns, colors, and textures on the ground. Sit or lie down for a moment to absorb your surroundings.

Now look closely at an object that catches your attention, such as a leaf or the bark on a tree. Allow your gaze to soften as you explore the object. Gently observe its colors, shape, and texture. Look for subtle details you might have missed at first glance. Allow yourself to become really curious about what you're looking at.

Listen

In this exercise simply stop and enjoy a few moments in silence as you consciously engage your sense of listening. Even after you've finished the exercise and started walking again, try to remember from time to time to slow
down and consciously tune into that sense of listening.

If it feels comfortable for you to do so, close your eyes. Or, if you prefer, simply lower your eyes, keeping your gaze soft. Allow yourself a few moments to settle into your body.

Begin to tune into the sounds around you. There's no need to search for sounds. See if you can simply allow sounds to come to you. You might notice the sound of the wind in the trees; the sound of birds; the voices of other hikers in the distance.

Do your best to experience sounds as pure sensations. Notice if your mind wants to label or judge sounds. This is very normal and simply what the mind does. See if you can notice any such commentary and gently guide your attention back to the experience of listening. And, as you continue hiking, pause from time to time to more consciously engage your other senses.

Touch

Stop and tune into the sensation of the sun or cool breeze against your skin. If you notice an object with an interesting texture-a rock covered in soft, velvety moss, for example-explore it with your hands focusing quite deliberately on your sense of touch.

Taste

When you stop and enjoy something to eat, try eating in silence for a few minutes. Bring conscious awareness to the taste and texture of your food. Food already tastes so much better when you're out in nature-and all the more so when you eat mindfully.

Smell

Stop, close your eyes, and bring conscious awareness to your sense of smell. Be patient as you allow smells to come to you. Smells can be quite subtle and harder to detect, but if you are patient you will be surprised by what you begin to notice.

Vision Exercises - Expand Your Peripheral Vision

This exercise explores and encourages the full use of your peripheral vision-the ability we all have to see out of the corners of our eyes. We naturally use our peripheral vision when scanning the night sky for a shooting star, for example. We use our peripheral vision less and less in our everyday lives due to the increasing amount of time most of us spend looking at one type of screen or another. This exercise helps reawaken our capacity to take in and enjoy a much wider field of vision:

Pick out an object approximately 30-60 feet in front of you to focus on-a particular mark on a tree for example. As you begin to focus on it imagine that your eyeballs can't turn in their sockets-like an owl, which needs to turn its whole head to look to either side. Continue to hold your focus on this point and allow yourself to blink whenever you need to. Soften your gaze and notice what you can see at the edges of your vision.

Now stretch both arms out in front of you and begin to wiggle your fingers. Keeping your arms straight, and continuing to wiggle your fingers, slowly move your arms away from each other while still holding your gaze on your chosen point of focus. When you lose sight of your moving fingers, slowly bring your arms back together again.

Now slowly move one arm up and one arm down, continuing to wiggle your fingers. When you lose sight of your moving fingers slowly bring your arms back together again.

Allow your arms to hang down by your sides once more and take a few moments to simply notice and enjoy your re-awakened peripheral vision. You might like to name one or two things at the edges of your vision in your mind.

As you continue walking, every now and then, see if you can consciously tune into and enjoy your peripheral vision.

Take Snapshots

Throughout your hike try taking "snapshots" with your mind. When you notice an object, sound, smell, flavor, or tactile sensation that you are particularly drawn to, study it for a few moments and imprint it on your mind. As you walk on, play it over in your memory for another 30 seconds or so. It is surprising how much detail you can take in even in a brief moment. Taking snapshots in this way enables you to replay the loveliest moments of your hike-the sound of birdsong, the feeling of the sun on your face, the smell of wet dirt-at a later time in vivid detail.

Savor Silence

Having enjoyed some (if not all) of the above mindfulness exercises, walking in silence is a wonderful way to enjoy the latter part of your hike. How long you decide to walk in silence is entirely up to you, but I've found that 30-40 minutes works well. Most of us have so few opportunities to experience silence when in the company of others. While it can feel a little uncomfortable at first, there is something quite wonderful about shared silence.

You can't keep thoughts of your life completely at bay as you walk in silence, so don't try. Even intermittent moments of focus have great power to calm both mind and body.

A period of silent walking offers you an opportunity to consciously engage your senses in any number of ways, relaxing both mind and body as you do. You might spend the period of silent walking consciously holding awareness in your body. Or focus on the sights, sounds, and smells around you.

You certainly can't expect to keep thoughts of your life completely at bay as you walk in silence, so don't try. Even intermittent moments of focus have been shown to have a calming effect on both mind and body.

Stop and Tune In

Next time you find yourself outdoors, whether you're heading off for a hike or even a short stroll, see if you can remember to take a few moments to stop and tune into your surroundings, as well as your physical body, by consciously engaging your senses. Pay attention to the rise and fall of your chest as you breathe. Feel the sun on your face or the breeze against your skin. Tune into the sights, sounds, smells, and textures around you. Immersing yourself in your surroundings by consciously engaging your senses will leave you feeling calmer, happier and more relaxed, whether you're hiking the Inca trail or walking through your local park.

Practice - Note the Pause between Breaths

Close your eyes and in your own time, without forcing anything, take three long, deep breaths. Allow yourself to make an exaggerated sighing sound on the exhalation, seeing if you can let go a little more with each out breath. Gently hold your attention on your breath and, after each exhalation, allow your next breath to come when it's ready. This short pause between breaths can be very calming. Once you have taken three deep breaths, allow your breath to resume its natural rhythm.

Take a few moments to tune into the sounds around you, and pause. Notice the sensation of air on your face, and pause. Bring your awareness down into your feet, and pause. Really feel the connection your feet are making with the earth beneath you. Allow yourself to feel grounded, connected, and supported. Allow yourself to become really aware of where you are.

You might say silently to yourself, "For the duration of this hike there is nowhere else I need to be; no one else I need to be pleasing. This is my time. Time I'm giving myself to recharge and reconnect with nature."

When you are ready, gently blink your eyes open and reorient yourself before starting your hike.

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Physical activity. Beautiful scenery. Who doesn't like the occasional hike in the great outdoors? And when you add a little extra awareness to the experience, your outing can benefit both your body and your mind. Hiking with friends while enjoying great conversation and laughter is one of my favorite activities.

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Cedar Lake Regional Trail

Sections of the trail may be closed. See note at top of the page. The "View on Google Maps" button below is a link to a map with current detour routes.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board manages the easternmost portion of Cedar Lake Regional Trail, between West River Parkway and the western city boundary.

In Minneapolis, the trail connects to the north end of downtown, including a section under Target Field, Bryn Mawr Meadows Park, Cedar Lake, Kenilworth Regional Trail, Kenwood Parkway and Parade Park (which includes Parade Ice Garden and Parade Stadium).

West of Minneapolis, it travels through St. Louis Park and Hopkins. That section is managed by Three Rivers Park District.

View on Google Maps

Columbia Parkway Regional Trail

Columbia Parkway Regional Trail travels along the north end of Columbia Park between 5th Street NE and Central Avenue NE.

View on Google Maps

East River Parkway travels along the east bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis between the University of Minnesota East Bank campus and the eastern city boundary.

There are parallel trail routes for much of the trail. One is next to the parkway higher up on the river bluff, and one is below, closer to the river. The lower trail passes through East River Flats Park. Beware of flooding on the lower trail.

East of Minneapolis, the trail continues along the river to downtown St. Paul. That section of trail is managed by St. Paul Parks and Recreation.

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Kenilworth Regional Trail

Kenilworth Regional Trail is closed due to Southwest Light Rail Transit construction. Please visit the Met Council SWLRT page for details.

The "View on Google Maps" button below is a link to a map with current detour routes.

Kenilworth Regional Trail is an offshoot of Cedar Lake Regional Trail that travels through a wooded corridor separating Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles.

It connects to the Midtown Greenway and Park Siding Park.

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Kings Highway is a section of Dupont Avenue South between West 36th and 46th Street. Kings Highway looks different than the rest of Dupont Avenue, with southbound and northbound traffic lanes separated by a wide median planted with grass, trees, flowers and bushes.

It connects to Lyndale Farmstead Park and Lyndale Park on the east side of Lake Harriet. It also borders the east side of Lakewood Cemetery.

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Luce Line Regional Trail

The Luce Line Regional and State Trails travel about 70 miles altogether, connecting the Minneapolis park system with suburbs and rural communities west of Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board manages the easternmost section of Luce Line Regional Trail in Theodore Wirth Regional Park. Click the "View on Google Maps" button below to view the MPRB section of the trail.

Three Rivers Park District manages eight miles of the Luce Line Regional Trail between Theodore Wirth Regional Park and Plymouth.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources manages the Luce Line State Trail west of Plymouth. That section travels 63 miles through the Minnesota prairie.

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Mississippi East Bank Trail

Mississippi East Bank Trail travels along the east bank of the Mississippi River between Boom Island Park and the 1600 block of Marshall Street NE.

The trail opened in 2016. It travels through Sheridan Memorial Park.

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Northeast Diagonal Regional Trail

Northeast Diagonal Regional Trail travels along New Brighton Boulevard between Broadway Street NE and St. Anthony Boulevard.

It connects to Gross Golf Club, Stinson Parkway, Hillside Cemetery and The Quarry Shopping Center. It is planned to be part of the Grand Rounds Missing Link.

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Ridgway Parkway Regional Trail

Ridgway Parkway travels between Stinson Parkway and St. Anthony Boulevard.

An overlook with a small parking lot offers a great view of Minneapolis after a steep climb. The overlook was renovated in 2015.

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Stinson Parkway travels between St. Anthony Parkway and New Brighton Boulevard.

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Victory Memorial Drive

Victory Memorial Drive is centered around a Flagpole Plaza near the its intersection with 45th Avenue North. The drive travels north-south between Theodore Wirth Parkway and the Flagpole Plaza, and east-west between the Flagpole Plaza and Webber Parkway.

In its wide, grassy median, 568 evenly-spaced trees are planted, each representing a Hennepin County resident who died in World War I. Beside each tree is a bronze memorial marker.

Victory Memorial Drive also connects to Victory Park.

View on Google Maps

Click here for more information.
The Grand Rounds Scenic Byway runs along the following Minneapolis parkways:

Ridgway Parkway

Stinson Boulevard

Saint Anthony Parkway

Victory Memorial Drive

Theodore Wirth Parkway

Cedar Lake Parkway

West Bde Maka Ska Parkway

William Berry Parkway/West Lake Harriet Parkway

East Lake Harriet Parkway

West and East Minnehaha Parkway

East Nokomis Parkway

West River Parkway

Parkway speed limit is 25 miles per hour.

MPRB parkways are included in City of Minneapolis snow emergencies. Sign up to receive alerts when a snow emergency is declared.

West River Parkway has on-street parking kiosks and a free parking lot.

Parkway Use: You must obtain a permit for special use of the parkway including closures, and dumpsters, trucks, limousines or carriages on the parkway. View parkway permit details. Permit Application [PDF]

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Trails & Parkways - Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board

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Cedar Lake Regional Trail Sections of the trail may be closed. See note at top of the page. The "View on Google Maps" button below is a link to a map with current detour routes. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board manages the easternmost portion of Cedar Lake Regional Trail, between West River Parkway and the western city boundary.

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Remember
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An Art Preservation Project in partnership with Save the Boards Minneapolis

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to collect, preserve, and make accessible to the public the protest art that emerged following the Minneapolis Uprising of 2020. This will ensure that the story of these historic events that occurred are told by the voices of the Black community who experienced them. Our is work is meant to honor the original purpose of the boards, which were a means of protest and memorializing this time and place in history. We will
accomplish through continued action.

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An Art Preservation Project in partnership with Save the Boards Minneapolis OUR MISSION Our mission is to collect, preserve, and make accessible to the public the protest art that emerged following the Minneapolis Uprising of 2020. This will ensure that the story of these historic events that occurred are told by the voices of the Black community who experienced them.