Alright so, Council on Black Minnesotans (COBM) in my humble little opinion is the backbone of the Black community in Minnesota and was created decades ago by state legislators. It is an independent body that is suppose to advice the legislative body and the Governor on the state of Black Minnesotans.
Last state legislative session, COBM came up with lots of great legislative ideas to decrease Minnesota’s racial disparity in health, education, employment, housing, etc. Sadly, none of their bills got out of committees nor went to the floor for votes. Why you ask? good question. In other words, if MN state legislators say they are committed to diversity, committed to decreasing disparity and committed to equal opportunity, then why didn’t even one bill pass out of any committee including the one that was authored by Rep Kahn whose district has thousands of Black Minnesotans. We all know Rep Kahn preaches equality, yet barely passes any equal opportunity legislations for her minority voters. (Note to Somalis in this district – insanity is voting for the same people and expecting different results)
How can I say this diplomatically – because preaching equality is easy. Eliminating inequality actually takes heart, mind and soul and I must say those are qualities many state legislators either lack or they simply just don’t care. COBM is currently led by Edward McDonald who I think is amazing. We in the Somali Autism community received plenty of support from COBM as far back as from its previous director. They have always stood with us in fighting autism racial disparity and equal access. They have written many support letters and have been to many meetings with us with various government officials including the HRSA grant that MDH did not want to share the resources with any minority owned agencies. If you remember, we fought that and now MDH will get this grant of $300,000 this year and MUST allocated $70,000 to minority owned agencies to help minority autism families. COBM is not under any state agency and that is great because to get equal access – we need independent thinkers and independent minds.
On the other hand, Minnesota department of human rights (MDHR) is a state agency led by Commissioner Kevin Lindsey. This agency is suppose to fight discrimination in Minnesota which is like a fish fighting sharks in an ocean. It is grossly under-funded, severely under-staffed and totally not in the loop about many issues of discrimination including autism. Personally, I like and have met with Commissioner Lindsey. But this agency has too many things it is tackling and is not independent. It is under the Governor’s cabinet which if you think about it is not good. For example, the Governor’s cabinet is made up of about two dozen state agencies and there is not one single agency that has a good diverse workforce or fights racial disparity well. They all say the usual (we mean well, we understand, we are committed to diversity, we care, we blah blah).
You see most of these state agencies are led by non-minority commissioners who often hire those that reflect them as suppose to those that reflect the diversity of Minnesota. Then there was that silly audit that said council on minorities not functioning well and must be disbanded because there is a lot of disagreement and people are not coming to the board meetings. Gee, I wonder where I heard that before. Why is it when minorities debate issues and disagree on results – it is called dysfunction that must be disbanded and when Whites do the same-thing – it is called having an adult heated conversation. Really I have always wondered that.
So, as a result, our state legislators instead of being actual adult law makers decided to introduce a bill….wait for it…..to dismantle the council on Black Minnesotans and put it under the already under-funded & overwhelmed MDHR. That bill did not get a hearing last session, and I will for sure testify against it if it has a hearing next year. The good news is communities of color are fighting this injustice and COBM’s director Edward has been vocal in making the case that we need an independent council to fight inequality. One that is not under the Governor since most of his departments barely fight their own disparities. I think Edward is right and we should all support in saving our Council for Black Minnesotans.
Another good question is why does Governor Dayton want to eliminate the only Council for Black Minnesotans? When Candidate Dayton comes to communities of color, he says he cares, he is committed to equality, etc. Yet, Gov Dayton wants to eliminate the only independent council fighting inequality. C’mon Governor – mean what you say and say what you mean.
Here are some articles about this
Putting COBM under MDHR is a bad idea
Above words do not reflect any agency, committee or candidate.
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate