Remember when Ed Schultz from MSNBC said on his show he will have a Black agenda and had NO Blacks on the agenda. Then only when Black folks and others wrote letters did they add Al Sharpton and couple of other Blacks. But only then. Think about that – why do these White liberals always think they can speak for us. We can speak for ourselves about our agendas – really we can.
See that story here.
This is exactly what MNsure surely did. This very expensive and over-rated new government agency was created to help the uninsured get health insurance. We all know and don’t have to ask Jack and Jill which communities lack health insurance, suffers with health disparity and has higher rate of health problems – right. The African American community which includes all new African immigrants.
So, just like some big white guy from North Dakota wanting to tell us our agenda and how to address it – MNsure shuts out any Blacks from having a say in who gets outreach grants. It shuts out hiring not even one single person of color in their leadership and of course does not think of any consequences.
This is becoming the norm here and not the exception. MNsure and Dayton administration want to speak for us, think for us and outreach for us. The problem is they have failed and failed and failed.
Now, I am usually very critical of the two Black senators in MN State legislature, especially Sen Hayden and how he totally looked at the other way regarding SF314, the autism disparity creating bill written by Sen Eaton & Rep Norton, but I must say I was soooo proud of him this week.
It turns out Sen Hayden told MNsure’s clueless Leaders “you blew it and did not flat-out get it”. I love that. You go Sen Hayden and tell these overrated, under-performing, non-diverse, and completely clueless Dayton bureaucrats the facts. I mean really, how long are these could care less folks going to tell us (oh, we understand we are not doing a good job reaching out to African American communities) to just turn around and purposely do a horrible job in reaching out to our communities. The time to stand up, speak up and tell them NO MORE is now.
The sheer arrogance and audacity of MNsure to not have one Black person in their leadership team or those deciding who gets outreach grants is a testament of this agency and the Dayton administration. I have zero confidence in them now and even less confidence of Gov Dayton’s administration.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me every election cycle shame on us. We have got to vote him out. Someone needs to tell them – African Americans can talk for themselves and do for themselves. I call the chair of the board of MNsure and their clueless director to be fired given how much of a mark they missed in their first important task. Surely, we can’t trust MNsure to do the right thing in being fair and objective now – can we? I surely say NO we can’t.
Thanks
Idil – Somali Autism Mom and Minority Advocate