“They (incarcerated people) are a dream constituency. You don’t have to build them any roads, or schools, or develop any new infrastructure to support them….and they can’t vote you out.” – Andrew Virgen, Director of Census Operations and Engagement, State of Minnesota

Incarcerated people are counted in the facilities in which they are imprisoned, not in the communities that the majority of people will return to. This means that concentrated centers of wealth are built, on the backs of the incarcerated, across small Minnesota towns that fight to build and maintain prisons. Lino Lakes, Moose Lakes, Duluth, Sandstone, real people, real towns, real people, real power, concentrated, every ten years, until the next Census.

From the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the mandate is given for a count of United States citizens to take place every ten years. The number of House of Representatives seats in Congress would be determined based on that count. The dilemma? How to count the enslaved black people of the South who numbered so many while the Northern States, smaller and fewer in number wanted equal representation. The ‘answer’ – the 3/5 Compromise. Human-beings, Black people, black human-beings, counted, as persons and property.

The result of the debate set forth in Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution was a compromise, incorporating ideas of both property and person: Population would be calculated by adding “the whole Number of free persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed,” plus “three fifths of all other Persons.” Those “other Persons,” of course, were slaves. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-three-fifths-compromise-rationalizing-the-irrational/

Join me in studio with Kelsey Dawson Walton, Hennepin County Engagement Division Manager and Hennepin County Census Engagement Lead; Andrew Virden, Director of Census Operations and Engagement with the state of Minnesota; Jolie Wood, with Ramsey County she is a Policy Analyst and Ramsey County Census Lead; and Bihie, local community organizer and Director of the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center and Hennepin County Census Engagement Partner  as we rap about the myths and realities of being counted for black people.

A definition: Transracial or transcultural adoption means placing a child who is of one race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group. In the United States these terms usually refer to the placement of children of color or children from another country with Caucasian adoptive parents. https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/f_trans.pdf

Another definition: Transracial adoption refers to the process of placing a child who is of one race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group.”In the U.S., transracial adoption is the placement of children of color or children from another country with Caucasian adoptive parents. ” https://definitions.uslegal.com/t/transracial-adoption/

One of the themes that emerges across ‘transracial’ adoptee experiences is that of the white savior. You, adoptee, are so lucky that we chose you to be a part of our family, to share our resources, to gain access to our privileges…. I wonder, given the two definitions above, two of the top choices on Google… is there a correlation?

In this segment of Urban Agenda, I’m joined by Author & Founder of ‘More Than A Single Story’, Dr. Carolyn Holbrook, Dr. Jonathan Lofgren, and Melissa Olson to talk about their experiences as adoptees and children of transracial adoptees. It’s a powerful listen. I hope you can dig it!

Aluta Continua.

In this segment of Urban Agenda, I’m in studio with Rekhet Si-Asar, Founder of ‘Ink Black Ink’, and Lesley Anne Brown, Author of ‘Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son‘. Join us as we explore myriad issues that are a part of living as black women in the world, and our strivings to celebrate ourselves and our sisters!

In Black Ink (IBI) has made it their purpose to make sure the stories of Minnesota’s black communities are heard. With a FUBU (For Us, By Us) mentality, IBI strives to capture the untold stories of African heritage Minnesotans by creating and publishing a database of black writers, editors, illustrators, distribution reps and other publishing.

A Trinidadian-American writer and activist explores motherhood, migration, identity, nationhood and how it relates to land, imprisonment, and genocide for Black and Indigenous peoples. Having moved to Copenhagen, Denmark from Brooklyn over 18 years ago, Brown attempts to contextualise her and her son’s existence in a post-colonial and supposedly post-racial world where the very machine of so-called progress has been premised upon the demise of her lineage. Through these letters, Brown writes the past into the present – penned from the country that has been declared “The Happiest Place in the World” – creating a vision that is a necessary alternative to the dystopian one currently being bought and sold.

This is a powerful listen!

I hope you can dig it!

They want me to remember. They want me to remember their memories, but I keep on remembering mine.

— Lucille Clifton.

Hey Beauty!

Welcome to your Urban Agenda!

If you’ve ever listened to a segment of ‘Urban Agenda’ you know that we hold space ‘in the village’, a beloved community of our making and remaking, a place where black lives, perspectives and contributions are amplified and celebrated!

“Language can invent anything, so make your own definitions and live as if!” In the wisdom of James Baldwin, words matter. When I say “Beauty”, I mean YOU, the listener/reader/scholar/student/critic. “Fat on That Head” under “Signify! Testify!? My way of sharing information that I hope you will share to inspire others to see Black peoples and cultures through the lens of human-beings rather than through the myths of ‘race’. When I ask, “Can you dig it?” I ask as it is defined in The Hiptionary, 1.”To understand, to comprehend, to be in the know. 2. A signature word in the rise of bebop language. Dig suggests to go deeper into something, to make sure you comprehend. Circa 1930s and 1940s bebop.

One more thing you should know before you decide to read or listen. I love, LOVE, Love, lOVE, LOve, LOVe, LOVE Black peoples and cultures and that is the basis for this work!

Hope you dig it!

Lissa