The ACLU of Minnesota is committed to combating racism in all of its forms. Our advocacy in this area includes litigation, community organizing and training, legislative initiatives, and public education. 

The ACLU-MN seeks to extend constitutionally guaranteed rights to people and communities who have historically been denied their rights on the basis of race. The significance of racial justice cannot be overstated in Minnesota.

The disparity in arrests, incarceration and sentencing of persons of color is well documented and alarming. We have experienced recent and painful examples of police violence directed at the African-American community. As a state, Minnesota has far too often responded to certain issues in communities of color as problems that can be fixed only by harsh policing instead of seeking to resolve issues through careful, thoughtful analysis, with community engagement and appropriate allocation of resources.

Racial justice includes criminal justice reform and policing reform, as well as eliminating inequities in housing, education, employment, healthcare, community and economic development, and other areas. Our current strategic priority for racial justice focuses on criminal justice reform and policing reform, but we will collaborate with other organizations that focus on other aspects of racial justice.

 

 

 

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BY THE NUMBERS

  • Black, Latine, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander students are three to six times more likely than white students to attend a high-poverty K-12 school, where students are more likely to be taught by “out-of-field” teachers.
  • The typical white family is nearly 10 times wealthier at $171,000 per household, compared to the average wealth of a Black household at $17,150.
  • Over 70 percent of Black Americans say they have experienced incidents of discrimination or police mistreatment in their lifetime, including nearly half who felt their lives were in danger.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

Though generations of civil rights activism have led to important gains in legal, political, social, educational and other spheres, the forced removal of Indigenous peoples and the institution of slavery marked the beginnings of a system of racial injustice from which our country has yet to break free.

Deep-seated systemic racism and inequities that disadvantaged communities of color are still woven into the fabric of our institutions today — from education and housing to our criminal legal system. Systemic racism permeates the starkly segregated world of housing. In our public schools, students of color are too often confined to racially isolated, underfunded, and inferior programs. Our criminal legal system disproportionately targets and subjects people of color to police brutality, incarcerates them and imposes numerous collateral consequences, and criminalizes poverty. The dream of equal justice remains an elusive one.

The ACLU-MN strives toward a world where “we the people” truly means all us — this means dismantling systemic racism and working to repair centuries of harm inflicted on communities of color. 

WHAT IS SYSTEMIC RACISM?

A system is a collection of elements that are organized for a common purpose. Racism in America is a system that combines economic, political, and social components. That system specifically disempowers and disenfranchises Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, while maintaining and expanding implicit and explicit advantages for white people, leading to better opportunities in jobs, education, and housing, and discrimination in the criminal legal system.

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