Your Better Minnesota

Well, this is counterintuitive:

Black political and community leaders on Thursday criticized Gov. Mark Dayton and his administration, saying he is not doing enough to address the vast racial disparity in Minnesota’s socioeconomic conditions, following a report that black household income plunged in the state last year.

The trend appears to be unique to black Minnesotans. They were the only racial group to regress economically, with their median household income dropping to $27,000 in 2014, down from $31,500 in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

That stands in stark contrast to other racial groups in Minnesota, whose household incomes grew or stabilized during the same period. The state now trails Mississippi in terms of median household incomes for blacks.

The money quote:

State Sen. Jeff Hayden, DFL-Minneapolis, blamed what he called a lack of urgency and political will at the state Capitol to act more aggressively in addressing income disparities by race.

By contrast, he pointed to Dayton’s recent urgent calls for a special legislative session to help Lake Mille Lacs resorts being hurt by a walleye shortage.

Hayden said the black community is hearing the message that, “Fish are more important than black people.”

Why is there an achievement gap? It's difficult to say precisely. Any systemic problem is multi-factorial. It doesn't help, though, when you have corrupt nonprofit organizations involved:

Jeff Hayden served on the Community Action of Minneapolis board in 2008 as a proxy for his aunt. After his election to the Legislature in 2009, he appointed his wife, Terri, as his proxy.

But as the nonprofit came tumbling down in the fall after a state audit concluded CEO Bill Davis misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money on travel, golf, spas and other perks, Hayden quit the board and said he knew nothing of any problems inside Community Action.

"When I was serving with the organization, and I think my wife would say the same, things were going well, people were being served appropriately and these allegations were new information to us," Hayden, a Minneapolis DFL state senator, told the Senate ethics committee in October. "Everything I knew at the time was that things were going well with the organization."

Is that the same Jeff Hayden quoted in the Star Tribune? Why yes. Yes it is. And the lesson we get from Hayden? Due diligence, it would appear, is also more important than black people. And some people are noticing. Back to the Star Tribune:

“It doesn’t matter who’s working in the administration — if you start talking to elected officials, they start pointing fingers,” said Louis King, president of the Minneapolis-based Summit Academy, a job training center. “If you’re black in Minnesota, you’re better off in Mississippi.”

Added King: “People can get upset at my words, but they cannot ignore facts.”

Perhaps Mississippi is A Better Minnesota.