PRST STD U.S.POSTAGE PAID TWIN CITIES MN PERMIT NO. 6391
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THE VOICE OF BLACK MINNESOTA SINCE 1934
December 15 - 21, 2022
Vol. 89
No. 20
Phone: 612-827-4021
www.spokesman-recorder.com
New mayors bring new visions to north suburbs Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park both made history in the November elections as both Twin Cities suburbs elected Black mayors. Brooklyn Center is a first-ring suburb outside Minneapolis. Brooklyn Park is the sixth largest city in Minnesota, also located north of downtown Minneapolis. April Graves will become Brooklyn Center’s first Black female mayor, while Hollies Winston is the first-ever Black mayor of Brooklyn Park. Both will assume their respective offices and duties in January. The MSR in separate interviews recently spoke to the two mayor-elects.
Brooklyn Park mayor-elect wants to bridge differences By Charles Hallman Contributing Writer
I want to achieve. It was less about making history as an African American and more he fourth time run- about [making] history as a ning for elected different type of leadership office proved the charm for Hollies Winston. After losing by only two votes when he last ran for Brooklyn Park mayor, Winston in November emerged victorious and will be that city’s first Black mayor in January. “[Being] the first Black mayor thing hasn’t hit [me yet],” admitted Winston. “That was not the motivating factor [for running for office]. “The motivating factor was I have three specific issues that Hollies Winston
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than what the city has seen.” Winston’s campaign centered on the issues of addressing crime and improving the city’s ■ See WINSTON on page 5
Photo by Travis Lee
For Brooklyn Center mayorelect, collaboration is key By Charles Hallman Contributing Writer
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pril Graves’ entry into politics came at a personal turning point in her life. “Back in 2014,” the Brooklyn Center mayor-elect recalled, “I had only lived in Brooklyn Center for three years. I had gone to a women’s leadership retreat, which was really kind of a transition period. I had left my first job after college, but that job just wasn’t the best fit for me. “I went to a women’s leadership retreat, which kind of reinvigorated some of my confidence,” Graves contin-
Former drug kingpin shows how he turned wrong into right By Abdi Mohamed Contributing Writer
only thing I ever done was play tennis and sell dope. “So I was a little worried about what I was gonna do, “Freeway” Rick Ross envisioned himself speaking to and I knew that I couldn’t crowds of people in the future go back to the dope game despite serving a life sentence because I’d already escaped in prison for drug trafficking in life sentences a couple of the late ’90s. Ross knew that times.” Students took notes on he had a story to share with
trade. This was during the height of the crack epidemic in the United States. Information subsequently released after Ross’s conviction tied him to the Central Intelligence Agency’s efforts to fund anti-communist wars in Central America, revealing the U.S. government’s hand in
“I was gonna have him come back around shortly after Philando Castille got killed,” Starks recalled. “But I was in the middle of my own court stuff and it was just kind of a little bit hectic.” After other locations didn’t work out, Stark’s colleague, Dr. Raj Sethuraju, suggested that
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They like the things that I’m talking about because I keep it real, per se, and so often they’re not getting the truth.
”
—“Freeway” Rick Ross
people young and old alike, but that goal seemed impossibly out of reach after he was charged and sentenced for conspiracy to possess over 100 kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute. That vision came true Friday afternoon, Dec. 9 at the High School for Recording Arts (HSRA) in St. Paul as Ross spoke to an audience of students, educators, and community members. He visited HSRA as part of his speaking engagements all around the country where Ross shares his life story with audiences and imparts lessons from his life. “I didn’t know what I was gonna do with myself, ‘cause I’ve never had a job,” Ross said about life after prison. “The
worksheets as Ross spoke from the stage and shared his story as a convicted drug trafficker turned author, media mogul and businessman. He talked about how far he came in life despite not being able to read until the age of 28. This skill helped him find a legal loophole that would be the basis of his appeal, leading to his release in 2009.
pouring drugs into urban communities across the country. Ross’s life has inspired shows such as “Snowfall” and the film “Kill the Messenger”; however, Ross, now 62, is on a path to take back his own narrative.
How the event came together David Starks is a Power in Peace case manager at Face to Face and works with Ramsey Background In 1996, Ross was given a County to provide youth with life sentence after spending restorative justice options in years running a cross-country order to avoid harsher condrug trafficking organization. sequences due to infractions. Prosecutors estimated that Starks had known of Ross’s Ross generated nearly $900 story for years and had sought million total in cocaine sales him out for speaking engageand at one point was raking in ments in the past, but the tim$3 million a day from the drug ing was never right.
they host it at the High School for Recording Arts, to which Starks agreed. He connected with the school’s founder, David “TC” Ellis, who was enthusiastic about the idea. “He said, ‘Man, we love that. I love for my students to hear about this history and know this history.’ It was that simple,” Starks said. Student reaction HSRA seniors Ryah Davis and Arnea Agnew attended the talk by Ross and left the event with an appreciation for his story and their potential. “He kind of showed us how he turned wrong into right. How he turned something that was supposed to be a little side ■ See ROSS on page 5
ued. She later ran for the Brooklyn Center City Council and won. She originally thought about running for the school
April Graves
board, “so I looked at the city council and I realized that it was very old and very White and that the people that were ■ See GRAVES on page 5
Photo by Chris Juhn
Twitter may be dying—and taking Black Twitter with it By Niara Savage Contributing Writer Jokes about the downfall of Twitter are running rampant on the platform. After Elon Musk finalized his purchase of the social media site for $44 billion in late October, heaps of average users and celebrities alike announced they’d be leaving it behind. When Musk took control, he made the platform’s iconic blue checkmark—previously reserved to identify notable accounts as authentic—available to anyone willing to pay a monthly fee as a part of Twitter Blue. Chaos quickly ensued as Twitter Blue subscribers with their newly minted checkmarks masqueraded around the platform posing as companies and famous individuals. Perhaps the most costly casualty of the new policy was insulin-maker Eli Lilly. A fake account posing as the company with a blue checkmark wrote, “We are excited to announce insulin is free
ber that half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers are no longer advertising on the site. As head of the company, Musk has fired more than 3,000 workers. Some employees didn’t find out they were getting the boot until they were locked out of their company laptops. Former employees are suing Twitter, alleging the layoffs violated labor rights laws. Also, incidences of hate speech on Twitter increased dramatically after Musk took control of the platform. The Center for Countering Digital Hate reported that the use of the N-word under Musk is three times this year’s running average. Musk also welcomed Kanye West back to Twitter in November after his account was temporarily suspended in October over an anti-Semitic tweet. But Musk kicked the rapper, who now goes by Ye, off of the platform again earlier this month for inciting violence after he posted an image of a swastika.
now.” The real company rushed to contact Twitter to have the post removed, but it remained visible for hours, The Washington Post reported. The fake tweets erased an estimated $15 billion out of the company’s market cap. Twitter suspended the subscription service after the debacle, but the damage to Twitter’s credibility is already done. Media Matters for America reported in Novem-
While a sizable portion of Twitter content is composed of silly memes and pictures of cats, Twitter also serves as a digital town square—a free, accessible meeting place that connects hundreds of millions of users across the globe and affords each one the opportunity to make their thoughts, reflections and concerns heard. What would the demise of Twitter mean ■ See TWITTER on page 5