Minnesota Sees Increase in Hate-Motivated Attacks

Transcript

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HOST: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. Today in Minnesota...

ANCHOR: …the state and Leech Lake Band members sign a cannabis compact. Then, we try to figure out why we're seeing an increase in hate-motivated attacks in our state, and a pilot project for same-day driver's licenses that didn't pan out.
I'm Chantel SinGs.

Governor Tim Walz and the Office of Cannabis Management have signed a new Tribal-state compact with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. The agreement outlines how the state and Tribe will ensure public health and safety in Minnesota's adult-use cannabis industry while honoring Tribal sovereignty. Officials say the partnership will strengthen trust in the state's regulated market. The Leech Lake Band joins four other Tribal Nations that have reached similar agreements with the state.

Next, political and hate-motivated attacks have drawn headlines across Minnesota this year. But are they a growing threat, or has increased political polarization changed people's perception? Xan Holston has more.

Xan Holston: In recent months, vandals sprayed a South Minneapolis synagogue with pro-Hamas graffiti. Someone hit Senator Omar Fateh's mayoral race headquarters with anti-Muslim messaging. A man, since arrested, allegedly fire bombed an LGBTQ friendly ice cream parlor twice, and St Paul police charged a man for allegedly tearing down pride flags and damaging businesses all summer. Those recent events, coming on the heels of the assassination of Senator Melissa Hortman and the shooting at Annunciation School, have fueled the sense that political- and hate-motivated violence is on the rise, even if the data isn't always necessarily so clear.

Dr. Michelle Phelps: Certainly, it makes people feel much less safe in those settings, if they feel like they are being targeted or at risk.

Xan Holston: Dr Michelle Phelps is a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota. She said that ambiguity makes it hard to track trends or assign motives.

Dr. Michelle Phelps: It's really hard, definitionally, to figure out exactly what counts as political violence versus other kinds of violence.

Xan Holston: Still, every new incident changes how people feel about safety in their neighborhoods, workplaces or places of worship. And when fear rises, Phelps said, communities often respond by adding barriers.

Dr. Michelle Phelps: People's reactions to those moments of insecurities are often to tighten up on security measures that might look like more police at schools in response to shootings or armed security at places of worship, but that can also increase feelings of anxiety and separateness.

Xan Holston: Phelps said that approach misses the deeper question: How do you reach people before they come isolated or radicalized?

Dr. Michelle Phelps: The answer is often not, "Okay. How do we reach out to people? How do we build community?" And that is always going to be a kind of losing proposition in terms of long-term safety.

Monica Harris: Respect for civil discourse, for pluralism, we've lost that.

Xan Holston: Monica Harris leads the nonprofit FAIR, the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, a self-described centrist organization working to reduce political polarization through education and dialog. She said, these tensions aren't new, but the volume has gone up.

Monica Harris: Hate crimes, polarization and intolerance have been in this country for it's—I'm not going to say it's endemic, but we're no strangers to this.

Xan Holston: Harris points to constant political and cultural fights online, from partisan rhetoric to identity driven social media debates as fueling a sense of division and threat.

Monica Harris: That actually fuels a lot of these identity motivated attacks, because it creates a cycle of fear, of division.

Xan Holston: For Harris, reversing these cycles won't come from following the lead of politicians, but from finding ways to truly communicate with people who aren't the same as us and whom we might disagree with.

Monica Harris: It's not going to come from the leadership, because there are too many people whose platforms and whose campaigns thrive on division.

Xan Holston: She said this has to start in schools and neighborhood conversations, where people actually listen to each other as a community, not enemies in a culture war.

Monica Harris: The change we want has got to come from below and trickle upwards.

Xan Holston: For North Star Stories, I'm Xan Holston.

Anchor: You are listening to North Star Stories.

The state is phasing out a pilot program that let Minnesotans receive same-day driver's licenses and ID cards. The Lakeville License Center, located 20 miles south of Minneapolis, was one of two locations testing on-the-spot printing, but differences in card quality and appearance caused problems for some customers. The Division of Driver and Vehicle Services has recommended ending the program, though same-day service will continue in Moorhead, in the Northwest corner of the state, for now. All same-day cards will remain valid until they expire.

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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.