People of Color ~ Friends of People of Color ~ Millennials & Retirees Please Leave the DFL & GOP PARTIES

Dear Minnesota:

My name is Christopher Lovell Seymore Sr.

I’m seeking the Office of Governor Progressively as an Independent Candidate for the State of Minnesota.

I have a strategic and focused approach, and a strong commitment to achieving positive outcomes that will produce economic security for Minnesota’s Citizens, its’ businesses, and environment. I possess a demonstrated track record of commitment that no other candidate has when it comes to serving MN citizens.

The purpose of this blog is two fold:

1. To pled with the People of Color, Friends of People of Color, Millennials & Retirees to please leave the Democratic Farm & Labor Party (DLF) & GOP political parties of Minnesota. WHY? The two party system in Minnesota is not helping the people in Minnesota who need them to produce results for them most, ie the poor, the young and the old. As a matter of fact it is getting worse, and with a Republican GOP President who is dysfunctional in my personal belief will not help the people of Minnesota either get to a place of true economic stability
2. I am asking all long standing Minnesota Political office holders who are running for Governor to drop out of the race. WHY? The gaps and disparities are totally due to the long standing people in office in Minnesota! PERIOD. We need new leadership in Minnesota from the top down. You all have failed us. 

*Below are the some key findings from Minnesota State Demographics Center, Department of Administration. https://mn.gov/admin/demography/data-by-topic/  

*I have also copied and pasted an article from the Twin Cities Pioneer Press entitled:             

Minnesota’s worsening racial disparity: Why it matters to everyone   

Because I can't make this stuff up! The article highlights:

• Minnesota's racial income gaps are worse today than they were decades ago.
• Unemployment rates for Minnesotans of color are as much as four times greater than for white residents.
• The state's economic future depends on all Minnesota residents achieving their full potential. http://www.twincities.com/2016/04/29/minnesotas-racial-disparities-worsening-why-and-why-it-matters/

Minnesota State Demographics Center, Department of Administration

Income & Poverty

The income available to a household affects the type of life its residents can build for themselves. People in poverty in our communities are at greater risk of health challenges and face higher barriers to educational and economic success.

Some "Key Findings

·      546,000 Minnesotans, including 165,000 children under age 18, still had family incomes below the official poverty threshold in 2015 (about $24,300 for a family of four).

·      Among children, poverty rates were highest for those who are Black (39%), American Indian (28%) and Hispanic (26%).

(Source for all bullets: 2015 American Community Survey. More 2015 economic data in our Annual ACS Summary here.)"

Age, Race, & Ethnicity

Looking for population data by age and race groups? You've come to the right place to get these essential numbers that help us understand Minnesota and how it is changing.

·      In Minnesota, people of Color (those who identify as a race other than White alone, and/or those who are Hispanic) make up 19% of the total population. Non-Hispanic White Minnesotans represent the remaining 81% of the statewide population.

·      All race groups have grown recently in MN, but between 2010 and 2015, the state has added four times as many people of Color as non-Hispanic White residents. Populations of Color are distributed unevenly across the state, and are more likely to live in metro areas than rural areas.

·      Between 2010 and 2015, the fastest growing racial group in Minnesota was the Asian population, which grew by 22%, adding nearly 48,000 people. Second fastest was the Black population, which grew by 16%, adding 45,000 people, followed by the Hispanic population, which grew by 13%, adding 32,000 people. (Asian and Black race groups are that race "alone" and non-Hispanic).

(All data from 2015 Population Estimates, U.S. Census Bureau).

Aging

The aging of the Baby Boomer generation is unlike anything Minnesota has previously experienced. Learn how our state is aging and the likely impacts across a variety of topics.

Key Findings

·      The number of Minnesotans turning 65 in this decade (about 285,000) will be greater than the past four decades combined.

·      Around 2020, Minnesota's 65+ population is expected to eclipse the 5-17 K-12 population, for the first time in history.

·      The total number of older adults (65+) is anticipated to double between 2010 and 2030, according to our projections. By then, more than 1 in 5 Minnesotans will be an older adult, including all the Baby Boomers.

Children & Families

Learn more about the characteristics of the more than 1.2 million children in Minnesota and their families.

Some "Key Findings

·      About 165,400, or 13.1%, of Minnesota's children lived in poverty in 2015."

Economy

The strength, diversity, and growth of our economy directly affects our quality of life in many ways.

Key Findings

·      In 2015, more Minnesotans worked in the "educational services, and health care and social assistance" industry (25%) than all others, followed by manufacturing (13%) and retail (11%).

·      That same year, 13% of American Indian workers and 10% of Black workers in Minnesota were unemployed, roughly 2 to 3 times the unemployment rates for non-Hispanic White (3%) and Asian workers (6%). Additionally, 7% of Hispanic/Latino workers were unemployed. The overall unemployment rate for Minnesotans in 2015 was 4%. (Source: American Community Survey. More 2015 economic data in our Annual ACS Summary here)

Education

Rising levels of education and skills are associated with better employment outcomes, but also health and well-being broadly.

Key Findings

·      In 2016, 82.2% of Minnesota's high schoolers graduated on-time (in four years), the highest percentage in the past decade. However, only 53% of American Indian students, 65% of Black students, and 65% of Hispanic students graduated on time, compared to 84% of Asian students and 87% of White students. (Source: MN Department of Education)

·      In 2015, 35% of Minnesotans age 25+ had earned a bachelor's or higher degree (compared to 31% nationwide), while 93% of Minnesotans age 25+ had earned a high school diploma or higher degree (compared to 87% nationwide).

·      Nine states had a higher percentage of their adult population possessing a bachelor's degree than Minnesota in 2015.

(Source for both prior bullets: 2015 American Community Survey)

Labor Force

Among states, Minnesota has very high labor force participation by both men and women. A strong, skilled, and productive labor force is key to generating economic growth and maintaining a high quality of life.

Some Key Findings

·      Adults who have earned a bachelor's or higher degree are 11 percentage points more likely to be participating in the labor force than those whose highest degree was a high school diploma (78%). Participation for those adults with less than a high school diploma was 66%.

  (Source for two above bullets: 2015 American Community Survey.)

Immigration & Language

Immigrants born in Mexico, Somalia, Laos, India and numerous other places across the globe now call Minnesota home. Explore their characteristics and languages below.

Key Findings

·      In 1920, about 1 in 5 Minnesotans was foreign-born. In 2015, about 1 in 12 were (8.3%, or about 457,200 residents). Forty-nine percent of Minnesota's foreign-born population are naturalized U.S. citizens.

·      In 2015, the largest groups of foreign-born Minnesotans were born in Mexico (about 67,300); Somalia (31,400); India (30,500); Laos, including Hmong (23,300); Vietnam (20,200); China, excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan (19,900); Ethiopia (19,300); and Thailand, including Hmong (16,800). These estimates do not include U.S.-born children of these immigrants. They also likely underestimate the size of our immigrant populations because trust and language issues reduce response rates to Census surveys.

·      11.5% of Minnesotans (age 5+) spoke a language other than English at home. Behind English, the most common languages spoken are Spanish (about 193,600 speakers) and Hmong (56,200 speakers).

·      The most common ancestries (reflecting family or generational ties, regardless of one's birthplace) reported by Minnesotans in 2015 were German (1,820,000 people), Norwegian (830,000 people), Irish (569,000 people), Swedish (440,000 people), English (290,000 people), and Polish (247,000 people). About 57,000 Minnesotans reported Somali ancestry in 2015. Many Minnesotans do not report ancestry or simply report "American." (Source for all: 2015 American Community Survey)

Minnesota’s worsening racial disparity: Why it matters to everyone

By CHRISTOPHER MAGAN | cmagan@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press

PUBLISHED: April 29, 2016 at 1:00 pm | UPDATED: May 16, 2016 at 8:51 am

HIGHLIGHTS

Minnesota's racial income gaps are worse today than they were decades ago.

Unemployment rates for Minnesotans of color are as much as four times greater than for white residents.

The state's economic future depends on all Minnesota residents achieving their full potential.

Minnesota has some of the worst racial disparities in the nation — gaps that have widened over the past five decades and that soon may create a statewide economic crisis.

U.S. Census data show most Minnesota families of color now have median incomes about half those of their white neighbors. It wasn’t always that way. In 1960, family earnings for the state’s small nonwhite population were about 74 percent of what white families made.

The income gap is just one part of the story. But as Gov. Mark Dayton and the Legislature look for ways to close the gaps, community leader Jeffry Martin of the St. Paul NAACP says the economic piece is key.

“It is hugely disheartening. You almost feel like a snake-oil salesman when you tell young people to keep trying,” Martin said.

RELATED ARTICLES

Five ideas to address Minnesota’s racial inequities

A Pioneer Press analysis of decades of census data found families of color have long trailed white families by several measures of success. What’s evident is that as the state has become more diverse, many gaps have gotten worse, not better.

Here’s how it stacks up over the past 40 years, in today’s dollars:

Black, Hispanic and Native American families all make less today than they did in the 1970s.

Black families are hardest hit, now earning median annual incomes of about $33,900, compared with about $81,500 for white families.

Today, more than 20 percent of Hispanic and 30 percent of black and Native American families are poor. Those numbers have grown, in some cases significantly.

White poverty has declined, with just 5 percent of white Minnesota families now living in poverty.

Asians are the only minority families who have seen their median incomes grow. With a 2014 median family income of about $71,500, Asian families earn about $10,000 a year less than whites. Hmong families are an exception, however, with many living at or near poverty after coming to Minnesota as refugees.

Minnesota is an outlier nationally. White Minnesota families have higher median incomes, while Minnesotans of color earn less than their peers nationwide.

Family income is the most consistent historical measure of how Minnesotans are doing, but household income is now used more often because it includes people living together who are not related by marriage or blood. Income gaps for black, Native American and Hispanic households remain regardless of the measure, but Asian households out-earn whites (although income by family is lower).

The stark economic disparities are not because of a lack of effort.

Black and white Minnesotans try to participate in the workforce at similar rates. An even larger percentage of Hispanic and Asian residents are working or looking for jobs, census data show.

But unemployment for Minnesotans of color is as much as four times higher than that of white residents. In February, 2.9 percent of white workers were unemployed, compared with 13.6 percent of black workers.

Addressing racial inequity is important, not just for moral reasons but because Minnesota’s economic future depends on it. Workers of color are the only part of the workforce that’s growing.

Shawntera Hardy, the recently appointed commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development, said workers of color are essential to addressing Minnesota’s growing labor crunch as older employees retire. Without them, Minnesota will fail to meet its workforce needs.

“Our communities of color are not liabilities to be managed but assets to be realized,” Hardy said. “If Minnesota wishes to remain competitive, it must invest in an economy that works for all Minnesotans.”

WHY THE GAP?

Experts and elected leaders continue to debate why economic and academic racial disparities exist and persist.

Leaders from communities of color say a few basic factors play a large role, including misunderstanding what immigrants need, failing to invest in diverse communities and disproportionately imprisoning men with black and brown skin.

Racial prejudice also continues to be an important factor. A recent study from the Metropolitan Council found skin color and ethnic background played a key role in disparities even after accounting for age, education and language skills.

The makeup of Minnesota families has also changed as the state’s population grew and diversified. Today, more than 20 percent of families with children are led by single parents, roughly double the rate in 1980, census data shows.

Families of color are more likely to have a household led by one parent, which often leads to lower household incomes and higher rates of poverty.

Minnesota’s minority population has grown rapidly since 1990 and now makes up nearly 20 percent of the state’s residents, or 1 million people. Much of that growth was driven by waves of immigrants and refugees from Asia and Africa.

This means that Minnesotans of color tend to be younger or recent immigrants or are just learning English. Research shows these challenges often result in lower wages, academic struggles and higher rates of poverty.

PROBLEM: WHAT IMMIGRANTS NEED

The difficulties new immigrants face are not insurmountable. Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese and Indian families in Minnesota now have higher median household incomes than white families, recent Census data show.

In contrast, Hmong households earn 17 percent less than white households, with the majority of Hmong living in or near poverty.

Bao Vang, executive director of the Hmong American Partnership community organization, says Hmong immigrants’ challenges differ from others because they came to Minnesota as refugees.

When they arrived in the U.S., many Hmong refugees had limited academic skills and struggled to understand how to make the best use of social systems to improve their lives. They also struggled to articulate the needs of their communities to the state’s power brokers.

“When you are thrown into a country or place and have to make sense out of it, it’s very challenging,” Vang said. “Our voices are often not heard because we are not yet at the level of sophistication where we can easily navigate the political community.”

Interestingly, some Minnesota newcomers fare better than those born here. With the exception of Somali refugees, census data show black Minnesotans born in other states or countries have lower rates of poverty than those born here.

PROBLEM: COMMUNITIES IGNORED

Today’s struggling minority communities can look to the past to see a different model.

NAACP leader Martin points to St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood as an example of a community of color that thrived thanks to a tight-knit neighborhood where black workers frequented black businesses. During the 1960s, the median income gap between white and nonwhite families in Minnesota was less than $12,000 a year in today’s dollars, census data show.

RELATED ARTICLES

April 12, 2016 Met Council: Race and ethnicity at the heart of Minnesota’s disparities

April 6, 2016 How a coalition proposes Minnesota spend $75 million to target racial disparities

November 30, 2015 Mark Dayton seeks $15M to tackle Minnesota racial disparities

October 12, 2015 Dayton takes aim at minority disparities with new office

Rondo’s success, however, was relatively short-lived.

“They tore that community apart,” Martin said, referring to highway construction in the 1960s. “They put (Interstate) 94 right through it intentionally.”

Martin said he wouldn’t want to return to the segregated era when Rondo thrived, but the neighborhood’s success could be replicated with better schools, more employers and more resources for the community organizations that help neighborhoods succeed.

Many of those groups have problems. Two of them, the St. Paul Urban League and Community Action of Minneapolis, have been accused of misspending in recent years.

Many others subsist on “life support” due to underfunding, Martin says.

“You have to do more than generate money. You have to generate hope,” Martin said. “If you tell people they are going to have a marginal existence, kids are not going to dream.”

PROBLEM: TOO MANY IN PRISON

Minnesota’s criminal justice system has devastated opportunities for minority residents, particularly those of black men, community leaders argue. State data show that while blacks make up just 5 percent of Minnesota’s population, they make up 36 percent of the prison population.

Jonathan Rose, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1975 from Sierra Leone, examined the state’s racial disparities for the Council on Black Minnesotans in 2013. His research found that disparities in the criminal justice system were seen by the black community as the most difficult to change.

Citing data from the Council on Crime and Justice, Rose argues that black residents were more likely than whites to be stopped by police and arrested, even though whites were more likely to be carrying contraband.

Minnesota’s prison population has grown over the past three decades thanks to more drug-related convictions and stiffer sentences, Rose found. The state has one of the nation’s worst imprisonment disparities between whites and blacks.

After felons serve their time, they return to society with few opportunities to be successful because of the stigma that comes with their past conviction, Rose says.

“It becomes a vicious cycle, and they can’t get out of the trap,” Rose said. “It doesn’t start with prison, but prison is an anchor.”

CHANGING FAMILIES

Minnesota’s families look a lot different than they did 50 years ago. Roughly a quarter of families with children are now headed by one parent, census data show.

Whites make up more than half of Minnesota’s single-parent families with children, but families of color are more often headed by one parent. More than 50 percent of black and 40 percent of Hispanic families with children have single parents, compared with about 22 percent of white families.

Single-parent families are much more likely to live in poverty, and families of color led by one parent are poor at a rate greater than white single-parent families.

Susan Brower, Minnesota state demographer, said households with one person working are more likely to struggle after a job loss or unexpected expense.

“I think the household composition is more important than we think,” Brower said. “We continue to see poverty rise for young children even when the economy is picking up. That is closely related to households with one earner.”

WHY GAPS NEED TO CLOSE

From 2010 to 2014, census data show, Minnesota lost 35,000 white residents of working age. During that same time, the number of working-age people of color increased by 72,000.

Brower, the state demographer, says those statistics are a key reason that long-standing racial disparities need to be reduced.

“In the past, when populations of people of color were smaller relative to the whole, economic disparities were an issue for moral reasons, for issues of equity,” Brower said.

But now, she notes, as racial and ethnic minorities approach 20 percent of the state’s population, all Minnesotans’ economic futures will be influenced by how well those residents succeed.

“All of our well-being is wrapped up, more and more, in how populations of color are faring in Minnesota,” Brower said.

Yet, meaningful and long-lasting changes to improve economic achievement for Minnesotans of color will likely require new and creative approaches, said Vang of the Hmong American Partnership. Continuing to focus on existing systems that have failed for decades is misguided, she said.

“You see the same people making the same decisions. The same decisions produce the same results. Why are we not doing something else?” Vang asked, adding that she hopes for new ideas. “It may make people uncomfortable, but we need to be ready to be uncomfortable.”