Wait, what entity?a Grand Forks human rights commission
According to the city’s public information office, no written records remain at City Hall from the original Human Rights Commission or from one or two subsequent rights offices, the most recent of which may have operated out of the city attorney’s office and focused primarily on tenant-landlord issues.I suppose I dont see anything wrong with establishing such an entity.
The 1960s rights commission started out ambitiously, ordering reports on discrimination in housing and business, seeking financing for a black social center and trying to broaden its membership to include American Indians and migrant workers.
But it apparently lost steam and petered out in the early 1970s. A June 1971 report that survives on the Internet suggested that its singular achievement had been to publish a brochure about itself.
“Our subcommittee on housing has accomplished very little to date other than to conclude that there is a serious shortage of low-income housing in Grand Forks and that minority groups are most frequently the victims of this housing situation,” the report states. Also, “the committee on hearings and investigations has been inactive pending a decision concerning the proper function of the commission.”
Mayor Mike Brown is cool to the idea of reviving the panel, in part because of that uncertainty over the “proper function” of a commission with authority to hold hearings and conduct investigations.
“I don’t think we need a human rights commission,” he said. “For one thing, we’re a community of laws, and with a commission people might try to go beyond the laws.
“Do we need to address these situations? Yes. We were all saddened by these incidents. We were all offended. These were isolated incidents, but we need to talk about sensitivity and respect and make it clear that we don’t tolerate that kind of bullying in our community.”
The community was better represented, Brown said, by last weekend’s potluck picnic for refugees who have settled here.
“It was a wonderful celebration of our diversity,” he said, “reflecting the type of community we value.”
Prejudices, privileges
Jamie Selzler, a former 10-year resident of Grand Forks, sits on the board of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, a consortium of individuals and organizations dedicated to fighting discrimination. He also is executive director of the state Democratic-NPL Party.
“When five or six incidents occur like this, (a commission) could step in and make a statement — ‘This goes against North Dakota values’ — and it could look to see if they are part of a larger pattern,” Selzler said.
At least three North Dakota cities — Fargo, Bismarck and Dickinson — have active human rights commissions with formal ties to city government. An attempt in 2001 to establish a state commission failed, but the Legislature established a division of human rights within the Labor Department.
“So, a state entity exists, but it’s a little bit hidden,” said Mitch Marr, Fargo, executive director of the statewide coalition. “An independent commission that has some teeth” would be better, he said.
Selzler and Marr took part in discussions two years ago about reviving a Grand Forks human rights commission, and they said another push is likely in the fall when classes resume at UND.
Race debate
Chuck Haga
Herald Staff Writer - 05/11/2008
A UND student, a member of a racial minority, was talking about the campus and the larger Grand Forks community:
“People have come to realize that a great deal of racism, bigotry and discrimination does exist here,” he said. “Achieving an understanding of the problem is the first big step and makes it easier to find proper solutions.”
A white student, the student body president, agreed that the larger community needed to be in a conversation about some troubling incidents. “People in North Dakota are inherently racist because of their lack of contact with (minorities) and their total ignorance of the racial problem,” he said.
And there was this cautious endorsement of dialogue from the mayor of Grand Forks: “There is an element of genuine concern on the part of the young people, and this is very good. They’ve given the community something to think about.”
The year was 1969.
We’ve been here before.
In 1969, with the country deeply divided over the Vietnam War and beset by protest and racial unrest, tensions simmered in Grand Forks after the arrest and alleged mistreatment of a black UND student and complaints about discrimination in housing and employment.
Students crowded into meetings of the city’s new Human Rights Commission, created the previous year after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
One of the more outspoken participants was Fred Moore, president of UND’s Black Student Union. “The people here in North Dakota are scared,” he said, “and I can understand that. But because of their fear, should I stop saying and doing what I think is right and necessary?”
The late Hugo Magnusson, founder of the grocery store chain that bears his name, was mayor then, and he said Moore “scared me to such an extent with his language, I did not dare schedule the second commission meeting in a public building.”
But while “there is no question that we have problems concerning race relations in Grand Forks, generally speaking, I think our people will respond favorably to an educational approach, such as the commission is taking.”
Glenn Meidinger, a white UND student from Wishek, N.D., was student body president.
Racism in Grand Forks and throughout North Dakota was more covert than overt, he said in 1969. “I don’t think there are many businesses in the state, for example, which would refuse to serve a black. But it’s easy to tell a person he is neither liked nor wanted by the way you look at him and act toward him.
“North Dakotans have always considered themselves open-minded, nondiscriminating people,” Meidinger added, “because they’ve never had anyone to discriminate against — except for the Indians, and they’re boxed up on the reservations where they aren’t so noticeable.”
A UND student, a member of a racial minority, was talking about the campus and the larger Grand Forks community:Continued.
“People have come to realize that a great deal of racism, bigotry and discrimination does exist here,” he said. “Achieving an understanding of the problem is the first big step and makes it easier to find proper solutions.”
A white student, the student body president, agreed that the larger community needed to be in a conversation about some troubling incidents. “People in North Dakota are inherently racist because of their lack of contact with (minorities) and their total ignorance of the racial problem,” he said.
And there was this cautious endorsement of dialogue from the mayor of Grand Forks: “There is an element of genuine concern on the part of the young people, and this is very good. They’ve given the community something to think about.”
The year was 1969.
We’ve been here before.
I picked up the Grand Forks Herald dated Sunday May 11th and found out that our elected representative of UND said, “People in North Dakota are inherently racist abecause of their lack of contact with (minorities) and their total ignorance of the racial problem.” How could he say that? Doesn’t he know that most supposed hate crimes are hoaxes? Maybe he is full of total ignorance.Hate crimes are hoaxes?
I see potential electoral gain here too because apparently Jamie Selzler, the North Dakota executive driector of the state Democratic-NPL Party has been involved a bit in trashing North Dakota values (not as bluntly though). If we get a few choice phrases from her trying to make North Dakota look like black people are regularly lynched here, that could make people angry enough to either get her kicked out of office or make republicans a stronger party this election (or both).
