Vincent Reed, Brainerd, MN
“I want your committee to know that there are many of us that are watching and holding onto that hope that the right thing will be done.”
Vincent Reed
To: Minnesota House Select Committee on Racial Justice
I would like to start off by telling you that I am happy to have read your report. I am also an optimistic believer in change. The difference this time came at the cost of many of my fellow black brothers and sisters, with some high-profile ones from Minnesota. I feel that our country is at a turning point and that we, as Minnesotans, can set the example of how change can be positively implemented in an impactful manner to address the issues of inequality and racism in our state. After reading the report, as well as watching it live, I felt great pride in my state. I know, as you do, that these recommendations that your committee has suggested are long over-due. The impact that these recommendations could bring however, could be life changing for many of us BIPOC residents of this state.
I would like to give you a little background on myself, if your committee doesn’t mind. First off, I am a product of the Minnesota foster care system. In many cases my family, and myself, could be a cautionary tale of what happens when the system fails. I spent a vast majority of my life in the foster care system as a youth. I was in thirteen different homes in less than nine years, both in Minnesota and Washington state, some good and some not so good homes. I was first removed from my mother’s care in the state of WA at the age of five. Eventually we were returned to her and we moved here to MN where her family resided. In her care I had to tolerate a racist family that separated my siblings and myself from everything that should be important family events, even being called racist names by family. I was again removed from her care at the age of eleven for abuse for around three months. At the age of thirteen she relinquished her rights to my siblings and myself. From the age of thirteen to sixteen I was in a loving home that taught me many lessons on how to be a man and treat everyone with dignity and respect. I was removed from that home because the state decided that black children should be in black homes. Keep in mind that since returning to foster care at thirteen I was separated from my siblings, including my twin sister. During these years, I was never given adequate mental health treatment for the trauma of my childhood.
I was moved to a home in the suburbs of the metro area, which came as a cultural shock to me. I tried my best to fit in and stay on the track for college, but that dream quickly fell apart for me. I moved to a home in the inner city in the early 90’s and found myself involved in gangs. I also become a young father at the age of seventeen, with no sense of what it meant to be a father. I was put out of my home a month before my eighteenth birthday, in early January. As you can all imagine, life began to go in a downward spiral for me after that. I dropped out of high school at this point because I was homeless and had a child to support. This is also around the time that I began to self-medicate with alcohol to forget about the traumas of my past. By the time I was twenty-one I had three kids with no direction in life, nor a home. Alcohol had become a daily fixture in my life, as did marijuana. I was lucky though, I escaped the 90’s in Minneapolis with only a scar on my face from being stabbed, as well as a wound on the backside of my arm from the same attack.
Over the years I spent much of my life trying to forget where I had come from and where I had been. The reality is that you cannot escape the realities of your past and someday must face them. That day came for me when my eldest brother committed suicide and left behind us other five siblings knowing his pain. I made the decision at that moment, that my life was not going to be for nothing. I knew at that moment I was going to make a difference with my life. I chose to go back to college and get an education. Nothing about going back to school for me was easy, at every turn there was an obstacle. I have always been a fighter and have never been one to give up on something that has great importance to me. This was no different than many other challenges I faced in my life, just another hurdle. Now I face the reality that my family will never be what it should, there is no connection to one another, other than knowing we are siblings. A tragedy that I feel will never be righted.
You may ask why I share all this with you, well because I am a direct product of the system in this state. I am a former foster, who had to grow up on my own. I have had my battle with alcoholism, with the criminal justice system, and racism on many levels. The fact is though, that my real battle has just begun. My new battle is the battle for “Equality”, something that according to the constitution I already have. We all know though that when Thomas Jefferson said, “In the pursuit of happiness”, our forefathers didn’t mean for people with darker skin. They meant for those that were like them. The battle for equality is something that needs to and has to be done. There is no place for systemic racism in this day and age, times are changing, and we have to change with them. For anyone to deny that ‘White Privilege’ doesn’t exist, they are only living in fear of a world where we are all equal under the eyes of the lord. I don’t want to be better than anyone, I just want to be equal, or have the same chances as they do. It may be too late for me, but it is not too late for my children, or my grandchildren.
This fight we are in at the moment over equality is one that I may not get to see the end of, but it is one that I whole heartedly believe in. I believe that we can all share in the greatness of Minnesota, regardless of the color of our skin. I will continue to push the idea that change is coming, after all, change has to happen. Life has had many twists and turns for me and my family, it has never been easy. None of my siblings or myself have ever owned anything worth-while. I plan to change that however, because an education is priceless! I really just wanted this committee to know that I believe in you, I believe in the change that is coming. Most of all, I believe that I can help change the world. I can be a champion for change, for education, for civil rights, for closing the equity gap and providing quality services for all from students to the elderly of all races. The report that you all submitted was spot on, generational wealth begins with home ownership, but that must start with an education. It may be generations from now, but I know that equality is on the horizon.
I want your committee to know that there are many of us that are watching and holding onto that hope that the right thing will be done. There are many changes that could help ease the pain form the past. We are all a biproduct of our pasts. That does not mean that we have to live in the past though. For me, I have great hope that with your committee’s recommendations change can happen. I realize it takes time, but I have the hope that it happens in my lifetime. I also want your committee to know that you will face obstacles, I hope like I did, you look at them as just hurdles in the path. The change we are all talking about has never historically came without sacrifices. Those sacrifices however, cannot be made at the expense of BIPOC any longer. So I ask you all to share in the passion that I have of a country where we all have the same opportunities for “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”
