Bruce P Corrie, PhD, Economist
Today, July 15. 2021 a significant step towards authentic representation of the ALANA (African Latino Asian and Native American) communities occurred in Minnesota when Common Cause Minnesota and partners OneMN.org, Voices for Racial Justice and 7 other co-plaintiffs petitioned the Minnesota Supreme Court to integrate the voices of the ALANA communities as the Court draws legislative boundaries for the next decade. I decided to join the legal petition as a co-plaintiff – I will tell you why?
As you know for over almost three decades, I have documented the economic contributions of the ALANA people in Minnesota. As an economist, I estimated their economic value to be over $1.4 trillion today – bigger than the economy of Mexico. Unfortunately, the establishment continues to disregard this important engine for economic growth in Minnesota and has never formally acknowledged the economic impact, value and contributions of the ALANA communities. If you analyze the official websites of the State of Minnesota, city and county governments you will not find data on the value and importance of the ALANA economy in a systematic and relevant manner. This was even after a state sponsored advisory group, The Governor’s Working Group on Minority Business Development (which I chaired), issued a report documenting the economic contributions of the ALANA economy in 2000. The denial of value is a founding block of racism and allows economic and political disenfranchisement to occur.
Under the leadership of Brett Buckner of OneMN.org and a group of ALANA community leaders, I testified before the judicial redistricting panel in 2002 and again in 2011, pleading with the judicial panel to provide adequate representation for the ALANA “communities of interest” across Minnesota and to prevent the dilution of the ALANA vote. I estimate that there are currently at least 125 Minnesota Senate and House legislative districts with at least $100 million of ALANA economic interests that need political representation. Together these legislators have enough votes to pass relevant and needed policies and programs to address the huge racial disparities in Minnesota. Have these legislators adequately represented ALANA political and economic interests?
I was hopeful when the Minnesota House Select Committee on Racial Justice, appointed by Speaker Melissa Hortman and co-chaired by Representatives Richardson and Moran produced a report offering strategies to close the racial economic divide and grow wealth in the ALANA communities. Hope increased when ALANA leaders were appointed to chair top legislative committees in the Minnesota House and various bills originating in the House offered meaningful policy and investment proposals. I was invited to present strategies for building wealth in the ALANA communities – The Minnesota Solution – to core House committees. (Unfortunately I did not receive a similar invitation from the other legislative bodies even though I reached out to them – a fact significant as you will read below).
Then the bottom fell off my mountain of hope.
Despite the huge economic and social costs of the pandemic and civil unrest that deepened racial economic inequality and despite huge budget surpluses and an infusion of federal stimulus money, our elected officials failed to invest in scale and scope to close the racial economic divide nor to adopt policies for better inclusion and access to public resources.
Then as the legislative bills got funneled to the secretive joint conference committees consisting of leaders from the House, Senate and the Governor’s office, there was a systematic removal of policy language around inclusion. I heard negotiators were even told not to use the word “equity” in negotiations as one of the elected negotiating bodies deemed it as unacceptable.
So, what emerged from this current legislative session can be characterized as “money for exclusion.” The economic interests of ALANA/BIPOC people across Minnesota were not adequately represented. It is true that investment levels with an ALANA/BIPOC focus increased in many areas – but it is not at the scale needed or with a comprehensive strategy in place – and in the context of huge budget surpluses and federal inflows.
The core argument of the legal petition is that while the numbers of ALANA/BIPOC people has grown over the past decade within and across current legislative districts, political representation has not. For example, all across rural Minnesota there are large increases in ALANA/BIPOC population but political representation has not significantly increased.
This serious fault line must be addressed by the Supreme Court.
I estimate the economic cost of racism to be at least $287 billion dollars.
This is a reasonable estimate how much our ALANA communities are losing because of inadequate political representation. My preliminary analysis reveals that when we had an ALANA legislator chairing a legislative committee, they achieved greater success at economic inclusion.
If the legislature has failed to represent ALANA interests adequately what about the two other branches of government – the Executive and the Judiciary?
The executive branch has been making some progress on inclusion, but it is at a very slow pace over the past two decades. It is also questionable whether the small number of ALANA/BIPOC leaders in state government have the power and the resources to influence change in areas they lead. Language in legislative bills that could have made a difference in making departments more inclusive were systematically removed. So large pots of money flowing through state departments and public funded institutions such as E12 to higher educational institutions are not required to be inclusive nor is it visible to the average citizen that these institutions are doing their best at ensuring all Minnesotans have equal access to resources and opportunities. The way programs are delivered need more accountability mechanisms to ensure access to opportunities are available to all Minnesotans. There is a lack of disaggregated data on outcomes of these departments and institutions funded by taxpayer funds. I estimate that ALANA/BIPOC taxpayers pay at least $3 billion a year in taxes. Another example – over the past two decades, the percentage of state contracts going to ALANA businesses has hovered around the paltry 1 to 2 percent – in the presence of huge disparities in business ownership and size.
Critical national institutions like the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis or the US Small Business Administration are also failing to create equitable access to capital. For example, urgent request of the ALANA Brain Trust for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis to serve as the lender of the last community resort during the heart of the pandemic and severe economic distress was not successful. The failure of the Paycheck Protection Program to reach the ALANA communities is another glaring example.
It is the Judiciary that now holds center stage – and this is where the legal petition focuses on. The petition makes a very strong case that ALANA/BIPOC people should speak for themselves at the redistricting table. ALANA voices need to be at the table when legislative districts are drawn. This way we have a better chance for greater political representation over the next decade and hopefully “money for exclusion” will never occur again in Minnesota.
I signed on as a co-plaintiff because the Judiciary is the last resort for the ALANA/BIPOC communities to have adequate access to opportunities and resources. All other avenues to provide ALANA access to opportunities and resources have had limited success.
To begin the process of economic empowerment and wealth building ALANA communities need a seat at the redistricting table.
