What White Dispossession Looks Like
Gilbert Cavanaugh
Along with the rest of America, Minneapolis has become dramatically less white over the last two decades. The percentage of Hispanics almost quintupled between 1990 and 2010 from 2.14 to 10.47 percent. There has also been a massive influx of Somalis, though it is hard to know exactly how many have come. There is no category for them in the census, and estimates of the statewide population range from 35,000 to 100,000. Ahmed Ismail Yusuf, author of Somalis in Minnesota, says the number cannot be lower than 60,000.
The majority of Minnesota’s Somalis live in Minneapolis, but again there are no firm numbers. Estimates range from a low of 14,500, or about 3.8 percent of the city’s population, to a high of 40,000 or 45,000, which would mean there are almost as many Somalis as Hispanics—or a even a few more.
What follow are some images of what is so frequently and innocuously called, “the changing face of Minneapolis.”
These pictures were taken mainly in three Minneapolis neighborhoods: Cedar-Riverside,Seward, and along Lake Street, a major road that serves as the border for many different neighborhoods.
One sure sign that whites are being displaced is the number of murals. The more murals, the worse the neighborhood.
If murals call for an end to the violence you know the neighborhood is very bad. . . .
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