"I was inspired to come to UMN Sociology because of all of the really great work happening at the Minnesota Population Center and in the department, and the amazing reputation of your program."

This week on Dialogue Minnesota, a look at how sports became a platform for expressing ideological views and how today’s athletes are using their celebrity to promote racial equity. Joining us is Douglass Hartmann, a professor and chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Minnesota. He is an expert on the sociology of sport.

University of Minnesota sociology Prof. Michelle Phelps says that other cities experienced unrest after a controversial police killing, not because police were being less proactive, but because a lack of community confidence created an atmosphere of lawlessness. Slower response times only further chipped away at public trust, she says, creating a “self-fulfilling cycle.”

"They respond to family disturbances, elder abuse, a culture of homelessness, traffic, all kinds of things they're not necessarily trained to do," said Page. "In many cases, they don't want to be doing a lot of these things. Police chiefs sometimes ask: 'Why are we expected to be a social worker, an elder specialist, a superhuman?" Professor Joshua Page is quoted in this Star Tribune article.

There are large disparities in COVID-related unemployment, with the largest proportional losses among Latinx and less-educated workers. The effects have been particularly felt among children. Professors Rob Warren and Ann Meier are co-authors of this article published in Econofact.

The City Council approved a resolution last month that would allow the city to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, but the movement still has a long way to go. Associate Professor Michelle Phelps is quoted in this MN Daily article.

The Minneapolis City Council is moving forward with a proposed amendment to the city’s charter that would disband the current police department and replace it with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the council’s proposal in November if it passes some bureaucratic hurdles in meantime. This week on Dialogue Minnesota, University of Minnesota Associate Professor of Sociology Michelle Phelps discusses systemic racism in our nation’s police departments and what a new vision for law enforcement might look like.

Memory could have a stronger hold on our current circumstances than we think. Professor Alejandro Baer of the Department of Sociology and the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies explores the human ability to overcome conflict through public remembrance.

Despite following the Obama-era playbook for police reform, Minneapolis has yet to rebuild trust between community members and the police. Professor Michelle Phelps is quoted in this Star Tribune article.