Researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health found inequities among race, technology and wages impacting the healthcare industry. 

In healthcare, wage gaps have left the majority of female healthcare workers underpaid, while structural racism has created barriers to healthcare. In addition, the emphasis on technology and innovation has become more important than improving the delivery and quality of health care to patients. 

Janette Dill, an associate professor in the School of Public Health and deputy director of the Consortium for Workforce Research in Public Health, said in nursing where women make up around 90% of the workforce, they are earning around 80-90% of what their male counterparts earn. 

Among physicians, women make 60-78% of what male physicians are earning and the same is true for advanced practitioners, Dill added. 

Women make up 75% of the healthcare workforce, Dill said. Currently, women are making gains in terms of representation and the gender wage gap is decreasing for women in medicine. 

“One of the things that’s really frustrating about women’s labor is that women have tried, I think, to close the gender wage gap by getting more and more education,” Dill said. “Unfortunately, it just isn’t, it just doesn’t work.”

As women get more education, the wage gap grows between their male counterparts, Dill said. Occupations dominated by women pay less than occupations dominated by men, which is what drives the gender wage gap. 

Shekinah Fashaw-Walters, an assistant professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management in the School of Public Health, focuses on understanding inequalities in age and race as determining factors in healthcare inequities. 

Higher-quality home and health agencies are less likely to serve neighborhoods that are predominantly Black and Hispanic and have a lower socioeconomic status, according to Fashaw-Walters.

“Older adults of color have lived through different manifestations of racism,” Fashaw-Walters said. “When Jim Crow laws existed people could openly discriminate against which neighborhood you live in or what resources you could access.”

Life expectancy for Black or brown populations is much lower than that of white populations,  Fashaw-Walters said. In part, this is because of lived experiences through different forms of racism such as police brutality, microaggressions, and actions inflicted upon them by the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws that affected access to good health care. 

Focusing on our aging population is important because over the course of people’s lives, they accumulate all these different experiences that become exacerbated, Fashaw-Walters added. 

Dori Cross, an assistant professor also in the Division of Health Policy and Management, seeks to understand gaps between what the industry thinks they are achieving with digital investments and where they actually land.

“Technology does not change organizations, people change organizations,” Cross said. “If you’re unwilling to change roles and responsibilities and how you approach the delivery of healthcare, and you just drop technology into the picture, nothing changes.”

The major federal investment in healthcare delivery organizations was the digitization of records, Cross said. Tens of billions of dollars were invested by the federal government and private healthcare organizations in this project, but there are no clear examples of where these changes have benefited safety, quality and efficiency in healthcare to justify the price tag. 

“Organizations are really good at meeting what’s explicitly asked of them, especially if there’s money tied to it,” Cross said. “That’s how it works, but it doesn’t change organizational culture and climate and I think that’s the million billion trillion dollar answer to all of this, is like, how do you reimagine healthcare delivery?”

There are many occupations that are lacking in representation, accessibility, quality and competitive compensation like healthcare, Dill said. 

“The way that we pay for healthcare is very gendered and racialized,” Dill said. “We pay high rates for types of procedures that are very tech-dominated or very surgery-dominated, so then we end up seeing medical specialists like surgeons making a million and a half dollars a year.”

Picture this: The sky is crisp and clear and you’re soaking in the splendor of a sunny, winter Saturday as you walk back to campus from a friend’s apartment. You feel content striding down University Avenue, but your mood quickly sours. You stand on the threshold of Stadium Village trying to cross the dreaded intersection at Huron Boulevard, waiting for so long you momentarily wonder why you needed to cross in the first place. The cars rush past as you breathe in their acrid fumes and scowl at the traffic light that refuses to change. 

“Welcome to Stadium Village,” you mutter.

You finally cross and walk over to the main stretch of Washington Avenue. Passing the front lawn of the McNamara Alumni Center, you admire what seem to be the only trees in all of Stadium Village. The relief is only momentary because the glorious winter sun suddenly disappears from your Vitamin-D-deficient skin. 

The Hub apartment building looms above you, a hulking, blue-gray middle finger to students who could never dream of affording such astronomical rent (a one-bedroom apartment costs $1,885 per month). 

Sulking down the sidewalk, you look over at The Graduate and scoff at the architectural shortcomings. Your fifth-grade Minecraft creations were more visually appealing and somehow less blocky than this red-brick monstrosity. The light rail barrels down the street honking its horn. After passing the second Caribou Coffee within two blocks, you begin to wonder if urban development in America has lost its sense of integrity altogether. 

So goes a typical (and not at all dramatized) walk through Stadium Village — for me, at least.

What makes this University of Minnesota neighborhood so disappointing?

Besides lacking any quaintness, charm or curb appeal, Stadium Village is a discouraging demonstration of how corporate greed can squeeze the life out of a campus community.

Mikai Tasch, a second-year civil engineering student who lives in Stadium Village, mentioned how his father and uncle — both alumni of the University — noticed dramatic changes in the area since graduating in the ‘90s, especially within the past few years. 

“It’s just expanding rapidly and I feel like it doesn’t really have the character it used to have,” Tasch said.

With modern buildings in jarring shades of yellow, dark gray and beige crammed next to 20th-century brick-and-mortar storefronts, the aesthetic of Stadium Village is incongruous.

“They’ve kind of been building new right next to the old and I don’t really like that,” Tasch said. “It’s just kind of awkward, I suppose.”

Looks aside, Stadium Village offers students convenience with its proximity to campus, sports stadiums and the East Bank light rail stop, but this convenience comes at a cost. 

Edward Goetz, a professor of urban and regional planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, explained that Stadium Villages rents are high because of an increased demand for university housing in recent years that led to a series of cost-cutting construction projects. He said, despite a lower quality of craftsmanship, the new landlords charge higher-than-average rent prices.

“A lot of developers and builders got in quickly, and I think their primary concern was to get in at a cost that, relative to the potential for rents, would leave them most well off financially,” Goetz said.

He explained how owners of new developments charge rent that is often too difficult for local businesses to meet, allowing corporate businesses to proliferate. With a strip mall, three banks and more chain restaurants than you could count on both hands, the commercial offerings of Stadium Village are more similar to an outer Minneapolis suburb than a quintessential college town. 

“That’s unfortunate because you start losing what’s distinctive about the neighborhood,” Goetz said. 

Stadium Village has plenty of hidden gems, like Kimchi Tofu House, The Test Kitchen, Hong Kong Noodle and Afro Deli, among other beloved local businesses. But as rent prices continue to rise, a family-owned establishment could become a Subway faster than you can say “capitalism.”

Perhaps the changes in Stadium Village are an inevitable result of a growing university, but it’s hard to watch such a lively college neighborhood become devoid of any distinguishable characteristics. Stadium Village should look and feel like a place for students, not for out-of-state corporations looking to make a profit. 

Although Dinkytown has managed to maintain some of its historic characteristics, it faces an uncertain future due to a recent boom in new housing developments. Luckily, other campus neighborhoods such as Como and the often-overlooked West Bank have retained their uniqueness.

But I’m afraid that Stadium Village, with its flimsy apartment buildings, massive parking garages and heavily trafficked streets, is too far gone.

In a classroom setting, it’s gospel choir director Adrian Davis’ smile that brings the passion of gospel music alive for students. 

With 80 students, a pianist, a guitarist and a drummer, Davis stands at the front, directing sections when to come in until every voice is singing. 

“Gospel music is for everyone, whether that is your central belief system or not,” Davis said. “The music is all-inclusive, it’s a wonderful opportunity to learn and perform and to study the artists.” 

Davis has been in education for 24 years, beginning his career teaching in Memphis, Tennessee, where he grew up. He moved to Minneapolis in 2007 and started teaching in Minneapolis Public Schools, where he still works now alongside his job at the University of Minnesota. 

The University previously had a gospel choir in the ‘90s and early 2000s, but with budget cuts, the School of Music (SoM) had to shut it down. Davis re-established it in 2018 with the support of the SoM after he came to the University to work on his PhD. 

“We started out small and it grew and grew, and then COVID hit and we lost some, but it’s growing again,” Davis said. “We got us a nice group here now.” 

According to Davis, the SoM was looking to expand its offerings in terms of musical understandings beyond the Western paradigm, and the gospel choir was an opportunity to do that. 

“To lean even more into Black music and the genres of Black music that tend to maybe get overlooked or underappreciated in predominantly white institutions,” Davis said. “[The University] is looking to change and looking to find ways to ingratiate itself to a wider range of genres, and it doesn’t diminish anything else that is already happening.” 

The music is important to Davis in a personal way because he grew up with gospel music. He said the music has always been a part of his life, so it was an easy connection. 

According to Davis, the choir is a “judgment-free zone” with people coming in for their own religious reasons, for the love of music or to get a better understanding of the culture. 

“That’s what gospel music itself is about,” Davis said. “It is a hybrid of the sacred and the secular.” 

Gospel music was born out of blues and jazz, and when it originated, Davis said the church did not like it. 

Davis added gospel music is the music of protest, a social justice theme. He said even if a tune does not have religious text, there is always a double meaning, and a singer or listener can find a gospel message in pop and R&B songs from today. 

“That’s also the part of being in a gospel choir is singing with understanding,” Davis said. “A lot of times we consume songs and don’t know the meaning behind it.” 

Davis said learning the understanding of a song “disarms whatever dogma could potentially be in the room” because everyone is learning together. 

The 80-person-strong choir consists mostly of students and some faculty and community members. 

Bonnie Young is a student in the gospel choir who joined because she enjoys organized singing, though she is not religious. 

“I’m not religious, but I still feel welcome here,” Young said. “I definitely observe a lot of people feeling it, but I’m just kind of here to sing.” 

According to Young, Davis provides a positive atmosphere and place where all types of people can go. 

“His energy is so positive and he’s just a really cool guy. He’s really good at leading this big of a group and I will listen to anything that man says,” Young said. 

Lucky Nguyen said he joined the gospel choir this semester because he missed singing and the choir was a nice way to do so in college without too much commitment. 

“If you want something, just a nice, easy way to involve music in your life that’s not too much time, gospel choir is a good way to start,” Nguyen said. “I think Adrian is an absolutely phenomenal director.”

Sarah Martin heard about the choir from friends she met through Salt, a campus ministry group. She said she likes the choir because it is diverse and unique. 

“Over winter break I was thinking about it, and I was like, ‘I want to do a fun class this semester,’ and so I added it to my schedule and it’s been great ever since,” Martin said. 

According to Martin, the experience of being in a secular school singing music from religious and historical backgrounds has been cool, and Davis communicates the gospel message in a very tasteful way for all interacting with it. 

Josh Spellacy has been an usher at Ted Mann Concert Hall for just over a year and has worked two gospel choir concerts.

“The atmosphere there is just super fun and relaxed,” Spellacy said. “You can tell that everyone who’s coming to see it and everyone who’s involved with it just loves it so much and is just so excited to see it and everything.” 

Spellacy added that the gospel choir concerts are more of a show than a concert and the director works to let the audience feel more included. 

Davis said the gospel choir is “everybody’s choir,” and it belongs not only to the SoM but to the University, the community and the city. 

“It’s the idea of ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,’” Davis said. “We’re all equal here, there’s no one greater, there’s no one lesser.” 

The University of Minnesota’s Black Student Union (BSU), along with Student Unions & Activities (SUA), since the beginning of the month, has shown a variety of Black people-centered movies at the St. Paul Student Center theater and the Coffman Union Theater.

The first weekend of February “Judas and the Black Messiah” showed, followed by “Girls Trip” the next weekend. “Pursuit of Happiness” screened last Friday and Saturday, and “Dreamgirls” will be screening this coming Friday and Saturday.

Liya Gebremariam, the secretary for BSU, said the film screenings were done last year but not to the extent of this year’s event. Collaboration with SUA allowed for more movies to be shown at the Coffman Union Theater. 

Despite not being one of the organizers for many of the Black History Month events, Gebremariam pushed to have this screening because she believes in the power of representation in the media. 

“I think there’s a lot of power in the media and in films and representation of Black joy, Black people, Black experiences,” Gebremariam said. “We don’t really talk about that enough in our communities.”

BSU gave SUA a list of movies to choose from, all from different genres and focusing on different topics in order to have multiple representations of the Black experience, not just ones based around social justice. 

Craig L. Rice, a Black Twin Cities filmmaker and professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, said there is an importance to films that focus on the struggles of Black people, but there are more stories to share. 

“I think what we [Black people] need to do is to get back to our resilience, our dedication, our creativity, our development, our artistic abilities, our literary abilities, our mythology, our religion,” Rice said. 

Reggie Henderson, a Black filmmaker and founder of the multimedia company Soul Tools Media, said getting more Black people into positions that influence what movies are chosen and get invested in is a way to get more of a variety of representation in the industry. 

“If only one certain sector of the community does our films then we’re always gonna be kind of stereotyped or typecast,” Henderson said. 

E.G. Bailey, another Black filmmaker who owns two production companies in Minneapolis — Blackstar Studios and Freestyle Films, said he is a man who believes in creating your own. 

“We [Black people] have the power to create our own and we have the power to invest into our community and invest into ourselves and not have to wait for anyone to hand us anything,” Bailey said. 

Henderson mentioned actor and writer Issa Rae’s rise to fame as an example.

“She started off with a YouTube series [saying] she’s gonna do it herself. HBO seen it, made her [an] offer and now she’s able to do her own stories,” Henderson said. 

Issa Rae’s YouTube channel turned into another platform for her entertainment company, Hoorae Media. The company puts all her digital media content into one place. She has contracts with companies such as HBO and Atlantic Records that pay her for access to her content, according to an article by Variety. 

Rae is only one example of Black people taking charge and telling the stories they want told. Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing”) and the late John Singleton (“Boyz n the Hood”) came up throughout interviews of big names adding well-rounded Black stories. 

Gebremariam said there are still improvements that can be made within the industry to show a more well-rounded story of Black people. However, she said she has seen more depth in Black characters in recent years. 

“It has improved a little bit, but I also think it is us [Black people] saying, ‘You know what, we’re not going to settle for them telling our stories,’” Henderson said. 

The alternative rock band Paramore, fronted by the electric Hayley Williams, won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album for their latest record “This Is Why.” 

They are the first female-fronted act to ever win the category. In a statement on Instagram following the awards, the band called the feat, “Ridiculous but true!”

In their over two decades of making music, Paramore has influenced generations of musicians, especially those who do not present or identify as cisgender men. This rings true for members of non-male fronted bands in the Twin Cities, who in their creative endeavors have tackled imposter syndrome and microaggressions as well as outright misogyny. 

For these musicians, Paramore being acknowledged for their success after all these years is more important than ever.

Below are three Twin Cities acts fans of Paramore should pay attention to as they continue their legacy.

Gully Boys

The four-member Twin Cities grunge-pop outfit Gully Boys have a sound that mixes Paramore’s synth-pop fifth studio album “After Laughter” and the classic emo, pop-punk sound of their breakthrough album “Riot!,” according to drummer and backing vocalist Nadi McGill. When “Riot!” came out in 2007, McGill was in middle school. They listened to the album on repeat and even burned themself a copy on CD.

“Paramore hasn’t been afraid to grow and evolve as they’ve aged,” McGill said. “It feels freeing to allow yourself to grow in this way as a musician and to see them do it so gracefully with great musicality.”

Gully Boys started in 2016 as three friends who had always wanted to be in a band but had not always had access. 

They released their first collection of demos, “Not So Brave,” in 2018 and have since released two EPs and two singles, with a debut album set to come out this year.

McGill said as an interracial band of solely non-men, Gully Boys experienced misogyny when they started as well as persistent patronizing and microaggressions. McGill mentioned being lauded for their skills despite being a “lady drummer.” At another show, an audience member reached up onto the stage and adjusted their bass player’s amp.

On the other hand, McGill said they have experienced a lot of positivity in terms of diverse musicians working together to intentionally create welcoming spaces, book shows with diverse lineups at safe venues and avoid tokenization.

“In Minneapolis, you pull up the next generation and keep the doors open for them,” McGill said.

To McGill, success is not found through being famous. Instead, it is about having fun, being vulnerable, making music with their best friends and having it resonate with people. 

“The best bands are the ones that didn’t break up,” McGill said. “They’re the ones who stayed together, figured it out and grew together.” 

Their favorite songs that they have made with Gully Boys are “Optimist,” “See You See,” “Neopet Graveyard” and “Favorite Son.”

Bakemiller Pink

Sophia Kaufmann, bassist of Bakermiller Pink, came to Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota from Oakland, California with the goal of starting a band.

Bakermiller Pink is a six-piece rock band based in St. Paul with jazz, funk and punk influences, according to Kaufmann.

Paramore has greatly influenced Kaufmann, who has looked up to Hayley Williams as her role model since middle school.

“I just remember seeing Paramore in concert and I distinctly remember being like, ‘I could do that!’ I feel like as an artist you really cherish those moments of just pure inspiration,” Kaufmann said.

Kaufmann said Bakermiller Pink’s sound is closest to Paramore’s latest album, “This Is Why,” which experiments with the band’s older pop-punk sound. 

Specifically, she said she appreciates the sometimes weird, yet cleverly earnest lyricism in the songs “Running Out of Time” and “C’est Comme Ça.” This has been a source of inspiration for more offbeat lyricism in Bakermiller Pink’s music.

Kaufmann said she was not surprised that it has taken this long for a non-male fronted band to win the Grammy for Best Rock Album, especially as a woman musician.

“Even now it still feels like an uphill battle against toxic masculinity in all kinds of music scenes,” Kaufmann said. “Our band isn’t even all women and I still feel like everywhere we go we have to prove we belong.”

Kaufmann pointed out specific problems, including having to look out for her personal safety at certain venues, making it hard to always trust others. At the same time, like McGill, she expressed gratitude towards the solidarity she has found within the scene. 

To Kaufmann, success for Bakermiller Pink means being able to play as much music together as possible, to have the best time possible doing it and building community within the Twin Cities music scene through that.

“I just love the way live music brings people together. You never know when someone’s going to turn out to be a really close friend,” Kaufmann said.

Kaufmann’s favorite songs Bakermiller Pink has written include “Deep Sleeper” and “The Kids Are Fine,” but she said a lot of them are on their upcoming debut album “Rinse. Dry. Repeat.” which will be released this April.

Dial Tone

The Minneapolis-based stompy indie punk band Dial Tone consists of three members — all of them students at the University of Minnesota.

Dial Tone has been making music together since the fall of 2022. They have released two singles and a concept album, which pays homage to the Twin Cities acts they are inspired by, including Babes in Toyland and Hippo Campus.

Lead singer Daisy Forester said she and her bandmates, Henning Hanson and Cole Pivec, are highly intentional about creating an inclusive local music scene for other non-male fronted groups, artists and creatives.

“I am incredibly grateful for and excited by the numerous spectacular, revolutionary female/femme-fronted artists/groups active in the Twin Cities right now,” Forester wrote. “It’s encouraging and empowering to see groups like Paramore doing the same on a larger scale.”

Forester called her experience as a female musician in the Twin Cities music scene “a simultaneously rewarding and exhausting experience,” having faced consistent misogyny from all sides since she started performing at age 14. 

However, she said that has made support from both male and non-male fellow musicians, friends and family so important. She hopes to serve a similar role for other non-male musicians.

At one of Dial Tone’s first shows, Forester said they played “Misery Business” and “Ain’t It Fun,” songs she remembers loving when she was younger. 

She said her favorite songs by Dial Tone are “No Harm,” “No Foul,” “Ferris Bueller,” and “Ambrosia.”

As repeat Grammy winners and pioneers in alternative rock, Paramore’s legacy is undoubtedly defined by their success as a female-fronted band. For these three Twin Cities musicians and numerous others, the band showed how to gracefully navigate the obstacles that come with that legacy, all the while maintaining unique, strong musicality as well as friendships.

To young musicians, especially those who are non-male, thinking about starting a band, Forester said, in true Paramore fashion, “Don’t let anyone tell you you’re doing it wrong, or that you’re in the wrong place, or that your creativity or voice is lesser-than or unimportant. They’re wrong.”

The University of Minnesota School of Music (SoM) has been expanding its curriculum by diversifying the music being taught and creating opportunities for students without classical training. 

The SoM has introduced into its curriculum two new minors, which focus on students participating in ensembles and shifting away from traditional Western music. Some faculty say they hope these changes will attract more students to enroll in the school.

Patrick Warfield, the new director of the SoM, said almost every school of music in the country was founded upon teaching mostly Western classical music. However, over the past two decades, the field of music has seen a change to include music from around the world.

“You need to have the ability to engage with other musics around you,” Warfield said. “Because [musics are] not as siloed as they once were.”

Warfield said the SoM’s central focus still remains on the bachelor of music degree, which is responsible for bringing in the most students who perform at the highest levels. However, the school is expanding the amount of musical experiences that these students have access to.

One initiative being taken to expand options is removing audition requirements for newly added minors and ensembles, Warfield said.

Scott Currie, an associate professor who specializes in ethnomusicology, said Warfield has done a lot to expand and support diversity in the SoM. Through Warfield’s leadership, he said, the school has been looking for ways to build upon pre-existing infrastructure to offer more diverse options that reflect students’ needs. 

According to the SoM’s website, ethnomusicology is the study of music within its social and cultural contexts.

“It’s just great to have a director who says, you know, ‘I’m a big reggae fan,’” Currie said.

Currie said one of the efforts within the SoM to build upon its diversity has been the introduction of the world music minor, which launched in the fall semester of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We launched it, as you can imagine, at pretty much the worst time,” Currie said.

According to Currie, the world music minor requires no audition and no musical training, making it an alternative to the original music minor, which requires students to audition with faculty and take courses that require some background in musical training. 

For the world music minor students must take one foundational course, four electives in music studies and five semesters of two different ensembles or more. The ensembles include the gospel choir, Javanese gamelan, African drumming, steel pan ensemble and Currie’s world music ensemble, which plays reggae, ska and rocksteady.

Alyssa Barna, an assistant professor who specializes in music theory, said the SoM introduced the ensemble music minor at the beginning of the 2023 fall semester. Like the world music minor, the ensemble music minor does not require auditions.

According to Barna, enrollment in ensembles is very strong, although many of the musicians are not music majors. In the University’s marching band, a popular way for students to get involved with music, Barna estimated around three-fourths of the band are non-majors.

“The ethos that we’re going for at the undergraduate level right now in music is trying to get more folks in the door,” Barna said. “Because everybody likes music.”

Warfield said the SoM has been leading the changes occurring across the country in other schools of music since the Global Creative Studies program began over a decade ago. The program is a collaborative effort between scholars and composers from around the world that encourages creativity and experimentation in music.

“What I often tell people is that it’s not about taking a spotlight and saying it used to be on Mozart, let’s put it on Prince,” Warfield said. “It’s to take that spotlight and make it so it can encompass both worlds.”

In today’s conservative political climate, there is not a single word thrown around more than “woke.” While most party members take no issue with the word, some — including Donald Trump — don’t seem to care for it.

“I don’t like the term woke. Woke, woke, woke. It’s just a term they use, half the people can’t define it, they don’t know what it is,” Trump said during a conservative breakfast event in Iowa last summer.

Although Trump has since contradicted himself countless times by using this word to define Disney, the U.S. military, the NBA and political opponents, he is right about one thing: 

Nobody knows what this word means anymore. 

Definitions of the term differ greatly, according to a poll by USA Today and Ipsos. 56% of Americans polled consider wokeness to mean you are educated on social issues, while 40% believe it means unnecessary political correctness.

Unsurprisingly, 78% of the former identify as Democrats and 56% of the latter identify as Republicans. 

Despite its original meaning, which has been heavily misconstrued over time, many Americans believe the word can be applied anywhere they see fit.

Many see it as an aggressive political agenda attempting to make them feel guilty for being white. Others see it as the indoctrination of their young children in the classroom. In the entertainment industry, the word primarily acts as “old reliable” for viewers lacking the ability to articulate their displeasure with a film or television show. 

To Matt Cikovic, teaching assistant professor of visual and multimedia journalism, usage of this word in entertainment often reflects a restorative nostalgic bias.

“There are also people who have nostalgic ideas about their entertainment,” Cikovic said. “Anything that challenges it, they will immediately say, ‘That is different, it is not what I grew up with.’” 

People have been doing this for decades. Those who feel this way about entertainment tend to let this nostalgia cloud their judgment of social and political issues. There is a reason why Bob Dylan’s 1964 hit “The Times They Are a-Changin” still resonates — it calls out people who think like this. 

Nowadays, these feelings manifest through terms like “woke mind virus,” “woke mob” and “woke legislature.” These terms are thrown around by politicians, online influencers and white suburban dads almost every day. 

The problem is not that parents take issue with the content schools teach their kids or filmgoers dislike a movie because of the message it preaches. Freedom to debate societal and cultural issues is and must continue to be an essential right. 

The problem is in the language they use. 

By using words like woke as an umbrella term to describe different social, cultural and political dynamics, you are throwing all opportunities for nuance out the window.

Identifying someone as woke effectively assigns them a badge. Since black-and-white thinking has corrupted our discussions, if you meet the extremely vague requirements for this badge, your viewpoint is incorrect and threatens all that is good in the world. 

People who carelessly throw this term around act as if they are brave heroes defending their kingdom from this “threat.” But ask them to define this threat or their kingdom, and you will get completely different answers.

In his lesser-known essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell further explains why this is a problem. 

Orwell wrote that politicians can easily obscure truth, manipulate emotion and public opinion, and undermine opponents’ ability to address their words through the use of vague and misleading language. To Orwell, foolish thoughts are made easier by “the slovenliness of our language.” 

Blaming the politicians is an easy explanation for this slovenliness present in our discourse. 

Mason Epeneter, chairman of Minnesota College Republicans, said Ron DeSantis is a marketing genius for his weaponization of the term woke. 

“People react strongly to it, whether you agree with it or not,” Epeneter said. 

Because of the reactions it elicits from the average political stooge, there is no reason to stop using it. The responsibility ultimately falls on the people to stop letting this word infect our discourse. 

Unfortunately, everyone is failing tremendously and has been for a while now. Terms like “bleeding heart,” “PC” and “hippie” have been around forever. Woke has only been the next evolution of this trend and, like the other terms, will eventually be replaced by something else.

It is hard not to believe our discourse has reached a point of no return, but that does not mean we should accept it. 

“If one gets rid of these habits, one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration,” Orwell wrote.

The dynamics surrounding the word woke are prevalent on both sides of the spectrum, just with different words. The same people who might admonish the usage of the word woke will not hesitate to label someone a sexist, racist, fascist or even Nazi. 

This deliberate lack of specificity is disingenuous on both sides and only serves to vilify likely well-meaning people. 

If thoughtful political, social and cultural dialogue is what you desire, then I implore you to think twice before using woke or any similar terms.

Each year in February, the United States observes Black History Month, which aims to honor the contributions and recognize the sacrifices and history of African Americans. 

President Gerald Ford first recognized February as Black History Month in 1976. It falls in February due to the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, who both made contributions to Black history by being leaders in the effort to end slavery. 

Dawn York-Bentley, president of the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA) at the University of Minnesota, has seen many changes at the University which provided resources to help Black students navigate college. 

Some changes include the hirings of Angel Uddin, the director of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office, and Mercedes Ramirez-Fernandez, the vice president of the Office of Equity and Diversity, York-Bentley said. 

Another change includes the implementation of the University’s Martin Luther King program, which is an academic and advising program committed to social justice education, according to York-Bentley. 

“If it weren’t for the African American Studies department, there would be a lot of things that I don’t think would be happening,” York-Bentley said. “There were resources, no matter what it was you needed, you could go to them and get that help, particularly as a person of color.” 

York-Bentley, who graduated from the University with a degree in African American and African Studies, said she felt she belonged at the University because of the program’s existence. 

She added she hopes to be a voice to other Black people by connecting with them about different topics. 

“We want to help give you a guide to help navigate being in this system,” York-Bentley said. “[We want to] encourage you that as long as you have this as a foundation and an organization to connect with, you can make it in this institution.” 

Black History Month is a time to celebrate Black culture and give other people an opportunity to learn more about the culture. It also gives people a chance to learn about Black people’s contributions to society and move away from a place of tolerance, according to York-Bentley. 

She said the murder of George Floyd in 2020 shifted her tolerance of educating others about the historic treatment of Black people. 

“It made me see myself more and made me want to be clear on who I am and what I’ve worked for,” York-Bentley said. 

Nyanak Gatpan, a fourth-year health and wellbeing sciences student, said growing up in Albert Lea, Minnesota, a predominantly white city, made her feel uncomfortable in her own skin. 

After spending her first year of college remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she moved to Minneapolis in 2021, where she noticed a change in how Black people are treated compared to her hometown. 

“My family was one of the very few African families living there,” Gatpan said. “I noticed the reactions of people from my hometown about the protests and social justice initiatives and we were not met with openness and [people] were anti-Black.” 

Gatpan, who is a first-generation college student, said the main reason she chose to attend the University is because of the large African community on campus. 

“I wanted to make sure that I was able to be in a community where there’s people that have similar identities to me,” Gatpan said. 

Gatpan said she utilizes the student organizations located on the second floor of Coffman Union as spaces to connect, such as the Black Student Union and the African Student Association. 

To Gatpan, being a Black woman is a unique experience that cannot be described to someone else unless they feel it. 

“I love being a Black woman because of the sisterhood,” Gatpan said. “No one has gotten me like a sister would. We’re supportive of one another, we build a community, we build a bond.” 

Khalid Mohamed, a second-year journalism student, said being Black means finding a way even when things are difficult. 

“You have to find the best from the worst, and in order to do that, you work extremely hard in order to reach a goal that people don’t have to work as hard for,” Mohamed said. 

Another important part of being Black to Mohamed is being able to speak up about issues and injustices with no fear. 

“This won’t end until we bring our voices out,” Mohamed said. “We’re not going to take it anymore. We’re gonna call it out for what it is and you’re going to listen to us.” 

Growing up, Mohamed did not understand why injustices were happening. As he got older, he realized the importance of talking about Black injustices and began participating in protests. 

“Being Black to me also means that you understand the struggles of everyone else,” Mohamed said. “When you see the oppression of other people, you stand in solidarity with that too.” 

Mohamed said February is not the only time to learn about the history of Black people, but learning about Black history, which spans over thousands of years, can happen daily.

“It’s important for people to understand what is the history of Black people, why do Black people come together and try to resist in the face of adversity,” Mohamed said. “Black History Month is 365 days a year.”

The long-awaited return of Annie’s Parlour will begin Thursday as the restaurant will partially reopen indoor dining after its closure in March 2020.

Annie’s is gradually reopening, now with an entirely new staff that is still being trained.

Annie’s has been open for take-out for malts and shakes for two weeks and is hoping to have limited open indoor dining on Thursday with a shortened menu of burgers, fries, malts and shakes, according to Annie’s owner Tom Rimarcik. 

Annie’s is owned by Tom and Tony Rimarcik, who also own various other businesses in the cities including Monte Carlo, Runyon’s, Kitty Cat Klub and the St. Anthony Main Theatre. They have not decided if they will reopen Kitty Cat Klub, but if they do, it will look very different than before.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tom and Tony renovated the interior of the building, including the kitchen. The brothers and their father, John Rimarcik, had always planned to reopen Annie’s, according to Tom. 

They were able to reopen Monte Carlo and Runyon’s after COVID-19, though John became ill and passed away before they could reopen Annie’s, Tom said. Tom and Tony decided to continue with the reopening.

“We’re very excited about it all,” Tom said. “Having grown up in this place amongst a couple of others, it’s kind of an honor to be able to do this.”

Annie’s has always tried to keep its prices as affordable as possible, according to Annie’s manager Elliott Schofield, who has worked with the Rimarcik family since 2011.

“That was really John’s vision,” Schofield said. “If he could have, he would have opened restaurants and given food away for free to everybody.”

Annie’s Parlour opened in 1974 and was a Dinkytown staple for many generations. People can expect to see the same menu as before they closed. The restaurant offers 16 flavors, with the option to mix two for each shake or malt.

People visiting the University of Minnesota look for a nostalgic feel when they come onto campus, and Annie’s gives them that opportunity, said Kent Kramp, president of the Dinkytown Business Association and owner of the Dinkytown Raising Cane’s. 

Kramp said Annie’s has a unique local and historic feel that other businesses cannot offer. While other businesses display local community graphics, Annie’s naturally creates that local feeling.

“A place like Annie’s Parlour, they’ve been around for so long, so they just have stuff that they’ve put up over the years that are now vintage, which is pretty cool,” Kramp said. 

Greta Foster, a fourth-year student at the University, said she remembers going to Annie’s all the time as a kid since her dad also went to the University, but it has been closed since she became a student and she is hoping to make up for lost time.

“I loved how wholesome and cozy Annie’s is, so when I was planning on going to college, a reason I wanted to go to the UMN was because I loved Annie’s,” Foster said. “I thought it would be so fun to get fries and malts with all my college friends.”

Schofield said working at Annie’s will allow him to make someone’s day every day.

“Someone’s going to come in here and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t been here since 1984,’” Schofield said. “And they’re just thrilled that we’re back open.”

Annaliesa Diekvoss, a fourth-year student at the University, said there are not many restaurants in the area like Annie’s. 

“It’s really nice to have that continuity and have that little connection even though it’s decades apart. It’s still the same,” Diekvoss said. 

Diekvoss said she is excited to go there to share old memories with her mom, a University alumn, and make new ones with her friends.

Kramp said the return of Annie’s is a good flash from the past for the neighborhood.

“Annie’s Parlour, it’s a gem,” Kramp said. “The way it’s set up, having to walk up the stairs, you feel like you’re taking a step back into history in a good way.”

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Image by Laura Bloomberg (courtesy)

The Board of Regents presented four finalists for the position of the 18th President of the University of Minnesota at their Feb. 9 meeting and elected to invite three of them to all five campuses for public interviews.

The finalists were referred to as candidates “A,” “ B,” “C” and “D” for the duration of the meeting. Though the names of candidates “A,” “B” and “C” were revealed later that afternoon, the fourth candidate remains anonymous since they were not invited to campus for public interviews.

Chair of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee (PSAC) Mary Davenport said the committee originally had twelve candidates they wanted to move on to the final round. To lower the candidate pool, PSAC chose the four finalists the committee voted on unanimously.

“[The PSAC] was a really exceptional team coming together with the same goal,” Davenport said. “Nobody was afraid to give or receive feedback on any ideas that were said.”

Who is Laura Bloomberg?

Candidate “A” is Laura Bloomberg, the current president of Cleveland State University (CSU) in Ohio.

“It is a true honor to serve as CSU’s eighth president,” Bloomberg said. “There is only one other position at one other institution that could possibly speak to my heart as much as CSU does, and that is my alma mater, the University of Minnesota.”

Bloomberg spent just under 15 years working for the Humphrey School of Public Affairs (HSPA) at the University and began as a professor in 2007. From 2012 to 2017, she served as the associate dean before being promoted to dean for her four remaining years with HSPA.

As dean, Bloomberg took HSPA global by establishing a national pathway program for underrepresented college students and launching an internationally focused human rights degree. HSPA was ranked as a national top 10 public affairs program when Bloomberg served as dean.

Bloomberg earned her doctorate in educational policy and administration at the University before becoming a faculty member.

During the February meeting, several regents noted Bloomberg’s experience with diversity, equity and inclusion and building partnerships within a community. Regent James Farnsworth said Bloomberg’s background would make her a strong partner in developing a new system plan past MPact 2025, which ends this year.

Who is Rebecca Cunningham?

Candidate “B,” Rebecca Cunningham, is the current vice president for research and innovation at the University of Michigan (U-M).

In her current role, Cunningham led the design and implementation of the first comprehensive review of the U-M research enterprise. This expanded the amount of money U-M received for research to $1.86 billion annually.

Cunningham served as a faculty member at U-M, a peer school to the University of Minnesota, for 25 years. Before stepping into her current role five years ago, she worked in varying education, research and administrative positions, like the director of the CDC-funded U-M Injury Prevention Center.

In an email statement to The Minnesota Daily, Cunningham wrote she was honored to be considered a finalist for the position of the University’s 18th president.

“I have developed a profound admiration for the important role that public universities play in serving our communities,” Cunningham said. “Great public universities, like the University of Minnesota, have a unique responsibility to support and educate students across diverse disciplines so they can build a brighter future for generations to come.”

Cunningham said this is an important time for the University community, and she looks forward to meeting students and faculty across all five campuses.

Who is James Holloway?

Candidate “C,” James Holloway, currently serves as the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico (UNM).

On top of his current role as provost, Holloway works as a professor of nuclear engineering at UNM. Before starting work at UNM, Holloway spent 29 years in various roles at U-M.

Holloway was a professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences for the entirety of his time at U-M. He took on additional duties as the vice provost for global engagement in 2013 and remained in both positions until he left.

According to Holloway, he built relationships with state lawmakers by meeting with them personally before asking for any funding. He said building relationships with lawmakers led to more benefits for UNM, like more funding for faculty salaries.

“Universities are people organizations,” Holloway said. “Really when we think about our success as an institution or our ability to serve the state, the support of faculty, staff and students too is critically important.”