Ghost of a Chance

I grew up two blocks from the house where the couple who’s story is told lived. I am a white person who just thought I grew up in a “middle class neighborhood,” and had no idea I was there because Black people had been pushed out. I then went to the high school in the neighborhood where they ended up, years after they spent their final days watching a new freeway destroy the neighborhood to which they were sent. This is a powerful story of the fallacy we hold in Minneapolis that we are not like the Jim Crow south. We are exactly the same.

I didn’t expect to listen, let alone become so engaged, but this podcast left a lasting impact. It was a powerful reminder of the resilience of Black communities and the ongoing fight for justice and equality. I walked away feeling informed, inspired, and deeply moved—grateful that I had taken the time to hear this story in full.

Mrs. Clementine Robinson, and her husband Mr. Harry Robinson, are folx deserving of a legacy. This podcast has given voice to a story that would otherwise have just been forgotten to time. There are moments in the show where White complicity and racial neoliberalism make me cringe. For what it is, the show is an elegy to the disenfranchised in Minneapolis (and the surrounding communities). It would be appropriate for the show to purchase a headstone for Mrs. Robinson. To have found her will, to know her story, and to leave her grave unmarked is wrong. The Tribune has the resources to purchase a proper headstone for this woman, and should as payment for the engagement gained through the telling of her story.

It is a very interesting story and unlike any podcast that I have listened to but the narrator is tone deaf to racism in America. I am disappointed by how little you know about the African American difficult experience with racism. Did you think racism just didn’t exist? I have to be honest here and say I was disgusted by how many times you said “I had no idea” or “I did not know this side of Minnesota existed.”