On Monday, May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black man and member of the Minneapolis community died in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department when he was pinned to the ground by his neck by a white police officer. Floyd was stopped for a non-violent forgery charge when police detained and killed him. The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) believes the violence committed against Floyd, and the many other people of color by police officers, is unacceptable. We offer our condolences to Floyd’s community, his family, and to the Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC) in our communities who experience systemic violence and trauma when events like this one continue to happen.
As we grieve and follow the lead of the Black community in Minneapolis, MCN continues to support our nonprofit members and the groups working to respond to and support those affected by this tragic event. We know the greatest disparities in our state are linked to race, and race and ethnicity lie at an intersection with many other identities – without justice for this act, and policies, procedures, and spaces that center the safety of BIPOC communities, our vision that nonprofit organizations accomplish their missions for a healthy, cooperative, and just society, cannot be achieved.
MCN is a nonprofit member organization, with ~40 percent of its membership located in Hennepin County. That means today, and in the coming weeks, 882 nonprofits, whose staff on top of responding to a global pandemic and innovating service delivery models because of catastrophic revenue loss and social distancing procedures, are now also mourning, organizing, and taking action to ensure justice for George Floyd is realized.
MCN will continue to offer updates as we have them, and we urge you to support and follow guidance from nonprofit organizations like Pillsbury United Communities, Leaders of Color Collective, Black Visions Collective, Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment, Voices for Racial Justice, Headwaters Foundation for Justice, and many other organizations who work to ensure we live in a world where violence against people because of the color of their skin ends.
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MCN's strategic priority to advance equity and justice: https://www.minnesotanonprofits.org/docs/default-source/i-e/updated-strategic-priority.pdf?sfvrsn=b67a8cc1_2