When ninth-grader Izzy Middlebrook thinks of her neighborhood in north Minneapolis, the word “community” comes to mind. However, when she tells people where she lives, she’s often met with assumptions about crime and violence. It surprises her that her classmates, especially those who live in a neighboring city, would buy into these stereotypes.
“One time I had a question, ‘Why do you go here then?’ which was kind of wild,” she said.
While these stereotypes are nothing new, with the upcoming presidential election and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s addition to the Democratic ticket, negative comments about violence in Minneapolis have taken center stage again.
During the Sept. 10 presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump accused Harris of supporting the release of criminals who “burned down” Minneapolis during the social unrest following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. In response, many Minneapolis residents posted photos online showing the city intact. Similarly, on Aug. 6, when Harris announced Walz as her running mate, Ohio Senator and Trump’s vice presidential pick JD Vance said Walz “allowed rioters to burn down the streets of Minneapolis.”
Sophomore Adi Narayan, who lives near Uptown in the Kenwood neighborhood, has heard the stereotypes about crime in Minneapolis, as well as the statements from the Trump-Vance campaign. He appreciates that his neighborhood is full of greenery and places to walk and stressed the importance of not overgeneralizing the entire city: “It’s not all just shootings and rough neighborhoods and stuff like that. It’s a mix of places, and it’s not just one thing.”
During the unrest in 2020, Middlebrook remembers the discomfort of seeing military vehicles on her street. However, she believes that politicians exaggerate the extent of the violence perpetuated in the riots, describing the recent comments as “obviously biased, because [they are] coming from politicians who are looking to find flaws and trying to boost their platform,” she said.
In the days after Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, protesters began marching in the streets of Minneapolis and beyond. Walz mobilized the National Guard to Minneapolis on May 28, 2020– three days after Floyd’s killing, as riots had broken out and some businesses had been set on fire. A 2021 daily session report from the Minnesota House of Representatives noted that more than 1,500 businesses across Minneapolis and St. Paul were damaged during riots in May and June 2020, especially those along Lake Street and University Avenue.
Junior Sophie Nguyen recalls that her family was concerned about the riots in 2020, but politicians have misrepresented what people were afraid of.
“It wasn’t fear based off of the protesting. It was more about how we heard that people were coming in from other states or other parts of Minnesota just for the purpose of looting and rioting, and they weren’t there to actually support George Floyd and like that cause in any way,” she said.
Nguyen lives in south Minneapolis, in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood– an area she thinks most people associate with danger and crime. She doesn’t disagree that there are some dangerous parts, but she believes that an area’s reputation doesn’t encompass all of its blocks and residents.
“I can’t take walks outside past my block, just because it’s dangerous. So I would say that it’s not like a dangerous neighborhood, but there are certain aspects of it that can make it dangerous, like certain corners or things like that,” Nguyen said.
Middlebrook wants her classmates and people who don’t live in Minneapolis to see it as any other community. “People act like [Minneapolis is] like this complete culture shock, totally different, like visiting a foreign country, but it’s really not,” she said.
Most of all, Middlebrook takes pride in the way that people in her neighborhood take care of each other: “There’s still a sense of being neighborly. There’s a strong sense of community.”
