Hennepin County's unfair plan to marginalize the black body w/John Woods

On Thursday's program, we start with Mr. John Woods, founder of New Perspectives starts us off on how Hennepin County has an unfair process.

Here's the history: In 2012, 4,161 individuals were approved for chemical dependency treatment in Hennepin County. The Hennepin County review team (based out of the 1800 Chicago Hennepin County Community Services Agency) reviewed these individuals in 2012. Of those, 1,361 (32.7 percent) were classified as African American and approved for chemical dependency treatment. Of those 1,361 African American individuals seeking CD services, New Perspectives received only 48 approvals (6.5 percent).

Woods claims this is not something that only his organization is facing; he says African American Family Services and Turning Point, Inc. have also been victims of this referral process. Woods believes that this flawed referral process, which he identifies as a form of “systematic racism,” was an essential factor in the recent merger of African American Family Services with another agency.

African American Family Services received 42 approvals (5.7 percent). Turning Point Inc. was the only culturally specific program that received numbers that approach reasonable: Turning Point received 122 approvals (16.6 percent). The majority-White owned and operated organizations, Park Avenue and Recovery Resource Center, received the majority of the referrals. Park Avenue received 237 African American approvals (32 percent), and Recovery Resource Center (RRC) received 158 African American approvals (21.5 percent).

• The Minneapolis NAACP has been silent about the recent departures of its exeutive committee.
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• Al Flowers and CSI, what's really going on?
• Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights and Velma Korbel - you need to go!

Join Ronald A. Edwards and Don Allen for this special program.