Resistance Book Club: The Cruelty of Nice Folks

About this event

Comma, a bookshop - A revelatory look at one of America’s most progressive cities—Minneapolis—as journalist Justin Ellis returns to his hometown to grapple with the quiet history of white supremacy in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, uncover his family’s story of surviving “Minnesota nice,” and revisit the city years later as state violence again forces the question of what a real reckoning looks like. It’s the “North,” they like to say, not the Midwest. It’s different. Minneapolis is a city for everyone. But in 2020, George Floyd’s murder by the city’s police left many Americans stunned and wondering, “How could this happen in Minneapolis?” To Ellis, the real question is: What made people think it couldn’t? The Minneapolis Justin Ellis grew up in is not the idealistic metropolis it claims to be. The “City of Lakes” was built on discrimination— in its housing, its schools, its politics—much like all other American cities. Black families were systematically cut out of the prosperous neighborhoods, lush

The book

• The Cruelty of Nice Folks

Venue

Comma, a bookshop

4250 Upton Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN

Venue website

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