The Cruelty of Nice Folks: Why Minneapolis Is the Story of America

In this penetrating and moving debut, journalist Ellis examines past and present African American life in his hometown of Minneapolis. Returning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, the author sees the subsequent upheaval not as an aberration but “an unpaid bill long overdue.” He seeks to interrogate the legacy of racial disparity hidden beneath Minneapolis’s guise of good-natured liberalism, drawing on extensive research and on-the-ground reporting to paint a portrait of a city with “a history of disparity that [is] as long as its contributions to the struggle for civil rights.” For example, even though Minnesota banned slavery in 1858 and gave African Americans the right to vote before the 15th Amendment was ratified, they continued to be treated as second-class citizens in Minneapolis, particularly via redlining. Furthermore, the city’s political responses to police brutality and discrimination often “prioritized white feelings over challenging white behavior,” as exemplified by Mayor Hubert Humphrey’s “antibias training” for police, which framed “systemic failures as bad personal behavior.” Ellis’s affecting research into his own family’s history forms the book’s emotional core, as he traces multiple generations who “thrived in spite of the continued failures of the state.” The result is a searing account of Black survival in a city built on broken promises, and a damning view of liberalism as willing to pick and choose when equality is a virtue. (June)