Discrimination is common nationwide—and even more so for Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian Minnesotans
Photo credits: Mark Zdechlik, Evan Frost, Tom Baker | MPR News
Discrimination is common nationwide—and even more so for Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian Minnesotans
by CRAIG HELMSTETTER | Oct. 28, 2021
Minnesota is home to some of the nation’s worst race-based disparities in employment and homeownership—and it is where George Floyd was murdered at the hands of police, sparking a national reckoning. Could that be because discrimination is worse in Minnesota?
According to one recent survey the answer is: Quite possibly, yes.
While Minnesota is a highly-educated and relatively left-leaning state, the APM Research Lab’s recent Minnesota’s Diverse Communities Survey suggests that some forms of discrimination may be even more prevalent in the “star of the north” than in the U.S. as a whole.
We may not have a perfect “Honeycrisp apples to Honeycrisp apples” comparison of discrimination in Minnesota versus the rest of the nation, but we are at least able to compare very similar varietals. In 2017, Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health Teamed up with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Public Radio to conduct a major survey titled Discrimination in America.
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The Minnesota’s Diverse Communities Survey replicates several questions from the Harvard/RWJF/NPR survey, albeit within the context of a different questionnaire—and after a four-year time lag. Data collection for both studies was done by SSRS of Glen Mills Pennsylvania, with the national study relying on telephone interviews and the Minnesota survey relying largely on address-based sampling involving targeted mailings that encouraged people to use a unique login to fill out a survey online.
The major takeaway from comparing the two studies: In no case across 32 comparisons were rates of discrimination significantly lower in Minnesota than the U.S. at large. In fact, in 15 of the comparisons, discrimination appears to be even more common in Minnesota than the already high rates observed nationally.
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The comparisons include four questions concerning the perception of racial and ethnic discrimination and another four questions about personal experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination, asked of representative samples of four different populations: Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian adults.
All of the comparisons are detailed in the appendix below, but notable findings include:
Proportion of Black adults reporting personally experiencing racial discrimination when applying for jobs: 56% nationally and 70% in Minnesota.
Proportion of Indigenous adults reporting personally experiencing racial discrimination when trying to secure housing: 17% nationally and 50% in Minnesota.
Proportion of Latinx adults who believe that the police discriminate against the Latinx population: 60% nationally and 77% in Minnesota.
Proportion of Asian adults who believe that discrimination against Asians exists in the housing market: 29% nationally and 50% in Minnesota
Alyson Clary summarizes some key survey findings related to policing.
Part of the difference between the national and Minnesota survey results may be tied to a national rise in discrimination over 4 years between the two studies, which included a heightened awareness of racial issues due to the widespread response to George Floyd’s murder. Gallup, for example, presents some mixed evidence of small increases in reports of unfair treatment reported by Black Americans over the past few years. Additionally, there were widespread reports of increases in hate crimes against Asian Americans in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Still, these increases were much smaller in magnitude than some of the percentage point gaps between the U.S. and Minnesota surveys cited just above.
Some respondents to the Minnesota survey think that ending discrimination and racism is of paramount importance to the state’s future. For example, when asked “If there is one thing you would like to see changed in Minnesota to improve our state, what would that be?” a 46-year-old female Hmong respondent answered, “Racism, prejudices, discrimination, unfair treatment for non-white people.”
A 54-year-old Black male noted that the state needed “education regarding the colonial history of Minnesota and the country, how slavery, genocide of indigenous peoples have contributed to systemic discrimination in education, housing, criminal justice, wealth creation.” Education, however, might not be the solution, at least as it exists in the state today. The Minnesota survey also found that only 30% of BIPOC adults feel that children from their racial or ethnic background have the same opportunities as afforded to White students in the state’s K-12 public schools.
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discrimination more frequently in Minnesota than nationwide
The only group that reported experiencing lower rates of racial discrimination in Minnesota when compared with its counterparts in the nation as a whole? Whites.
In sum, given that the overall comparison between the Discrimination in America and Minnesota’s Diverse Communities surveys suggests that no BIPOC population has it easier in Minnesota, and that many in Minnesota may actually face more difficulties with discrimination, the state may do well to heed the words of one 66-year-old Black male survey respondent who stated that above all Minnesota needs “better policies for enforcement against discrimination and systemic racism.”
Appendix
A detailed comparison of the two surveys, along with limited contextual information about how populations in Minnesota differ from those elsewhere in the country.
Jump to a specific section:
Black Minnesotans
Indigenous Minnesotans
Latinx Minnesotans
Asian Minnesotans
White Minnesotans
Black Minnesotans: Higher proportions perceiving employment, police and housing discrimination; higher incidence of employment discrimination
Demographic context: Minnesota has a relatively small Black population. According to the 2020 Census, 8.5% of the state’s population identifies as “Black or African American,” which ranks 28th among states and notably below the proportion of the national population that identifies as Black (either alone or in combination with other racial and ethnic identification), 14.2%.
Minnesota’s Black population also differs from most other states in the high proportion of immigrants and refugees included in the mix. For example, our deep dive into 2017 Census Bureau race and ancestry data showed that nationally, 72% of the Black population claims a heritage of “African American” with the second most common heritage being Mexican (11%). Among Minnesota’s Black population, by contrast, only 49% identify as “African American,” followed by the 17% who identify as Somali; another 6% identifies as Ethiopian. These two groups register less than 1% apiece among the national Black population.
Survey findings: As shown in the graph below, virtually all Black Minnesotans believe that the state’s Black population is regularly subject to employment and police discrimination, and a majority indicate that they have personally experienced racial discrimination in the job and housing markets as well as by the police—and from fellow Minnesotans in the form of racial slurs.
Indigenous Minnesotans: Proportion perceiving discrimination in employment, policing and housing higher than nationwide findings; higher incidence of employment, police and housing discrimination
Demographic context: There are 11 federally recognized tribes in Minnesota, as well as the Little Earth urban Indian community in Minneapolis. Similar to the nation as a whole, just under 3% of Minnesotans identify as Native American, American Indian or Indigenous according to the 2020 Census.
Nationally 15% of the Indigenous population also identifies as Mexican, with African American (8%) being the second most common heritage claimed by those identifying as Indigenous. In Minnesota the most common heritage claimed by the Indigenous population is Chippewa or Ojibwe (35%), followed by German (10%), Mexican (9%) and Sioux (7%). (See more from our Roots Beyond Race project.)
Survey findings: As noted in the graph below, both the perceptions and personal experiences of racial discrimination is much higher among Minnesota’s Indigenous population than reported by the national survey four years earlier.
Some of the difference may have to do with a relatively small sample size for this group. Indigenous was the smallest of the five groups represented in both surveys: most of the national results are based on a sample of 175 Indigenous respondents and there were 170 Indigenous respondents to the Minnesota survey.
Still, it may be that conditions on the ground are much worse in Minnesota than elsewhere. According to data assembled by Wilder Research, for example, the employment rate for American Indians in Minnesota ranks 9th lowest in the nation.
Latinx Minnesotans: Higher proportions perceiving employment and police discrimination; other perceptions and incidence tied with the national Latinx population
Demographic context: According to the 2020 Census, only 6.1% of Minnesota’s population identifies as Hispanic or Latinx, that is the 14th lowest in the nation and about one-third the national proportion (18.7%). As is the case nationally, an overwhelming majority of Latinx Minnesotans claim Mexican heritage (65% nationally and 70% in Minnesota).
Survey findings: A notably higher proportion of Minnesota’s Latinx population perceives there to be discrimination against Latinx Minnesotans in the job market and by the police than is the case nationally. However, statistically similar proportions of Latinx adults indicate personally experiencing slurs, and ethnic discrimination in the job and housing markets as well as by the police.
Racial or ethnic housing discrimination is about 6 times more common among Latinx adults nationally than it is for White adults, and about 9 times more common among Latinx Minnesotans than it is among White Minnesotans.
Asian Minnesotans: Higher proportions perceiving employment, police and housing discrimination; incidence of discrimination tied with the national Asian American population
Demographic context: Minnesota has the nation’s 14th largest Asian population proportionally among states, at 6.3%—but that is still less than the national proportion, 7.2%, driven by the large Asian populations in larger states like California and New York.
The ancestry and cultural heritage of Minnesota’s Asian population is quite different than the rest of the nation. The largest heritage group among Minnesota’s Asian population is Hmong (27%), followed by Asian Indian (16%), Chinese (13%), and Vietnamese and Korean (9% each). Nationally, 23% of the Asian population is Chinese, followed by Asian Indian (20%). Hmong Americans only make up 1.4% of the national Asian population.
Survey findings: As the graph below shows, substantially higher proportions of Minnesota’s Asian population perceive racial discrimination to exist against Asians in Minnesota’s job and housing markets as well as by the police, than was reported in the earlier national survey. The prevalence of personal experiences of discrimination reported by Asian adults were not statistically different between the two surveys.
In the Minnesota’s Diverse Communities Survey, unlike the national survey, we are able to split out the Asian respondents into those identifying as Hmong and “other Asians.” Larger proportions of Hmong Minnesotans report both perceiving and personally experiencing discrimination than is the case among other Asians. Nonetheless, non-Hmong Asian Minnesotans do perceive and personally experience discrimination at much higher rates than White Minnesotans.
White Minnesotans: Higher proportion perceiving employment discrimination; lower incidence of experiencing slurs and employment discrimination
Demographic context: Minnesota is a relatively White state, ranking 13th in the nation with 76% identifying as “non-Hispanic White” compared to 58% nationally according to the 2020 Census. Similar to the rest of the nation, German is the single largest heritage group among non-Hispanic Whites in Minnesota, but more non-Hispanic Whites identify as Norwegian (17%) and Swedish (9%) in Minnesota than is the case nationally (2% for each group).
Survey findings: While the proportion of White adults who either perceive discrimination against Whites or who have directly experienced racial discrimination is lower than all other racial and ethnic groups in either survey, it is notable that a sizeable proportion of White adults feel that there is discrimination against them.
When we look at the different social and economic characteristics of White survey respondents that could be related to perceptions and experiences of discrimination, two characteristics in particular jump out: educational attainment and political affiliation. Whites without a college degree are more likely to perceive discrimination against Whites and to have themselves experienced discrimination than is the case among Whites with a college degree, and White Republicans are even more likely to perceive discrimination against Whites than are White Democrats.
The Discrimination in America survey found that “Roughly two-thirds of whites without a college degree believe that discrimination against whites exists, while 38% of whites with a college degree or more agree.” The difference between White Republicans and White Democrats at the national level was even more stark: 74% versus 28% perceiving discrimination against Whites.
While experiences of discrimination against Whites is less prevalent in Minnesota, the same sort of discrepancy exists. For one example: 39% of White Republicans in Minnesota report being called by a “racial or ethnic slur or other negative word,” compared to 18% of White Democrats. Another example: 13% of White Republicans report being victims of racial discrimination when applying for jobs, compared to only 6% of White Democrats in Minnesota.
Technical note: the percentages experiencing employment and housing discrimination reported from the Minnesota’s Diverse Communities Survey differ here from the main survey report on discrimination. That is because we have excluded those who voluntarily reported never having applied for a job or never having sought housing to better align the findings with those reported from the Discrimination in America survey.