Dude, where’s my CHANGE?!

bySteven RenderosWe’re living in a time of dollars and cents.The Great Recession has given us Wall Street bailouts and so many roll-backs to funding that it would make the Wal-Mart emoticon blush.It doesn’t matter if your business is for profit or if your passion leads you to a non-profit,money or the lack thereof, is the only change I’ve been hearing about. Having grown up witha Salvadoran immigrant as a mother, learning to live with limited resources has been a way of life not a fluke once in a lifetime occurrence.Its been in these moments of crisis where I'veexperienced more damage through the pen that writes legislation than as a result of an emptywallet.It seems like a lot of the anti-immigrant laws creeped up in moments of duress.That's why as we enter this perceived optimism of change that I fear the likelihood of historyrepeating itself as economic forces will dictate, as they have in the past, that communities of color, immigrants and Native Americans carry an unfair burden of sacrifice.There are signs in the state of Minnesota that things are already heading in this direction.You need only drive to the Northside of Minneapolis or Frogtown in Saint Paul to see theconsequences of sub-prime lending practices to homeowners of color.Between 2005 and2007 there were 38,077 homes foreclosed in Minnesota, but in neighborhoods where peopleof color make up between 40-50% of the population, foreclosure rates were the highest.Inthe last couple years this state has lost 132,000 jobs and a disproportionate amount of the burden has fallen on African Americans, immigrants, and low income communities.And lastyear, the Governor dismantled theGeneral Assistance Medical Care(GAMC) program,through unallotment, which provided an affordable health care option for 34,000 residents of Minnesota.Just to give you a sense of its impact, last year people of color represented 69%of the visits covered by GAMC.It's amazing to think that by the year 2035,Minnesota's population will be a 1/4 people of color and Native American.When I first arrived in Minnesota to study at Hamline UniversityI was the only person of color in my dorm.Now it seems that demographically we aregrowing and developing at a faster rate than our policies and our budget cuts.Smartlegislation always looks towards the future to create the environment necessary for prosperity, but if the future of this state's prosperity is dependent on the success of communities of color, one has to wonder why communities of color are not at the core of considerations when it comes to shaping policy and making tough budget decisions.At the expense of sounding like a cynic, not all is bad in Minnesota.The2009 OrganizingApprenticeship Project's Legislative Report Card on Race Equityshow some signs of improvement.The report measures the state legislature's progress in passing policy that positively or negatively impacts communities of color.They grade individual legislators aswell as the legislature and governor as a whole.In 2008's report card, both the Governor andLegislature failed.There were also 17 legislators that received the grade of an "A".This past year the Governor and Legislature improved their grade to a "B" and over 31lawmakers received an "A" for leading and supporting racial equity legislation.What doesthis all mean?Racially equitable policy is in fact possible but budget cuts threaten any potential progress and mitigate the success of communities of color.The future of this state