...But I do believe Floyd's murder challenged white people in Minnesota to make a decision about who they want to be. It is not the first time. White people here have always had an opportunity to address the damage created by their privilege and power. In a difficult year for all, however, I've learned this exercise is futile unless we offer one another room for growth — albeit time-sensitive growth.

After everything white Minnesotans have read and discussed and digested over the last year, I am left with one question: What will white people do now? The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said true freedom would not materialize "until there is a committed empathy on the part of the white man of this country." That's the first ingredient for equity in Minnesota, too.

(snip)

To discuss the next steps, I contacted some of the area's most powerful white leaders a year after Floyd's murder: Commissioner King; Gov. Tim Walz; Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey; Dr. Penny Wheeler, CEO of Allina Health; Glen Gunderson, president of the YMCA of the North; University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel and General Mills CEO Jeff Harmening.

I wanted to interrogate their intentions and know more about their choices, changes and decisions during this painful year, beyond the news releases and talking points.