Minneapolis cancels meetings segregated by race

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis officials have canceled meetings of city employees segregated by race to mark the 400th anniversary of slavery in North America.

Fliers promoting three sessions through July have been taken down at City Hall. The lunch-hour meetings were to be segregated by race for black and white city employees.

City Coordinator Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde said she had called off the sessions. The Star Tribune reported she indicated the meetings would be rescheduled, but said the city does not condone dividing people “based on race, ethnicity or any other protected class.”

Rivera-Vandermyde told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the intent of the meetings was not to create division, but that her staff intended to create “spaces of healing.” She says there is no timeline for rescheduling the sessions.

Minneapolis Urban League President Steven Belton says he thinks separate sessions for black and white people would be productive.