“You can’t wait for the well-intentioned people to make up their minds that your life has value or to figure out how to save you.”
– Justin Ellis
Minnesota Nice? In this conversation about The Cruelty of Nice Folks (HarperCollins Publishers 2026), Justin observes “part of the way White Supremacy works is convincing you that your family’s survival story isn’t remarkable.”
LISTEN
In this powerful hometown conversation, journalist Justin Ellis returns to Minneapolis to discuss his debut book, The Cruelty of Nice Folks: Why Minneapolis Is the Story of America. Joined by host Lissa Jones, Ellis unpacks the contradiction at the heart of Minnesota’s reputation: how a place celebrated for progressivism, politeness, and quality of life can also produce some of the nation’s deepest racial disparities.
Drawing from history, personal family stories, and the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Ellis examines the hidden costs of “Minnesota Nice,” the legacy of housing segregation, the concentration of power and wealth, and the ways white politeness can prevent meaningful reckoning with injustice. Through a deeply personal exploration of Black life in Minneapolis, Ellis challenges listeners to move beyond comfort, confront difficult truths, and imagine a more honest future.
This conversation is a meditation on memory, power, belonging, and the enduring resilience of Black families who built lives and communities despite systems designed to exclude them.
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LEARN
Author Justin Ellis references the Mapping Prejudice Project at the University of Minnesota as being critical to his research. Learn more …
READ
Ellis talks about the Tilsenbilt Homes development in Minneapolis and the role of Archie Givens Sr. in creating affordable housing for Black families in Minneapolis. Learn more …
WATCH
Why does Minnesota suffer through some of the worst racial disparities in the nation? One answer is the spread of racist, restrictive real estate covenants in the early 20th century. Jim Crow of the North, a PBS Documentary, directed by Daniel Pierce Bergin, charts the progression of racist policies and practices from the advent of restrictive covenants after the turn of the last century to their final elimination in the late 1960s.
Ellis talks about Dr. Brittany Lewis saying “she’s been doing a lot of interesting work for a while now that looks at how you do this work in community,” When organizations take on social problems, from school reform to conservation to healthcare disparities, community members are sometimes “invited to the table” to share their insights. But if the table has already been set with institutional assumptions about the issue at hand, the solutions that emerge often have little to do with the people and places they are meant to help. When this is the case, inclusion can only go so far: as Dr. Brittany Lewis argues, it’s time to build a new table. Visit her website.
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Unbury Minnesota Black history!