In March of 2022, Minneapolis City Council hired Black racial activist Tyestia Green as the city’s Director of the Minneapolis Department of Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.
Now she has been forced to resign for costing taxpayers $500k+ on top of her department’s annual $1,200k budget. City spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie says March 13th was Green’s final day.
Tyestia Green put on the “I Am My Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams Expo,” which was supposed to celebrate Black Pride and pump up local Black-owned businesses. It was held on February 25th. She got the city to put up money for it by claiming the Archibald Bush Foundation would fund the event. Green told city council that the foundation pledged to give one million annually for three years to hold the event from 2023 to 2025. She also claimed that around 20,000 people would attend.
At least three Black members of the Minneapolis City Council publicly promoted the event.
At a hearing on February 17th, it became apparent that Green had not actually secured any sponsors. The Archibald Bush Foundation said they never pledged anything. In fact, they say Tyestia Green never even asked them for money. The city ended up spending over a half million in taxpayer dollars. Most of the money came from federal Covid-19 relief funds and the Minneapolis contingency fund. Then, eight days later, barely anyone came when the event took place. Multiple video clips show nothing but an empty exhibition hall.
The local ABC affiliate interviewed a vendor who said attendance appeared to be fewer than 100 people. The station claims numerous local Black-owned business lost thousands of dollars by participating.
Notes:
The Minneapolis Department of Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging was created to pump taxpayer dollars into the far-left activist community by creating taxpayer-funded “bureactivists.” An official government website says the city spends over $1.2 million on the department’s budget annually. Of that, over $700k is just for salaries and wages.
Archibald Bush was part of 3M. The foundation gives out tens of millions per year in grants. The corporation 3M has flooded the Black racial activist community with money. During the murderous nationwide BLM riots in 2020, the company pledged $50 million for Black causes. Much of this was earmarked directly for the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. Despite tens of Billions pledged for Black causes by the corporate world, no amount of money seems to be enough.
Video clips of the “20,000 person event” show a band performing to a few children in an otherwise empty venue. They would have had more spectators playing at a local bar.
