When the federal Operation Metro Surge began, Minnesotans were ready. And not just because of existing organizing networks that emerged in response to the 2020 uprising or the “Minnesota Nice” cultural roots, but because the events of 2020 reshaped how many white Minnesotans understand — and act upon — their racial identity.
My research focuses on white identity, and I conducted a study on this topic in Minnesota from 2020 to 2023. I began by interviewing 40 white residents of the Twin Cities in February and March of 2020, prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns and George Floyd’s murder. I found a lot of variation in how these individuals interpreted their racial identity — but for many of them, it wasn’t a very important part of how they understood the political world.
George Floyd’s murder was an epistemic disruption. These are disruptive events that can make it hard to remain ignorant of existing power relations, forcing people to take sides, and even influencing the political agenda. In 2020, Minnesota’s stark racial disparities, particularly in the realm of policing, were brought to the surface, making whiteness visible and forcing many whites to make a choice about how they understand and act on their racial position and influencing local and national political agendas, at least in the short term.
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Across the country, the 2020 uprising was inescapable, but especially in the Twin Cities where protests led to the destruction of the Third Precinct police station, deployment of the National Guard, the declaration of a peacetime emergency and a nighttime curfew. I re-interviewed 20 of the original respondents in the summer of 2020 and found that the uprising disrupted white invisibility and blamelessness about racial injustice, even leading some people to participate in acts of interracial solidarity. Yet as the protests of the summer faded, there is some evidence that support for Black Lives Matter diminished among white Americans.
Three years later, in the summer of 2023, I reinterviewed 12 of the original interview respondents to observe shifts in how they understood their racial identity. For some, their whiteness faded back into invisibility — although there was evidence of persistent shifts in the language respondents used about identity, with even weak identifiers paying lip service to the concept of white privilege. But for several respondents, living through the protests in 2020 permanently altered how they understand their racial position. For these respondents, the epistemic disruption of 2020 led to introspection and reflection on whiteness and their position and role in a racially unequal society.
Operation Metro Surge was another epistemic disruption, coming on the heels of community-level trauma from the assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, the murder of children at Annunciation Catholic School, and the lasting impacts of 2020 — still visible in the physical landscape of the city.
The response to the ICE incursion has been a masterclass in grassroots coordination—regular people watching out for their neighbors through both mutual aid and constitutional observing. Churches, unions and small businesses are stepping up. Minnesotans withdrew their cooperation from federal immigration enforcement officials, took the side of vulnerable community members, and have already influenced the political agenda —support for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at a record high.
Related: Trump in 2020 praised Walz for handling of the uprising following murder of George Floyd
I am recruiting respondents for a follow-up study about experiences during Operation Metro Surge. From my initial interviews with white Minnesotans who have been involved in the response in various ways — from driving vulnerable neighbors to work, patrolling in their vehicles, raising money for the rent crisis, delivering groceries — it is clear that the motivation to get involved stems from a deep sense of community and righteous anger at the targeting of immigrants and minorities.
But for some, the motivation to get involved stems from a recognition of white privilege and a feeling responsibility to help. The white introspection of the 2020 protests helped create the conditions for white action in response to ICE Operation Metro Surge.
Geneva Cole (@genevavalerie.bsky.social) is an assistant professor in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona researching identity, racial justice and human rights. She grew up in Como Park, St. Paul.
