Fargo Workers Caravan Through Downtown Fargo For Racial And Economic Justice

About 20 cars were part of the caravan.

FARGO, N.D – The Northern Plains United Labor Council and the community come together to caravan through downtown Fargo to take action for racial and economic justice.

The message is simple.

“That we can all come together and have this very important, very uncomfortable dialogue and move forward to making positive changes, so we don’t end up in a place like this again,” says West Fargo teacher Christina Nystrom.

A caravan from the F-M Labor Temple through downtown Fargo was the hope to spread that message.

According to the Northern Plains United Labor, there are three crisis facing America right now.

“We have the economic freefall due to the COVID and people losing their jobs. People are worried about paying their mortgage, paying their bills. And then on top of that, we do have that pandemic and people really fearful for going back to work. And then, of course that we’ve been seeing and hearing about, which is finally bubbling to the surface again is those racial injustices that affect our workers,” says Vice President of  Northern Plains United Labor Council, Jenifer Mastrud.

Christina Nystrom is a West Fargo teacher and one of the guest speakers at the event.

She says we need to re-examine the way we teach the next generation about history.

“When I’m teaching my students, the curriculum as is, I am white-washing history. I’m not teaching the truths about Native Americans, I’m not teaching the truths of African Americans and I think it’s wrong,” says Nystrom.

For her, it all starts in the classrooms.

“I often hear that children are too young to talk about race. That’s actually not true. Children understand race and understand differences at a young age. And I think that by not talking about it is how we ended up here,” Nystrom adds.