What does leadership look like when your city is under federal occupation? When ICE agents are killing civilians in your streets? When thousands of your neighbors are being hunted, arrested, and deported—and you're the one people are looking to for answers?In this urgent conversation, Dr. David Johns sits down with Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley, the council's Minority Leader and the first Democratic Socialist to hold leadership on the council. Robin represents Ward 2, home to one of the largest Somali communities in the country, and she's been on the front lines of what's been called the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history: Operation Metro Surge.
Robin doesn't just talk about what happened in Minneapolis—she was there. She was at the scene when Renée Good was killed by federal agents. She's been organizing eviction moratoriums, securing rental assistance, calling for ICE to be abolished, and building communities of care in the middle of a crisis designed to break people.
Most importantly, Robin teaches us about revolutionary love—how Minneapolis chose to lean into care and compassion instead of bitterness when faced with state-sanctioned terror. She shows us what a politics of care looks like: starting with your neighbors, your workplace, your school, your faith community. Building the networks that sustain us when institutions fail us.
Class is in session. And this lesson is for everyone.
CONNECT WITH ROBIN WONSLEY:
- Instagram/Twitter/TikTok/Bluesky: @Robin4MPLS or @RobinForMPLS
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: Robin4MPLS.com
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