Meet Frizell, Team Higher Ground Minneapolis Alumni

Frizell started running with Mile in My Shoes in the summer of 2019, a few months after arriving at Higher Ground Minneapolis. His consistent presence, big smile and enthusiasm for his teammates quickly made him the de-facto team captain. Since March of this year, Frizell has been residing at a hotel in Bloomington, where he and other aged 60+ Higher Ground guests were moved due to Covid-19 concerns. Frizell “sat down” with Run Mentor Laura B. in the week following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police to discuss the realities of Covid, racial injustice, and his experience with MiMS. 

Note: You will notice that the term “Negro” is used throughout this article, which is the term used and preferred by Frizell. Out of respect for how Frizell self-identifies and to retain the authenticity of his words, MiMS made the decision to retain his wording.

Laura: This has been a really stressful week, on top of a bunch of stressful weeks with the quarantine. How are you doing? 

Frizell: I’m doing good. Really can’t complain. I went three miles this morning, and it was good. Moving every day keeps my blood pressure normal and that’s very good. 

Where are you living?

Right now I’m living at the Holiday Inn in Bloomington. I was living at the Higher Ground shelter but [because of Covid-19] they moved me to the hotel because I’m over 60 years old. I’ll tell you this, never let a crisis go to waste. They’ve got these hotels, the hospitality industry is gone, so these hotels still carry their official names but Hennepin County is housing us in the hotel. We get meals, maid service once a week, we get literally the same service that a hotel guest would receive. There are 200 rooms here and all the rooms are full.

I’m out here in Bloomington so I’m good. I don’t have to worry about everything happening on the street. We’re in a very safe, secure environment. But the busses haven’t been running since [two weeks ago] Thursday and I really need to get downtown to take care of some business, so I hope they are running again soon. All the businesses that burned down on Lake St and Hiawatha and Minnehaha and Cedar, all those businesses are gone and I use that neighborhood a lot for the things I need. Two places where I do business at are going to be down permanently. All those restaurants down there, they’re gone. The pawn shop, I normally stop in down there. There was a computer there that I was going to get. I had discussed purchasing it with the manager and he said for me to wait because he was going to mark it down. And now the whole thing is gone.

Plus now all those jobs at all those businesses are gone. And many of the people that work in that area are Negro, at least 40% of the people working around there. And if the small businesses aren’t hiring people, there’s no jobs. It’s those small businesses that produce the economic opportunities. 

I notice you don’t refer to yourself as “Black” or “African-American” which I typically hear.

I use the word Negro, I don’t want to use the word Black. There are so many types of people who are classified as Black, but we are not all the same. Black people were the first to enslave other Blacks, technically, but while we are cousins, we were not the same people. I am a descendant of slaves, and I want to use a term that reflects that community. Jesse Jackson came up with the term African-American in 1988, and I don’t like that either. Of all the terms we have been called through my lifetime, Negro is more true to what we are - it comes from a Spanish word for Black but meaning “people of God” in the scripture. And if you talk to people and they tell you “people don’t use that term anymore,” you can give them my name and my phone number, I’ll be happy to set them straight!

Got it! So back to the businesses that have been affected, what else has changed?

A problem is that the people who patronize those businesses, they normally walk or ride the bus to get there. Now they have to go further away from home to do their shopping and business. The Target there is where a lot of people in the neighborhood get their fresh produce. They have those fruit cups and salad bowls, you could go in and get healthy food to eat. At the Target or at that Cub Foods. Now you gotta go some good distance to get fresh produce. As for me, I could go by that Target during the day and get some fresh fruit or a small salad. 

And the post office is gone. I never imagined seeing something like this.

Me either. I was a child under ten during the 60’s, and I did see a lot of burned-out stuff then. But I never thought I would see it here in Minneapolis or in the state of Minnesota, or as an adult. 

I have degrees in German and Accounting. To my largest benefit has been studying German philosophy and history. That was my favorite, I studied all that and I learned a lot by doing that. It helped me a lot in the workplace, both philosophy and accounting. Understanding the history of the people that you’re dealing with is essential. A lot of times when I talk with people, I know more about their history than they do. And if you don’t know your history, you’re going to do what you’ve always done. Most people have the same moral and spiritual beliefs of their people had 4000 years ago. So you have to know your history in order to communicate intelligently with your fellow man. The main issue with we Negros in America is, we don’t know our history. We don’t know our history because we can study about every group on earth - their philosophers, heroes, poets, musicians - but we aren’t taught anything about our history. Our history lessons don’t start in 1492 BCE when they should, but they start on the shores of America in 1685.

When you see the same kind of violence happening now as you remember from your childhood, what kind of memories does it bring back to you?

Back then it was really more racism and discrimination based against us having any kind of success. It really set us back so we wouldn’t be able to vote, and they destroyed the Negro businesses so we wouldn’t have an economic base. Sort of Wall Street in reverse. Here in Minnesota, as always when you have this, this time the enemies of this country are the same people who were enemies during that time. They want to destroy our Negro middle class and also make sure they destroy our neighborhoods. That group does not want us to prevail at anything. The whole thing is done to destroy the middle class in America. That is the only stumbling block to slavery of the world, period. The middle class stands between the outright enslavement of the planet, right here in America. If they can do that they can simultaneously break the Negro communities too.  

We never have been compensated for slavery. That’s something that’s never been done. That’s been a real problem. Officially, slavery started April 1, 1555 when Captain Sir John Hawkins sailed a ship named Jesus around the continent of Africa looking for Africans who would be sold into slavery. Initially from the 1500’s when they started trading slaves in the Caribbean, they would just bring over the men. They would work the men to death so most of us died before we were 35 years old. Then they started also bringing over women, and boys and girls. That turned into centuries of physical, psychological, mental, and spiritual trauma. That went until 1865 when the Civil War ended. 

We should have had counseling starting then, to deal with and heal the trauma. Remember, we did not have any literacy. If anyone was found teaching you to read, both of you would be lynched – both the person teaching you, and the person wanting to learn to read. We didn’t know nothing about voting. We were supposed to have all the rights under the Constitution but our divine rights were not upheld. And, we were not given any tools, or any money. We couldn’t do anything further but continue to be slaves, which continued basically up until 1965. We had no spiritual training, and no training of our own history. When something happens, the way we voice our thoughts is through aggression, because we haven’t been given any other way. And that’s not productive. 

Here is an example of why you have to know your history, to understand what is going on now. Back in the 1930’s [during the Great Depression], they passed benefits to help people who were unemployed. But those benefits were not available to us, and we had the highest rate of unemployment in the country. We were unemployed at three times the numbers of whites but we were not allowed to even apply for those benefits. The assistance passed during the Depression, those benefits were not available to us. If you had inquired about it, you would have been lynched for your efforts. They were giving out farm loans and home loans in the 1930’s. One Negro asked for the money for his farm and the amount that he should have got was $200, they put him in jail for applying for the money. 

When we started participating in the Welfare benefits in 1965, in the truce between Dr King and President Johnson, we got all the food stamps and all the welfare that was passed back in the 1930’s, they allowed us to access to that. But they also put some restrictions on it. For a person to get the aid, there could not be an able-bodied male in the house over the age of 17. If there was any man in the house, whether it was a son, a grandson, or whoever, then that house would not qualify for aid. That was the beginning of the destruction of Negro families. 

Remember, technically we got the right to vote shortly after June 1, 1865 but we couldn’t vote because of poll taxes or they wouldn’t let you get to the polls, and they would lynch you for trying to vote. There was no protection. We had rights, theoretically, but they were never enforced. And it is still going on. That’s the reason for all this with George Floyd. What’s happening is the anger, the frustration, the oppression, the racism, of the last 150 years. This is coming to a head. In the instant that happens you have 150 years of history coming to a head at once. 

Where do you see the way forward?

That’s a good question. There’s not going to be a shortcut. There’s not going to be a shortcut. There’s not going to be a shortcut. The problem really has to be solved by the white folks because they are the ones that started this problem by bringing us forcefully to this country and then denying us our rights. This problem does have to be addressed and one day will be addressed, or this country will fall flat. 

Number one, we have to be taught our history. We need to be reintroduced to our original language. We need to be given an associate degree-level education, or at least a high school level education. We need to be taught our culture, we need to be taught our religion. And in this process we need housing and health insurance. 

Let’s talk about Mile in My Shoes. How did you first get involved?

 A friend of mine named Jesse was after me to go running for about two months. So one day I went and signed up. After that it was about two weeks before I made it to a run. I started running because I wanted to improve my health. That’s why I went into the shelter, I wanted to improve my health – my diabetes, my blood pressure. The diabetic medicine is between $600 and $800 a month. The blood pressure medicine is $200 a month. And who can afford that? When I run, I am able to control my blood pressure along with an herbal supplement well enough so I could stop taking the medicine! The running and my diet helps that. With MiMS, my numbers got consistently better.  My blood sugar is under control now too. I feel better now than I have in ten years. 

 Are you doing one of the virtual MiMS teams this summer?

 Oh yes! I’m with Matt and Amakoe and Ashley. 

What are you looking forward to for this summer?

 I’m going to do the 5K race in August. I’ll be training all this month and July. 

You’re training for the Downtown Run Around? What is going to be a challenge for your training this summer?

I’m going to train for the 10K but I’m going to run the 5K. [laughs] I told [another Run Mentor] Ben, he does those 100-mile races and all that crap, and I told him “Ben, you can have that crap.”

Have you set a special goal for the race?

I’m going to try and beat my last time. It was 58 or 59 minutes. I’m going to try and do at least 45 minutes for the 5K. One good thing about running is when you drink a lot of water like I do you get all the toxins out and you can think better.

I think running kind of oxygenates your brain so you can think more clearly.

Yes, it does. You have to be able to think and when you get your body in physical shape, you expand all your options. That’s what MiMS does. MiMS can put a person on the path to recovery, if they stick to it. Also, the running also really diminished my depression by at least 50 to 60 percent. 

Sounds like you’re a lifelong runner now.

Oh, yes. 

You’ve been with MiMS for awhile, and have had the chance to run quite a lot. What’s one of your moments that stands out or a favorite memory? 

Number one, I ran my first official race, which is the Drumstick Dash. That was the first regulation race I ever ran. That was last year on Thanksgiving Day.

That was a cold morning. What kept you going through that cold race?

Jenny! Jenny was my mentor.

She wasn’t going to let you quit. 

No [laughs]. Quite frankly, she was not. 

Sounds like Jenny was a good run mentor for you. What makes a good run mentor?

They realize, I am 66 years old. They are sensitive to the needs that I can’t run like a young person. They are cognizant of the fact that I need to take baby steps first and not overexert myself. 

They tune into what you need?

 Absolutely, yes. 

What is your other favorite memory?

The other one is the banquet.  It was good getting to see all the people that were there. One of the guests, Will [Leer"], he and his wife [Aisha Praught Leer] are elite runners from Colorado and they’re supporters of MiMS. I think that’s very noble. These are people that improve our lives every day, and we don’t even know they exist. 

Frizell, I wish you best of luck with your 45 minute 5K this summer.  And thank you for your insights about history - it spotlights how I need to learn more about the historical context we live in and how it has shaped and defined this past few weeks’ events. I’ll be checking out some of the reading lists that have been circulating and, of course, having more conversations like these with my Mile in My Shoes teammates. “See” you in August!