Why all the shooting in Minneapolis and St. Paul?

This weekend in St. Paul, I heard more sirens than I’ve ever heard in a city with solvable challenges but without the people that understand follow-through. 

By Don Allen, Senior Editorial Columnist - Our Black News 

May 3, 2021 (4:51 PM - CST). 

Minneapolis/St. Paul (Minn.) –By now you’ve heard the news; another black boy shot in north Minneapolis. In St. Paul, several people shot, and the notorious party-house gets riddled with bullet holes. 

The mayors of both cities haven’t a clue; nobody is talking to anyone outside of their DFL circles who might have solid solutions. This is where the failure begins and where the headcount of dead Black men and women will rise. It’s already happening already; more than 17-women shot and consistent gunfire in both hubs. Per capita, the Twin Cities is in pace with Chicago based on the population of Little Chicago (Mpls/St. Paul) - and what's the deal opening up 38th and Chicago? 

The sad unfortunate truth with many Black people who are from poor urban areas is that they fail to accept responsibility for their own actions and constantly blame the system for their oppression. Instead of blaming everybody else for a pitiful and pathetic social collapse, and using ‘race’ as the prime excuse, you should try to be more forthright in addressing the issues and problems that are disrupting and corrupting our communities. It's not them, it's us! 

Millions of Black men and women are being killed by other Black men and women every year…

1) Why is this not being protested against so profusely?

2) Why aren’t “BLM” taking to the streets to speak on the plenty unlawful murders of Black youths by other Black youths?

3) Why aren’t persistent, major steps being taken to prevent the devastating gun violence that affects the hundreds-of-thousands of Black neighborhoods across the country and has been doing so for decades? (Taking weapons away never solves anything.) 

4) Why isn’t this very same anger, rage, and frustration they show to the police force being shown to the multitude of street gangs that plague Black inner cities and that are helping to destroy and obliterate your very own people who you so passionately claim need “justice” and need “protecting”?

5) Why isn’t president Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris addressing this tragedy rather than inciting race wars? 

This is why the overall Black American community will never progress into what it needs to be and why? In 2021, decades after the civil rights movement, the “White Male” is still being blamed for their social/political/economic/professional trials by the Liberals.

Ultimately, if one dresses like a thug and behaves like a thug and they choose to disobey the law, society has every right to treat you like the thug that you have made yourself out to be because this world owes you absolutely nothing in return.

Can White Educators fix the Black-White Achievement Gap in Minnesota?

I understand teachers, EA's and TA's need to be paid more money, but I also understand the process across the board is skewed in favor of one group, one opinion, and one direction. I feel uncomfortable having people to think I would participate in a strike because of money. I don't want any parent or community member think I'm in the classroom for money and not to teach their children. Yes, I've learned how to live on $58 dollars until the next payday while making sure all my bills are paid, but I think if there wasn't a gap, and all students were performing and proficient at levels of 70 to 90-percent I'm sure the money-gate would open?

By Don Allen, Senior Editorial Columnist   

Don Allen - I have solutions, but who can I get
to listen in a state where historical assumptions
trump a solid ideas and work-ethic...sorry, I
just look like this. 

The most sensible answer is no. Before I dive into this head-first, we all must come to terms with the current situation in that many Black and Brown scholars are sitting in public school classrooms static; without station or agency in many buildings. The achievement gaps have risen to a point of no return and unless we try something different, the gaps will continue in this time of sensitivity and people being offended by everything, please don’t let my continued support of Black education and degrees be turned into a weapon of racism and hate by you…we have already have enough of that to go around. The data proves public schools are failing miserably. Parents know best and it’s time to let them decide where kids go and take the power away from the Teachers Unions set to strike. We must develop a system that surpass the current public schools in education outcomes for our children.

As an educator in the local public-school system I am bombarded with racial inferences that make me qualify myself, wear masks, and try to fit into a system that I am fully qualified to be in, but historical assumptions of the Black male educator makes what comes out of my mouth in support of education for all students that I teach is mostly received as arrogance from me; how dare me have Master’s degrees; how dare me make a suggestion about our processes in Professional Learning Communities.  How dare me make a space inside of an educational institution ruled by White privilege, where I am viewed as an enemy of a sacred realm, one that I should have never been a part of. Follow me closely here – I am not a victim, nor do I need to be treated as one, but when young Black students ready to graduate in 2020 come to me with tears in their eyes and say they did not get into local (MN) colleges because of their SAT scores, it triggers me to think we (educators in secondary systems) must do something very different and new.  

Recently, I had a great conversation with another Black male educator in parallel school district – I asked him what he thought about an all-Black and Brown public school? Not a charter school, but a full-blast Saint Paul or Minneapolis Public School with a focus on the Black and Brown body in literature, math, science, theory, and all of the disciplines and a few added that are in today’s Twin Cities public schools.  We might not need a bunch of social workers focused on ‘dealing with trauma’ because we can take trauma and use it as a driver to change outcomes for scholars in this much needed school construct. Then I asked a Caucasian colleague. The question brought mysterious and racially-charged comments of “What if there was an all-white school?” – to “You want segregation?” The main challenge and opposition was that segregating Black and Brown students from White students within a public school and championing education versus an achievement gap is somehow racist, and that racism – for the most part was perpetrated by White privilege. Many White educators that I spoke with questioned why an all-Black and Brown school was needed first place, and heinous act of privilege.  

Following the advice of Herb Shepard’s “Rules of Thumb for Change Agents” (1973), using Rule II: Start where the system is – that implies that one should begin by diagnosing the system. But systems do not necessarily like being diagnosed. Even the term ‘diagnosis’ may be offensive. And the system may be even less ready for someone who calls themselves a ‘change agent.’ It is easy for the practitioner to forget the hostility of jargon that prevents laypeople from understanding the professional mysteries.

So, can White Educators fix the Black-White Achievement Gap in Minnesota? So far that’s yet to be seen. After attempts to get an appointment with the Minnesota Department of Education commissioner, who had her assistant to call me back and quiz me about why I was important enough to meet with her, I understand I am not former MN chief justice Alan Page, but still, as she (the MDE commissioner) operating in a state with the worst achievement gaps in the United States since 1982, I feel the commissioner should sit down with my action-tank and get this figured out today. 

While I understand the frustration of white privilege, I also understand that institutionalized, systemic, and educational racism remain in systems not set up for Black and Brown students. I don’t hear anybody talking about dumping Pearson (the testing monopoly), nor do I hear anyone talking about retooling the teacher oppressive teacher licensing system. I don’t hear anyone complaining about the current tax dollars being thrown down the drain at layered-systems that do not have the ability to change the downward spiral in Minnesota’s proficiency numbers.

What a difference a Race makes…

If Minnesota’s achievement gap was only affecting Caucasian students, there would be a mass reconciliation of education at every level and all of its parts. The governor of Minnesota along with the Minnesota Department of Education would deem it a “Statewide Crisis” that must be addressed immediately; just like Minnesota reacted, and currently acts inside of the opioid epidemic – of course forgetting that Black and Brown people died high numbers over the last 25-years in Minnesota and not a damn was given until a few-to-many Caucasian children from the suburbs and rural Minnesota start overdosing did opioids become a central focus. Based on this alone, it seems that the achievement gap will only be addressed when it affects Minnesota’s educational ruling class, and it at Black male educators because we are not institutionally accepted.

Don Allen, M.A. Ed./MAT can be reached at ibnnews@gmail.com. Twitter: @DonAllen02

Black Americans must DELETE the term “African American”

Black Americans or African Americans
(photo: Google Search-Fair Use)

No, this doesn’t mean that Black Americans are denying heritage, but it brings about an opportunity to talk about Blackness and its meanings without inserting another culture that we’ve (Black Americans) have been 20-generations removed. Yes, Black Power; it’s the hour-to-tower!

By Don Allen, M.A. Ed./MAT

Let’s stick to the facts; when did the term African American become the term to identify Black American-born people? That moment unfolded in December 1988, in a lower-level conference room of the Hyatt Hotel near O’Hare Airport in Chicago. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was holding a closed session with the National Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH board and other high-ranking campaign supporters. The meeting was to be an “agenda-setting” session intended to send a signal about Jackson’s future and how he would harness the potential of the coalition he had built during his presidential bid. Anticipation was high from the media, with serious speculation about runs for mayor, governor, senator, or appointment to ambassadorships. The discussions were free-flowing, with most of the attendees wanting to tackle ongoing issues from apartheid and sanctions to labor unions to farmers, and even talk about planning for a third presidential race and what would be needed to make it viable.

After lunch, unexpectedly, the late C. Delores Tucker (best known for taking on rap music and Tupac Shakur) stood up and made a highly passionate argument for the use of “African-American” as opposed to Black. Her reason was clear and simple: “Nobody lives in Blackland!” Everyone has a spiritual and cultural connection attached to a place in the world that their ancestors called home, except black people. “African-American” would give us a connection to our heritage, our past and our future.

Most Black Americans do not identify with Africans and most genuine African-Americans (i.e., people who recently emigrated from Africa to the U.S. or who divide their time between two continents) do not identify with Black Americans. The Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie made this point very movingly in a recent talk she gave at the Free Library in Philadelphia as part of a tour she is on to promote her new book Americanah. “American,” Adichie explained in response to a question about what race she had in mind when someone was referred to simply as “American,” “is a mark that culture leaves, never a physical description.” She said that when she came to the U.S. she did not want to be identified with black Americans and even “recoiled” when a man in Brooklyn referred to her as “sister.” I’m not your sister, she thought to herself. I have three brothers and I know where they are, and you’re not one of them!

Many argued that the term African-American should refer to the descendants of slaves brought to the United States centuries ago, not to newcomers who have not inherited the legacy of bondage, segregation and legal discrimination. Dr. Bobby Austin, an administrator at the University of the District of Columbia understood why some blacks were offended when Mr. Kamus claimed an African-American identity. Dr. Austin said some people feared that Black immigrants and their children would snatch up the hard-won opportunities made possible by the civil rights movement (Source).

Do a google search on the term “African-American” if you want to see how many black Americans feel about it. Check out the Facebook page “Don’t Call Me African-American,” or Charles Mosley’s guest column in in the February 12, 2013 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “By using the term ‘African-American’ to refer to black people,” Mosley writes, “columnists, readers, TV hosts and commentators perpetuate and embrace Jim Crow racial stereotypes, segregation and historical distortions. … Africa is not a racial or ethnic identity. Africa is a geographical identity.” In fact, you almost never hear blacks refer to themselves as “African-American,” unless it is to please a white audience, and there is a good reason for that: They do not think of themselves as African-American. They do not identify with Africa, at least not until we remind them, by referring to them as “African-American,” that they are supposed to (Source).

Black Americans are at a crossroad; when an African immigrant with no history or experience of racism or slavery associates with the mainstream, they are treated as model citizens. When Black Americans engage the mainstream system, we (in most cases) are considered “less-than” our African immigrant brothers and sisters -  its been that way for a long time. The suggestion would be that Black Americans take back the power of being Black in America and call us what we are: “Black Americans.”

Related Story: White Privilege gives Gay Marriage the whiteness it needs to become a social norm: Can Blackness become a social norm using the Gay strategy?

Part I: Are Black Minnesotans better off on the Bottom?

Don Allen, M.A. Ed. (photo: D. Allen, chair surfing a
Hamline University)

If you don't have my phone number to call and speak with me, you don't know me. My agency in this story is to shake you into understanding a new leadership caste must rise in Minnesota before black Minnesotans are cast back to the days of "White Only" drinking fountains. 

By Don Allen, Editorial Columnist

I’ve been called a “coon, sellout, and white-boy,” by black Minnesotans that feel like education will not get them any further than they are today. Mind you, this is not a pity-piece missive, nor does this have anything to do with feelings; but it is my opportunity to explain that something is wrong when every other group (in MN) can look at you and know for sure that your race, color and socioeconomic status, education and housing option are on the bottom in this great state.

While many of “us” do not identify with Minnesota’s black community (unfortunately) and prefer social circles that avoid the lower one-third of the community, it has also set a trend for those who participate with an illusion of agency as another race, not black people. At the end of the day the mirror never lies, so no matter who you hang out with friends and associates; if you are black in Minnesota, you’re consistently qualifying yourself because from your “cover,” you’re not qualified until deemed so by some with less…and these are the black folks.  

I’ve sat by and poked the bear when I watched Minnesota lawmakers put more money and concern into Walleye fishing than homeless school children. I tried to get involved when governor Mark Dayton showered (literally) a dozen white-led agencies with over $100 million dollars to end Minnesota’s veteran homelessness challenge. The majority of the homeless veterans are of color and because I wanted to be paid for consulting and making a plan in those days, I was marginalized by Dayton’s veterans guy and basically never called upon. But still there are hundreds of homeless veterans, families and school children that never get touched by local or state funding that remain in a perpetual loop of nothingness. Unfortunately, and this is not a generalization, in Minnesota, the people I talk about are people of color: Black Minnesotans.

I have a friend who posts stuff on Facebook then says, “trigger,” which I think is absolutely incredibly hilarious; so when you ask what was my motivation, or “trigger” for this missive, you only need look at the photo above of the 2018 Minnesota Super Bowl committee sans any black Minnesotans, male or female.  Of course I don’t want to dismiss the fact that I see no Asians, Hispanic-Latinos, Somali or more importantly for Minnesota, Native Americans; the fact is “surplus with exceptions” seems to be the true meaning of Minnesota Nice. This leads be to ask have people of color in Minnesota not arrived? Is it too easy to outsource racism, exclusion and marginalization via someone in that race-construct? It seems that way.

Examples: 1) In 2016 the Minnesota Department of Human Services spent over $59 million on overtime pay. Our sources tell us that more than 95-percent of the people who receive this pay were white men and women. This could never happen at a black Minnesota lead organization, the overseers have eyes and orders to hover.

The Education Gap is so wide that each year we
wait to address it - it will take five more years to fix

2) A WCCO-TV report, “Minnesota Ranked 2nd-Worst In U.S. For Racial Equality, (2017)” citing that the latest 2017 numbers from the Minnesota Department of Education found that in grades three through eight and tenth, the amount of white students who met the standard for reading and math was about double that of black students. This report also talks about the double-digit gap in household income.

3) From the Politico story, “Something Is Rotten in the State of Minnesota,” the Twin Cities it turns out, are also home to some of the worst racial disparities in the country. In metrics across the board—household income, unemployment rates, poverty rates and education attainment—the gap between white people and people of color is significantly larger in Minnesota than it is most everywhere else. Earlier this year, WalletHub used government data to measure financial inequality among racial groups in each state and found that in 2015, Minnesota ranked dead last overall.

Enough is enough!

I guess my question is, where are the black community leaders; self-appointed or otherwise? How does Minnesota (the state) keep operating in a vicious circle of neglect and malfeasance and nobody black, male or female that has contact with policy makers says a word? Also, what happened to more than 500 Super Bowl tickets scattered out in the Twin Cities? Who received them, why?

With the clear and present danger of not enough black school teachers, college professors, housing nonprofits, where are black Minnesotans headed?

Part II: Still N***a (Jay Z, 2017).

About Don Allen:
"Donny" is an educator in St. Paul and continues his education currently at the University of St. Thomas taking the Education Specialist (Ed.S.) and the Doctorate in Education (Ed.D.). He is also a motivational speaker for topics of black children, teacher licensing in the education system. To contact him, email ibnnnews@gmail.com .