Journal of a Black Teacher

By Don Allen - Journal of A Black Teacher (2025) Author Note Don Allen is an educator, researcher, and writer based in St. Paul, Minnesota. He founded the Journal of a Black Teacher and is a doctoral candidate in education leadership. He specializes in charter and public schools and community reform in historically underperforming and under-led learning organization systems in urban areas. Abstract This editorial addresses the tragic and preventable death of an 11-year-old boy in North Minneapolis. It challenges the performative politics of local leadership, particularly leaders of color, and the silence of historically influential organizations like the NAACP and Urban League. It calls for a public reckoning, a radical reimagining of public/charter school education, safety, and community accountability with a data-informed investment in the children and families of North Minneapolis. Editorial Opinion There is no excuse… none, for an 11-year-old to be shot and killed in his own neig...

What was the cost of Nerd stereotypes for Black Boys in the United States? ( Photo : Google Search, educational purposes - Fair Use.)  By Don Allen - Journal Of A Black Teacher (2025) In the 1990s, Family Matters, a Black sitcom about the bumbling, brilliant, and painfully awkward Steven Q. Urkel, was viewed by millions of American families. Urkel was TV's most recognizable face, known for his squeaky voice, oversized glasses, high-water pants, and irrepressible fixation on science and Laura Winslow. Yet underneath the laughs and the catchphrase "Did I do that?" There is a greater cultural implication: Urkel inadvertently caused science to be uncool among a generation of Black males. Urkel was not just a character—he was an ambassador of the "Black nerd," and not a likable one. He was solitary, pesky, emasculated, and continuously rejected. He was seldom cool, never heroic, and most frequently the punchline. During a time when Black male heroes on TV were few, U...

By Don Allen, Ed.S., M.A.Ed., MAT - Educator and Researcher As a high school and higher education English instructor, I ask my students to do more than decode texts; I ask them to interrogate systems. This includes looking beyond novels and into the visual language of Black storytelling, especially films that function as counter-narratives. Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station (2013) is one such text. It is not only a movie; it is a lesson plan, a curriculum, and a dissertation on the fragile state of Black life in America. And for the listeners, it is also an indictment of how education, both formal and informal, has failed Black children since the time of desegregation. The story of Oscar Grant is all too familiar. Young, Black, human, struggling. Yet, as with George Floyd in 2020, Oscar's humanity was destroyed in one violent, irrevocable moment. When George Floyd was killed by police just blocks from where I teach, it channeled the final few minutes of Fruitvale Station. That same...

Creating equity between different groups of parents is not just logistical; it is ethical.  By Don Allen - Journal of A Black Teacher (2025) Editorial Opinion   In public schools, we believe that parent involvement is crucial for student success. In reality, however, schools sideline their best players, the parents, especially in low-income neighborhoods where help is needed the most. What we've referred to as "site councils" is now mostly pro forma. These old models were intended to insert parent voices into school decision-making. Today, they are mostly used as tools of compliance, meeting state mandates and district expectations, but not really partnering with families. In the majority of school districts, especially in inner cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul, parental engagement deteriorates the nearer you reach the poorest schools. This isn't by chance. Sometimes this exclusion is a strength, not a weakness; limiting parent participation in decision-making pre...