Journal of a Black Teacher

By Don Allen    Dear Republican Party of Minnesota, Congratulations. You have managed to accomplish something remarkable in modern American politics: convincing a political centrist who leans to the right that he has no political home, no local party worth claiming, no movement to call his own, and apparently no place at the table of a party that routinely preaches individual liberty, equal opportunity, and the virtues of competition. And I should know. In 2013, I ran for chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party . After a couple of votes, I finished third, with Keith Downey emerging on top. It was one of the most interesting political experiences of my life. Not necessarily because of the election itself, but because of what it revealed about the people who claimed to represent the party of Lincoln , free markets , and personal responsibility . Some Republicans at that convention had to be practically begged to sign off on my candidacy. Imagine that. A Black American man see...

Editorial note: This opinion addresses disparities in public attention and institutional response. It does not suggest that nobody has worked to prevent urban gun violence or that Eden Prairie's response was inappropriate. The two victims in the October 2 shooting were young men from St. Paul, and neither attended the schools participating in the football game. The police investigation remains ongoing. By Group-think Logiz (Community Post)  October 6, 2026 Well, well, well. Apparently, Minnesota has discovered gun violence. How remarkable. How inspiring. How wonderfully convenient that this discovery occurred in Eden Prairie, where a high school homecoming football game was interrupted by gunfire, sending spectators scrambling for safety and reminding suburban Minnesota that bullets do not recognize property values, school district boundaries, or the carefully maintained illusion that serious violence happens somewhere else. On Friday, October 2, 2026, two young men, ages 17 and 1...

If the answer is yes, show us the data. Saint Paul Public Schools has approximately 33,000 students, and about 24% are Black. Yet the district's overall 2025 proficiency rates were only about  35% in reading and 27% in mathematics . More troubling, reporting on the district's 2025 MCA results shows that only  19% of Black students were proficient in reading and 11% were proficient in mathematics . That is not simply an achievement gap. That is an educational emergency.