Journal of a Black Teacher

This is Black History Month. It seems to me the point of studying Black History is to provide insight into how injustices of the past relate to what is going on in the present and to put an end to these injustices. One example is the case of Rodney Reed , an innocent black worker who is the victim of a racist frame-up orchestrated by the police, prosecutors, state and local politicians working in cahoots to execute Rodney Reed for a murder carried out by a racist white cop who was assisted in his bestial murder by other racist white cops here in Texas. History is very important in this case because the Texas criminal justice system was devised by slave-owners who refused to acknowledge Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the fact that the North had won the Civil War and for two years used this time to put on place institutions that would maintain racist injustices in every facet of life… including the criminal justice system. This is all explained in the book, the “1619 Project,” a

Video Blog by Don Allen, M. A. Ed./MAT  What do you tell students about the death of 22-year old Amir Locke in downtown Minneapolis by  the  MPD? It's like peeling an onion - so many layers, so many people, missed opportunities, along with policies and procedures that date back to the 1970s. Many local politicians are complicit in this death, maybe this death brings about the change like they said about George Floyd, Dante Wright, Winston "Boogie" Smith, and the future dead Black Men in the Twin Cities - game over. 

No one should be treated differently but addressing race and inequitable education is toxic; but in Minnesota, spending more than $600 million a year on closing the achievement gap with ZERO successes in any district is considered a win?   By Don Allen, M.A. Ed./MAT - Journal of A Black Teacher©  2022 All Rights Reserved (Editorial Opinion - Not Written for the Guilty or Weak Minded) Besides everything else, W.E.B. Du Bois must have also been a fortune teller back in the day.  In all of his authored books, Du Bois sternly warns Black folks in the United States about our Black and Brown children being used as “doormats to be spit and tramped upon and lied to by ignorant social climbers.” Today, the proverbial ‘doormats’ and ‘spit’ come in the form of the generational minimal proficiencies for Black and Brown children born in the United States, and the phenomenon has spread quickly to our new kids - some Somali, Latin, and Asian children whose families exited a bad situation in their hom

  Written by Don Allen, M.A. Ed. /MAT Economically Disadvantaged Students K-12  According to a study done economically disadvantaged students are the ones that mostly belong to a household that meets the income standards for free or reduced-price meals. This is because they live in poverty. This information about the economic status of individual students has been a result of county data on scholarship information and post-secondary options information. Economically disadvantaged children have a hard time succeeding in school. Most of the students in this state tend to drop out of school and choose a low-paying job because it is hard for them to keep up with their well-off peers. They become a center of ridicule because they cannot be able to afford to dress in fashionable clothes or even pay a fee for an educational trip (Thompson).  There are various reasons as to why there are economically challenged students, first is the income status. Poverty either situational or generational ma

By LaTricea Adams (pictured below) When I recently opened  the 2021 Young, Gifted, & Green 40 Under 40 Awards ceremony,  I was reminded of the passion, hope, and hard work from young Black and Brown activists who drive the environmental justice movement. The event featured speeches from EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, both of whom are environmental justice champions in their own right, and their recognition of new Black, Latinx, and Indigenous voices on the environmental justice scene spoke volumes. I’m proud of the grassroots movement we launched following the examples of our ancestors, the early stewards of this land, and embracing the activism of our environmental justice elders. This month as we mark the 30th anniversary of adopting the  17 principles of environmental justice , we vow to continue not only to fight climate change but to usher in a more just world by doing so.   Climate change affects us all, but its effects aren’t distributed equall

This is a message to all high school seniors (and their parents). If you were planning to enroll in college next fall — don’t. by  Diane Klein 1. No school will be “back to normal” in fall 2020. No one knows whether colleges and universities will offer face-to-face instruction in the fall, or whether they will stay open if they do. No one knows whether dorms and cafeterias will reopen, or whether team sports will practice and play. It’s that simple. No one knows. Schools that decide to reopen may not be able to stay that way. A  few  may decide, soon, not even to try. Others may put off the decision for as long as possible — but you can make your decision now. Even if some face-to-face instruction resumes, no one knows if it will last for the whole semester or all year. If there’s anything worse than resigning yourself to a freshman year spent online, it would be moving across country or across town, into a dorm room or an apartment — only to have to move out weeks or