Recently, a video of Prince as an 11-year-old kid trying to get on the news during the April 1970 teacher’s strike has been circulating, warming hearts. Minneapolis Teachers recently again went on strike, demanding among other things, that Black Indigenous Teachers and Support Staff of Color get better layoff protections and not be subject to the same seniority-based layoff scheme as their white counterparts.
Many Black Indigenous Education Support Professionals (ESP’s) in Minneapolis School Districts often go on to get better jobs and apparently, the Teacher’s Union wants to keep its ESP’s working exclusively for them, indefinitely.
In 2022, the teacher’s strike coincidentally extended Spring Break (formerly known as Easter Vacation in 1970) And just like in 1970, Black children were used as sword and shield to get white Women what they wanted from the Government.
The Little Prince, being the veterate entertainer and understanding what White Women want to hear, said to the cameras, “Yup. I think they should get a better vacation and more money too cuz they be working extra hours for us.”
In a near classic example of shuck and jive, the Teacher’s Union (MFT59) called their members to come out and support a N.A.A.C.P. Event.
In addition to the obligatory Black English Teacher’s emotional pleas and poor diction telling the crowd how impor’ant Black teachers and ESP’s are to black students, there were demands Equity and Diversity be taught.
All of this surrounded by white women who are off-camera screaming and yelling support, they also brought children to make their case for them.
“We need to put equity over equality and impact over intent,” says Ms. Mohamed, one of the protesters.
The Minnesota Teen Activists’ president (who I won’t name because he’s a minor being groomed by political predators) tells us it is discrimination because that 80% of the ESP’s are Black Indigenous Support Staff of Color and that is disproportionate to the Student Body.
Minnesota’s population is 85% white. Despite Minneapolis allegedly having 80% ESP’s of Color, Minnesota still has the worst education disparity in the country. Most of this disparity is within the Twin Cities, (St. Paul Schools gave in to the union’s demands immediately and they did not go on strike) who service the majority of the minority kids.
The Minnesota Teen Activists President and Black Indigenous Racial Segregationists of Color claim, without presenting evidence, that Black students do better with “people who look like them” and we therefore need to do a better job at recruiting.
No one mentions how the previous $110,000-a-year Diversity Inclusion and Equity Administrator, Deray McKesson, spent his time Community Organizing rather than fulfilling his duty of recruiting and hiring qualified Black Indigenous Qualified Teachers of Color.
Deray, as he is known, left for Ferguson to co-organize Black Lives Matter, before returning to Minneapolis to “Organize the Community” for the 4th Precinct Takeover, also known as the dry run for the global George Floyd unrest.
The Minnesota Teen Activist President goes on to tell the crowd of nearly all off-camera White women that most of these White teachers are from the Suburbs are not trauma informed or trained cultural competence.
What do these seemingly innocuous terms, “Equity,” “Trauma Informed” and “Culturally Competent” mean in practice, and why the near religious dedication to them?
We’ll cover that in this series, but I’d first like to introduce you to Lake Minnetonka.
The Mpls Lake Formerly Known as Calhoun
In 1984’s Purple Rain, Prince tells an ambitious musician, played by Apollonia Kotero, that she’ll need to “purify herself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka” before he would be willing to help launch her music career.
After some hesitation and pushback, she takes off her clothes and jumps in.
The joke, for those not in the know, is, “that’s not Lake Minnetonka.”
In fact that lake used to be called Lake Calhoun, named after John C. Calhoun, who owned slaves. In 2020 its name was officially changed to Bde Maka Ska and Lake Calhoun Parkway was changed to Bde Maka Ska Parkway.
It’s unclear how changing the name of a prominent Lake to something that sounds like a watery French ass-cleaner but actually means, “White Earth Lake,” helps any actual Black Indiginous Minnesotans of Color, but the people who own the multi-million dollar homes that surround it just love to correct you on how to pronounce it.
The Minneapolis Chain of Lakes is part of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, which is part of a multi-county, multi-city, 129 lake, 8 major creek, public-private partnership controlling the waterways between Lake Minnetonka and the Mississippi River.
There are three things Minnesotans love:
- Over-complexifying simple things to make rich, powerful, and/or stupid people feel smart and useful.
- Over-simplifying complex things to make rich, powerful, and or stupid people feel smart and useful.
- Unelected, unaccountable Govt. bodies with unchecked authority and unassailable mission statements.
This District’s work is important because pollution from this District becomes a problem, right down the middle of the country.
Lake Minnetonka
Minnetonka (Dakota: Mní iá Tháŋka, meaning “the-water-they-speak-of-is-large”)
Lake Minnetonka is where the Andrew Sisters summered, the racing scow was invented, the City of Saint Louis became the first inland steamboat ever to be equipped with electric lights, and several scenes from 1972 films: The Heartbreak Kid and Slaughterhouse-Five were filmed at Lake Minnetonka.
In 1926 architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress Olga Hinzengberg were arrested for allegedly violating the Mann Act while vacationing at a cottage in Tonka Bay. The charges were soon dropped after allegations against them were found untrue.
According to a legend, it was in his capacity as town ambassador that “Mr. Jimmy” Hutmaker attended a concert by the Rolling Stones at the Danceland Ballroom at Excelsior Amusement Park in 1964.
Legend has it Mick Jagger couldn’t get a cherry soda while getting his prescription filled and Mr. Jimmy said, “You can’t always get what you want”. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, the story has stuck.
Before gaining national fame in the early 1940s, LaVerne, Maxene, and Patty Andrews of The Andrews Sisters spent their summers with relatives in Mound, a town in an area known as Westonka. The trio often returned to the area later in life as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbVaSC6U0gI
How do you like these apples?
Peter Gideon, an early Minnesota horticulturist, moved to the Lake Minnetonka area in 1853. In 1868 he successfully bred a species of apple that could withstand Minnesota’s harsh winters and named it the “Wealthy” apple. This breakthrough made possible the later developments of the Haralson and Honeycrisp apples which are patented by the University of Minnesota.
Honeycrisp apples have out-appled all of the other apples on the market and run 4.50/lb.
Children of the 70s, 80s, and 90s may remember Tonka Toys, which were created in the area and Minnetonka Moccasins and who recently apologized for appropriating Native American Culture.
As of the 2020 census, the population of Minnetonka was 53,781. The city is the home of Cargill, the country’s largest privately-owned company, and UnitedHealth Group, the state’s largest publicly owned company, and Carlson a major wealth management company.
The towns surrounding Lake Minnetonka need a major wealth management company because that 20-mile square area is one of the wealthiest per capita in the country.
Minnetonka is the last town you’d expect a woke takeover.
Lake Minnetonka via the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District is upstream from the entire country. What happens there will go on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
