Anti-racist posters with racist message provoke controversy at Gustavus

by MinnPost staff 03/22/201703/22/2017

Christ Chapel on the Gustavus Adolphus College campus

Might have been a bit too subtle. KMSP’s Ted Haller reports: “A couple of posters that were up for a few minutes are causing a huge discussion on the Gustavus Adolphus College campus in St. Peter. The posters had racist language, but the authors were not racist. … On Monday morning, student groups put up two posters ‘in an effort to help educate our peers and campus community about issues of bias, and the importance of being an active bystander.’ ”

Nicely done. MPR’s Mark Steil writes: “All military veterans known to be homeless in more than a dozen southwest Minnesota counties now have places to live, state officials said Tuesday. … State Director to Prevent and End Homelessness Cathy ten Broeke said the 18 counties ‘are committed to honoring the men and women who have served our state and our country.’ … It’s part of a of an effort to end veteran homelessness throughout Minnesota. The goal, ten Broeke said, is to ensure that homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring.”

Come on guys, same team. The Star Tribune’s James Eli Shiffer reports: “Appalling. Disrespectful. Disappointing. Arrogant. Those were some of the words lawmakers used to describe what they received — or more properly, what they didn’t receive — after they asked for data from the Minnesota Department of Transportation. … Even lawmakers sometimes have trouble getting information out of government, and while the toughest language at the House Civil Law and Data Practices Policy Committee last Thursday came from Republicans, even DFL Rep. John Lesch of St. Paul mentioned the possibility of using a subpoena to get answers. … The redacted records, a sample of which is above, and more below, relate to $105 million transportation spending through a federal program called the FAST Act. The data spat arose during a dispute over whether DFL Gov. Mark Dayton can spend the money with approval from a legislative advisory commission, instead of the Legislature.”

Former Minnesota teacher of the year Tom Rademacher adapted stories from his new book on the trials of teaching in the public schools for a long feature in City Pages: “I started teaching 11 years ago, walking out of a college experience filled with hobbies like reading horrible found poems about tragic events. I landed my dream job in my first year, teaching at an arts magnet school full of weird kids with brilliant brains. … I’d spent years writing essays no one would read and probing research that would never help me to get there, working and reflecting and dreaming of all the ways I was going to be one of those teachers: the natural and inspiring who wore stylish sport coats, whose classroom was a sacred space of literature, of rebellion, of learning. … But nobody told me how hard it was going to be.”