On the morning of May 8th, Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison spoke to Edina High School students in EPAC.

Unlike most school sponsored presentations, Ellison, who represents parts of Edina as well as several other communities throughout the Twin Cities, came to EHS with only eight minutes of prepared content. The rest was a fully improvised conversation with the students in attendance, speaking on the subjects of political finance reform, race relations in America, gun control, healthcare, the environment, the theory of trickle down economics, national debt, student debt, and mass incarceration.

Despite hitting so many subjects, every part of Ellison’s free form, interactive lecture was linked by one common thread: the nature of money in politics. “Do you think the average citizen and someone who can write out a $25,000 check (to a political campaign), have the same priorities?” asked Ellison early in the presentation.

Ellison also emphasized the importance of voting and grassroots activism. “You’re going to blink your eyes and you’re gonna be 20, 21, 22, and this democracy is going to be in your hands,” said Ellison.

During the periods when Ellison asked the students what they thought on issues like voting rights or campaign finance, the students started out silent but, as the hour went on, became more and more engaged in his version of the socratic method.

The opinions Ellison vocalized during the presentation were undoubtedly left wing, as he spoke about the danger of income inequality and the disconnect between American opinions on gun control and congressional action in that area. Ellison, speaking as one of the few Democratic superdelegates to sponsor Bernie Sanders, even touched on the contentious 2016 presidential election, saying, “I’m not gonna campaign for a candidate… but it is true that Bernie Sanders got an average donation of 27 dollars from six million people, so what kind of people do you think he has to listen to?”

Speaking as the first African American to be elected to Congress, as well as the first Muslim congressman in American history, Ellison also shared some words about race in America. “[Conservative elected officials] actually enlist white people to vote against their own self interest, sometimes because they think it’ll only hurt black people,” said Ellison.

Students who spoke up generally seemed to agree with Ellison’s ideas, with one exception. Near the end of the presentation, a girl in the front row questioned how his proposed higher public spending would impact the national debt.

Some students took issue with other parts of the presentation. “He saw that half the auditorium was white… and he wanted to make them feel comfortable and make them feel like they were able to talk and stuff, and yeah, that was good, but talking about poor white families and not really talking about the race issues and trying to make them feel comfortable made the black kids very uncomfortable, as if he didn’t care about our issues,” said junior Fatima Hassan.

After the presentation several students, almost all African American, risked tardiness to share some words with Ellison, asking him what they could do to promote racial equality at EHS. Ellison suggested holding monthly cultural appreciation and advocacy days.