Earlier this week, Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, in a speech broadcast nationwide to the NEA’s members, praised Angela Davis. A Marxist, and a longtime member of the Communist Party (until 1991), Davis was awarded the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace Prize in 1980. She was the Communist Party USA’s vice-presidential nominee in 1980 and 1984.
Within the first two minutes of her July 3rd keynote address to the NEA conference in Chicago, Pringle quoted Angela Davis:
“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world and you have to do it all the time.”
Pringle continued:
“For half a century, the writer and educator Professor Angela Davis has called on this nation to bring its practices into full alignment with its promises, to create a society where equity and justice are the rule, not the exception. After a lifetime of struggle, this longtime activist has not abandoned hope. She continues to believe that this nation will one day develop the capacity to transform boundaries into bridges. NEA, as the bridge-builders for over 50 million public school students, and with the rights of so many Americans at risk, we must share that view Professor Davis holds dear. Whether it is a mind, a heart, a school, a community, or our world, transformation is always possible….”
Now maybe this is just a case of one American black woman praising another American black woman, and maybe it’s alright to quote anybody at all, as long as it’s a good quote. But then again, Angela Davis isn’t just any black woman or just any American. She has been an outspoken and controversial figure for decades – for her radical politics, her Marxist ideology and economics, her activism, her writings and speeches.
“Today, she describes herself as a 'small c' communist, remaining enthusiastic about the ideology but not beholden to any single organization.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/19/t-magazine/angela-davis.html
Does she still think of the police as “pigs”?
Does she still believe in “liberation by any means necessary”?
Is Angela Davis really the right role model for our nation’s teachers to emulate?