Sojourner
Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Ida B.
Wells-Barnett,
A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Gloria
Steinhem and Malcolm X were or are (Steinhem is still articulating her message
at age 82) all revolutionaries, seeking not just incremental change on the
foundation of quietly garnered consensus, but rather endeavoring to foment
thoroughgoing transformation of prevailing systems deemed sexist, racist,
classist, or, inasmuch as those systems contravened the letter or the spirit of
the United States Constitution, illegal.
Consider
these words from Malcolm X, spoken to a group of Mississippi youth in 1964,
after he had made his trip to Mecca that induced his conversion to Sunni Islam,
resignation from the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims), and formation of his own
group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity:
We of
the Organization of Afro-American Unity think that if the federal government
says that some folks have the right to vote, and people come out to vote, then
some kind of Ku Klux Klan wants to put them in the river, it’s time for us to
organize to equip ourselves to defend ourselves. And when you can defend yourself, you don’t have
to worry about being hurt.
Excuse
me for raising my voice, but this thing, you know, makes me upset. Imagine that, a country that’s supposed to
stand for democracy and justice and freedom, and all that kind of stuff, and
they want to ship you off to Hanoi to fight for them, then you’ve got to talk
all night long about how you’re just going to get the right to vote without
getting murdered.
When
you talk like I do, they’ll call you a commie or a red or a radical. But if you stay radical long enough and get
enough people to be like you, you’ll get your freedom. It’s the only way you’ll get it:
Stay
radical long enough, and you will get your freedom.
Malcom X
seemed capable of staring the glass out of a television set when he sat for an
interview. When he spoke, he smiled
sparingly, only when absolutely appropriate in making a point about justice or
thrilled with the prospect of advancing some vital human concern. He never smiled to ingratiate, certainly not
ever wanting to ingratiate himself with the powers that be, because the power
to which he spoke needed truth, not mollification. If ever one wanted a model for speaking truth
to power, one could do no better than to study the speeches and public
appearances of Malcom X.
The
organizers of events such as those organized under the shibboleth of Reimagine Minnesota cited in articles
in this edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution:
Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, seek
to proceed on the basis of the famed Minnesota Nice formula, whereby people are
so very nice to each other that conflict is minimized, strong messages are
diluted, and much that occurs in the given setting is so murky as to leave nor
firm impression.
As I have
indicated, that is exactly the result for which the superintendents and other
decision-makers in the Association of Metropolitan School Districts (AMSD) are
striving in organizing the Reimagine
Minnesota events. Seeking to
ameliorate the effects of the Cruz-Guzman v. State of Minnesota lawsuit
asserting the negative impact of prevailing patterns of racial segregation in
the states’ schools, officials of the AMSD are purportedly endeavoring to
solicit community opinion on matters pertinent to equity.
My most
acute observations concerning the Reimagine
Minnesota campaign is that the staging of associated events demonstrates both
the weakness and deceitfulness of the leadership among decision-makers in the
metropolitan school districts, including those of the Minneapolis Public
Schools:
1) If these were professionals of the caliber of
physicians or attorneys, they would first assert their own program for achieving
equity either via integration or by instituting programs of academic excellence
in all schools.
This latter
approach depending on academic excellence is the only long-term solution for
the achievement of equity in K-12 education:
Even the most sincere initiatives for achieving public school
integration since the Brown V. Board of Education (1954) have foundered due to white and
black middle class flight. Out best
solution to the aim of equity must be the impartation of excellent education to
students of all demographic descriptors, on the knowledge-intensive premises
that I have established in my writings.
But in the
absence of any notion of educational excellence, the incompetent leaders of our
K-12 systems of education seek to leave an impression of pursuing equity on the
basis of these staged events, while they continue to organize their school
district programs on the basis of the latest notions from departments, schools,
and colleges of education--- inevitably,
just the latest iteration of the anti-knowledge convictions of professors who
are themselves so unknowledgeable.
2) These AMSD leaders never genuinely want to
gather public opinion.
They certainly
do not welcome those who have critically analyzed prevailing systems and oppose
the latter with revolutionary programs running counter to status quo. Leaders within the AMSD are in fact operating
on the basis of a debased interpretation of the mass line, whereby those in
power make a show of gathering the views of the public and then implement programs
on the basis of their own propensities.
Understand
then that, following Malcolm X, genuine change comes only when people think
creatively about what needs to change, speak forcefully in asserting the
revolutionary program, and organize for the achievement of the needed
transformation.
To achieve
change, you must be radical.
When you
stay radical long enough and get enough people to be like you, you’ll achieve
the change of your aspiration.
It’s the lonely
way that you’ll achieve the necessary transformation.
You should
never be too nice to those who have cheated our babies of an education of
excellence.
You must be
radical, speaking clearly and forcefully to the responsible parties in power.
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