Published on Black Agenda Report (http://blackagendareport.com)

 

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"Teach For America" Trojan Horse Among Ferguson Activists?

Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on Wed, 12/10/2014 - 17:02

"Teach For America" Trojan Horse Among Ferguson Activists?

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

It's hard to imagine a more ruthless, murderous and insanely wealthy corporation than the Koch Bros. What if one of their executive vice presidents was black and came from Florissant MO, only a few minutes from the spot where Michael Brown was murdered. What of the Koch VP had kicked it with some of the demonstrators and activists early on, maybe even taken an arrest or three, run around some corners and huffed some tear gas with them.
Now suppose that black Koch VP from Florissant got picked as one of the “young black leaders” who met with President Obama at the White House last week. The black Koch VP is not offering to resign her position or denounce her employer, and Koch is not going to stop doing any of the reprehensible things it does in Richmond [1], in Louisiana, and everywhere else in the world.

1. Is this OK? Should the activists over police murder of black people be good with this? Should they just look away and say well, the other stuff she's involved in, that her employer's involved in IS a concern but this is about the police. Should they say that concern ain't THIS concern, that concern ain't OUR concern???? Is this the way a broad new social movement against injustice and oppression is supposed to act?
2. Can they really doubt that the Koch PR team will NOT use this VP's participation in their movement to confuse and disadvantage oppressed people somewhere else?
3. And would it be right for those with misgivings and questions about whether the Koch VP really belongs at the table, numbered among movement activists, keep their reservations private, restricted to personal and conference phone calls, private emails and the like? Or is this everybody's movement and therefor everybody's business, not just that of the designated "leaders".

Something much like this is actually occurring around Ferguson. One of the “young black activists” who met with President Obama last week was Brittney Packnett, a Florissant native who happens to be executive director for the St. Louis office of Teach For America.
TFA is a nonprofit organization backed to the tune of hundreds of millions per year by Wal-Mart [2], the Broad Foundation, Monsanto and a long list of corporate villains and hedge fund predators intent upon dismantling, destroying and privatizing public education in black and brown neighborhoods, turning public education into a private profit center. Privatizing public education is also the bipartisan aim of top Republicans and Democrats across the country, so the Obama Department of Education has also provided tens of millions per year in federal funding for Teach For America.
Teach For America recruits young, mostly white grads from elite colleges to undergo a 5 week training program which supposedly enables them to replace experienced, mostly black teachers [3] in inner city schools. Although TFA used to claim it sends its recruits to “underserved” schools where experienced teachers don't want to go, the facts are that underprepared TFA temps have replaced tens of thousands of experienced teachers in Newark, Chicago, St. Louis, and dozens of other cities around the country.
For those not up on what TFA does, here are a few links....

• The Daily Dot did an extensive report on Teach For America you can find at http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/inside-real-world-teach-for-america/
• http://atthechalkface.com/…/why-teach-for-america-cannot-c…/ [4]
• http://dianeravitch.net/…/mark-naison-how-tfa-is-destructi…/ [5]
• https://www.jacobinmag.com/2011/12/teach-for-america/ [6]
• http://www.thenation.com/…/what-happens-when-you-criticize-… [7]
• http://www.publicschoolshakedown.org/teach-for-america [8]

In this context, the Teach For America rep sitting among the “young black activists” is a Trojan Horse.
No, it won't do any good to take Ms. Packnett aside and “talk to her” about this. That's naïve. She has a longstanding career she's spent her entire professional life building, and will not be turned aside any more than our imaginary Koch Bros VP. And not only will TFA keep doing what it's doing, it's sizeable PR machine will certainly use Ms. Pucknett's presence among Ferguson activists to confuse the unwary elsewhere.
Teach For America maintains that inner-city public schools are NOT underfunded, that chronic poverty, joblessness, homelessness and short staffing are merely “excuses.” This is precisely the opposite of what knowledgeable yuoung activists like the Dream Defenders Phillip Agnew will tell you. Chicago just shut down 50 public schools, and Philly 40, nearly all in black neighborhoods. Many thousands of black people are in the streets in these and other cities fighting for the right to a quality public education. Often they are the same people in motion over police murders like that of Michael Brown. Ferguson activists ought to make it clear that Brittney Packnett is NOT one of them, and represents the people who fund her, not any definition of “young black activists.”
Young activists are quite right to reject the old civil rights zombies like Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. But an element of their old style “leadership” is keeping every decision behind closed doors. That's one more reason why they are not leaders of real movements, and it's a style young activists would do well not to replicate. This isn't anything that can be handled behind closed doors.
Black woman or no, Florissant resident or not, she does not belong at the table, except as a representative of the forces that fund her career and Teach For America. She is a Trojan Horse, and should be shunned.

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report. He lives and works in Marietta GA where he serves on the state committee of the GA Green Party. Reach him via this site's contact page [9], or via email at bruce.dixon@blackagendareport.com.

 

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Source URL: http://blackagendareport.com/node/14566

Links:
[1] http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/17/purchase-election-chevron-shows-we-have-oligarchy-not-democracy-sanders
[2] http://www.commondreams.org/…/walmart-writes-checks-critics…
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-dixon/when-reforming-education_b_530799.html
[4] http://atthechalkface.com/…/why-teach-for-america-cannot-c…/
[5] http://dianeravitch.net/…/mark-naison-how-tfa-is-destructi…/
[6] https://www.jacobinmag.com/2011/12/teach-for-america/
[7] http://www.thenation.com/…/what-happens-when-you-criticize-…
[8] http://www.publicschoolshakedown.org/teach-for-america
[9] http://www.blackagendareport.com
[10] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblackagendareport.com%2Fnode%2F14566&linkname=%22Teach%20For%20America%22%20Trojan%20Horse%20Among%20Ferguson%20Activists%3F