Marquette University has apparently dumped Susannah Bartlow, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center director after the center celebrated the completion of a mural featuring convicted Assata Shakur who was convicted of an execution style killing of a New Jersey trooper in 1973. The mural was joint project of the Center and the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
It is astonishing that a mural would be completed without someone making a minimal inquiry as Shakur’s identity as a cop killer and a terrorist. Born JoAnne Deborah Byron, Assata Olugbala Shakur was a member of the former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army with a long criminal record. In May 1973, she was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike and accused of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and wounding Trooper James Harper. She was indicted in relation to six other incidents including murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping. In 1979, she escaped and fled to Cuba. The FBI has classified her as a domestic terrorist and offered a $1 million reward for assistance in her capture. Her history is not hard to find obviously on dozens of websites.
Given that history, it is unbelievable that Bartlow and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority would select her as the inspiring figure for the university. The controversy was triggered by a blog critique by associate professor of political science John McAdams.
Following the disclosure, the university announced that “Susannah Bartlow is no longer an employee with Marquette University.” The sorority’s international communications chairman Leona Dotson said that “[u]nfortunately Ms. Shakur’s entire history and background was not fully researched. If that process had occurred, she would not have been featured in the mural.”
It is a remarkable turnaround for university. The Center released a tweet on March 24th proclaiming “TADA, our mural is finished! In commemoration of the courageous, Assata Shakur.” I could think of many things to call Shakur many things but “courageous” is not one of them.
According to her bio, Bartlow is a graduate of the University of Buffalo with past association with Dickinson College, State University of New York at Buffalo, UB Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender.
The two quotes selected were:
“No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.
Before going back to college, I knew I didn’t want to be an intellectual, spending my life in books and libraries without knowing what the hell is going on in the streets. Theory without practice is just as incomplete as practice without history. The two have to go together.”
Case in point.
http://images.sodahead.com/polls/003444735/142159280_right_wing_nut_tree_79294983396_xlarge.jpeg
According to the “progressive nonprofit” news outlet Democracy Now!, “Assata Shakur, the former Joanne Chesimard, was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.”
As for the rest of your fevered claims:
Sorry, sell crazy Prog someplace else.
We’re all stocked up here.
No, Pogo, she was a member of the Black Panther Party, a group of Black activists targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program. Members of the BPP were murdered by the FBI, others were imprisoned on trumped up charges, e.g. Assata Shakur.
Marquette consistently gets cited for unconstitutional acts by the watchdog http://www.TheFire.org. Marquette gets an ‘F’ or Red, from TheFire.
Shakur was a member of the Black Liberation Army, a group noted for shooting police officers, and suspected of planting bombs to kill policemen. They preached -and tried to practice- the violent overthrow of the US government.
As such, I would take everything she says as a lie, including the words ‘and’ and ‘the.’.
http://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/admin/ed-assets/2015/05/150521-kerrie-orozco-opd_0ef2f4f949b04378d3affdcea616a7e7.jpg?zoom=1.5&resize=580%2C491
Police Officer Kerrie Orozco, 29, died Wensday after being shot while serving a warrant on Marcus Wheeler a felon, gang member and charged in another shooting incident.
http://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/admin/ed-assets/2015/05/marcus+wheeler+640.jpg?zoom=1.5&resize=580%2C326
Officer Orozzo is a new Mom who recently returned to duty while her premature baby was in the hospital. The baby will be released today in time to attend her mothers wake.
President Obama will not mention Officer Orozzo in his press conference. Attorney General Lynch will not give her a second thought. Professor Turley will never post a thread about her murder. Marquette University will never commission a mural to celebrate her life. SJW will never utter a word in compassion. The press will deem this as just another story not worthy of MSNBC, FOX News, ABC or CNN.
Wife. Mother. Police Officer. Statistic.
That is were we have come to.
George Washington is not rolling over. George Washington is a man of action.
The mural was probably created by people who know the real story about Assata. There is another side to the story.
On May 2, 1973 I [Assata Shakur], along with Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike, supposedly for a “faulty tail light.” Sundiata Acoli got out of the car to determine why we were stopped. Zayd and I remained in the car. State trooper Harper then came to the car, opened the door and began to question us. Because we were black, and riding in a car with Vermont license plates, he claimed he became “suspicious.” He then drew his gun, pointed it at us, and told us to put our hands up in the air, in front of us, where he could see them. I complied and in a split second, there was a sound that came from outside the car, there was a sudden movement, and I was shot once with my arms held up in the air, and then once again from the back. Zayd Malik Shakur was later killed, trooper Werner Forester was killed, and even though trooper Harper admitted that he shot and killed Zayd Malik Shakur, under the New Jersey felony murder law, I was charged with killing both Zayd Malik Shakur, who was my closest friend and comrade, and charged in the death of trooper Forester. Never in my life have I felt such grief. Zayd had vowed to protect me, and to help me to get to a safe place, and it was clear that he had lost his life, trying to protect both me and Sundiata. Although he was also unarmed, and the gun that killed trooper Forester was found under Zayd’s leg, Sundiata Acoli, who was captured later, was also charged with both deaths. Neither Sundiata Acoli nor I ever received a fair trial. We were both convicted in the news media way before our trials. No news media was ever permitted to interview us, although the New Jersey police and the FBI fed stories to the press on a daily basis. In 1977, I was convicted by an all- white jury and sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison. In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison, and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my case, and who were also extremely fearful for my life.
There is much more from Assata here: http://www.assatashakur.org/escape2.htm
Read the words they chose for the mural.
Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams et al. must be rolling over in their graves.
Something has gone terribly wrong.
Bam bam, you should visit a college campus near you to get an idea of the atmosphere.
It’s 24/7 leftism everywhere you look.
“Does this fit under the proverbial freedom of speech?”
The wall belongs to the University. Defacing your employer’s property or altering it without permission is a termination offense.
“Is it foreseeable that a professor, teaching in Women’s Studies, will dedicate a mural honoring a known murderer, kidnapper, bank robber and terrorist? ”
Yes. I would fully expect such behavior.
“Free Mumia”
Che t-shirts.
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Weather Underground terrorists, became college teachers.
Angela Davis
http://onyxexpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/afrohouse-art-_0014-angeladavis.jpg
BamBam, it probably makes sense to a person who thinks all feminists are “Social Justice Warriors” (whatever that is supposed to mean and why is that be a bad thing?) because we all know by now that all SJWs advocate honoring cop killers who ran away to a third world country as heroic. There is no end to the evil we can expect from those SJWs.
Inga – as a Marquette alum, did you contribute to the mural as a good SJW, or did you complain about it?
I’m not sure what I would consider worse: that the mural was created by people who knew of Shakur’s crimes, or that the mural was created by people who didn’t know.
RcCarol – I think the mural was created both by people who know who the murderer was and people who did not, they just got caught up in the process.
Pogo
Is it foreseeable that a professor, teaching in Women’s Studies, will dedicate a mural honoring a known murderer, kidnapper, bank robber and terrorist? You imply that Marquette should’ve known that this was coming.
bam bam – in a way Marquette should have seen that something was coming. The Jesuits used to be more on top of things.
“Let’s give credit where credit is due. I would assume that you, of all people, have the ability to recognize an institution which still maintains some semblance of decency.”
1. I agree they did what seems best.
2. However, they hired this teacher, who has the usual SJW background, so this behavior is no surprise.
3. And Marquette is still moving leftward, nevertheless.
As the article pointed out, ” Marquette is in the process of removing McAdams from faculty after he publicly criticized a teaching assistant for not allowing discussion of same-sex marriage in her class last November.
McAdams publicized the mural. Without him, it would never have come to light. Marquette only removed the mural after the bad publicity.
And soon, Marquette will be without him.
So, we’ll see. I predict more SJWing at Marquette in the future, not less.
So two cheers for Marquette.
Pogo
The Director of the Center was terminated. Unlike BU, this university isn’t afraid to react in a swift and decisive manner when one of its employees acts in such a repugnant way, praising a murderer, kidnapper, bank robber and terrorist. Bravo to Marquette. Its stance, with regard to the mural and the woman responsible for its creation, is worthy of praise, not derision. Let’s give credit where credit is due. I would assume that you, of all people, have the ability to recognize an institution which still maintains some semblance of decency. Given the economy, are the grads of Marquette faring any worse than grads of other similarly ranked schools in this nation? Many college grads are experiencing difficulties after they enter the job market, so why make it an issue about Marquette? Actually, why make it an issue at all when analyzing the termination of a rogue employee who was rightfully terminated for her actions within the scope of her employment? I only wish that the sorority, AKA, would’ve been held accountable, in some fashion, to being an equal participant in this project. I would criticize Marquette for not going far enough in that regard. The above-referenced story is silent as to any sort of repercussions faced by the sorority for partnering in such a disgusting and abhorrent project.
“The Director of the Center was terminated. Unlike BU, this university isn’t afraid to react in a swift and decisive manner when one of its employees acts in such a repugnant way, … ”
That may be true but I don’t think that is clear from this case.
Unless I am mistaken colleges and universities frequently distinguish and treat differently professors and administrators who run services for students.
It is not clear that Marquette would have so quickly taken on a tenure track professor. Nor is it clear that BU would have been so deferential to a director of a service for students. Further the BU situation clearly involves individual speech. The Marquette situation is clearly a case of who decides and what values are used to determine what is displayed on university property.
The situations don’t seem that similar to me – aside from the fact that both involve ethnic women making choices that insult or threaten many in the institutions where they work.
What about UW Milwaukee, does this university meet your ‘standards’ Pogo?
An undergraduate degree has become both increasingly expensive and worthless over time.
The numbers I posted above are proof of that.
Bartlow and Grundy aren’t outliers, they’re typical university professors, SJWs indoctrinating students on leftism.
Spend $200K to learn how to be an unemployed/underemployed activist?
Moronic.