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.”
Pogo Hears a Who
1, May 22, 2015 at 4:42 pm
Our Lady of Recycling and Climate Change.
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Back peddling furiously, he denies dissing Presbyterians. What is the one true religion Pogo?
Nothing at all. Keep up the good work.
I’m asking you Pogo, to tell us what EXACTLY you think is wrong with the Presbyterian religion.
Pogo,
Be specific. Tell the folks here exactly what you think is wrong with the Presbyterian Church.
“So do you think Presbyterians do nothing good for the community?”
Nonresponsive and fallacious.
You said “good things.”
What would those be, social justice-wise?
So do you think Presbyterians do nothing good for the community?
Pogo, so what do you think of the people who STAY in the Presbyterian church? Do you think they should find a “true” Christian church?
Inga – you went to Marquette, a fine Jesuit institution, and yet you are quibbling about other religions. You should be talking about your stand on the mural pro or con.
“the good things Presbyterian churches and other social justice churches do for the community”
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Pogo, don’t be shy. Do you think that the good things Presbyterian churches and other social justice churches do for the community are misguided? Would you consider them true Christians?
Why do you think the Presbyterians are disappearing?
Not sure, but there are fewer and fewer of them.
So tell me more about the type of people who worship there Pogo, what kind of people do you think they are? Do you think they are stupid people? Deluded people? Good people? Progs? Man hating feminists? I wonder, do you know anyone that belongs to a Presbyterian church? What do you think of them?
let’s just say “their appeal is becoming more selective.“
“In 1967, the PC(USA) had 3,304,321 members. In 2013, the membership was 1,760,200, a decline of 47 percent.”
I wonder why.
oh:
“PCUSA’s decline accelerated significantly after approving the ordination of non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy in mid-2011, which led to the creation of an alternative denomination in 2012 called ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. Over 100,000 members left the PCUSA in 2012 alone.“
Church
So OK Pogo, they are a Social Justice Chirch and so yes they may be SJWs. Now tell me what is wrong with this religion and the Christians who worship there.
You said so yourself:
“I. Annie
1, May 22, 2015 at 4:46 pm
Do you think they are SJWs?
1, May 22, 2015 at 4:05 pm
It’s one of those….Social Justice Churches.“
Pogo, what do you think of women deacons and ministers?
Presbyterian. Pogo tell us what is wrong with the Presbyterian religion and those people who belong to this denomination. Do you think Presbyterians are true Christians? Do you think they are SJWs?
Our Lady of Recycling and Climate Change.