American Federation of Teachers’ President Attacks “Owning Class” Jews for Criticizing Unions
I stumbled upon this article by The Jerusalem Post about some very troubling remarks made by the American Federation of Teachers’ president, Randi Weingarten. Her remarks criticized jews for using public schools when they first came to America as immigrants to boost themselves from the working class to the owning class and accused them of trying to strip the new generation of working-class Americans of these same benefits by supporting school choice and speaking out against the teachers union’s demands for school closures. Here is a part of what she said:
“American Jews are now part of the ownership class. Jews were immigrants from somewhere else. And they needed the right to have public education. And they needed power to have enough income and wealth for their families that they could put their kids through college and their kids could do better than they have done. Both economic opportunity through the labor movement and an educational opportunity through public education were key for Jews to go from the working class to the ownership class. What I hear when I hear that question is that those who are in the ownership class now want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it.”
I spotted two major concerns right from the start:
- Her Marxist rhetoric speaks volumes. This is the PRESIDENT of the American Federation of Teachers using textbook Marxist language and messaging: she reduced America to a mere “owning class” versus “working class” society and pits one against the other. Referring to Americans as “owning class” and “working class” is not only archaic considering our exceptional middle class and opportunities for mobility between classes, it’s also hard to deny she’s exposing her radical ideological values.
- Her attack on Jewish Americans who dare to challenge the power of teachers unions and public schools is gross. Given the long history of Jews being portrayed as evil money-handlers, the AFT president should have known better than to criticize them as privileged members of the owning class shutting out the working class from opportunity. This kind of cultural marxism breeds hatred, jealousy, and potentially dangerous conflict.
Can you guys believe the AFT president would speak like this, or are you not shocked at all? I feel both ways on this one. Like most behavior I see from the left today, I’m disgusted but still not shocked.
