Communism! Still scary, apparently.
At least to a gaggle of Republicans at Texas Tech University in Lubbock who want to bar civil rights activist Angela Davis from speaking on their campus, according to Fox 34 News.
Said Carl Tepper, chair of the Lubbock County Republican Party and, seemingly, one of those whom the passage of time and the culture wars forgot: “I would rather hear from someone who has respect among the community.”
But wait. Angela Davis doesn’t like Lubbock? And what did Lubbock ever do to her?
Well, Tepper further clarified his position—if you can call it that—by asking, “Why wouldn’t we at every opportunity inject positive role models into our young people, rather than someone who’s so angry all the time and has nothing but consternation against the American dream?”
Now we see. She’s an angry, scary black women who once said mean things about the prison-industrial complex, one of our most glorious of flawed, racist institutions.
Got it.
Davis likely couldn’t care less about the GOP’s amount of complaining. She is, after all, a legendary counterculturalist and scholar who went through the realest of deals.
What can Lubbock Republicans do that hasn’t already been done to her? She’s already been targeted by J. Edgar Hoover, was nearly locked up for life on false charges and had to live with this hot unconstitutional mess.
But a few college Republicans are still mad because she used to be a member of the Communist Party? She’s not anymore—and even if she were, there’s nothing illegal about it. But hey, why not fight your grandfather’s culture war for him?
According to Rebeca Jurado, co-chair of the Tech College Republicans, “What concerns us is the fact that she was on the FBI’s Most Wanted and she’s a very radical communist, which is a view that doesn’t really resonate with anyone at Texas Tech.”
So much for the land of the free. And so much for Black History Month at Texas Tech.
It looks more like they can’t handle a guest speaker who in any way questions the fairness of the so-called American dream. In which case, Angela Davis isn’t the problem. It’s being scared of hearing from people who may think differently from you.
