NEA invites anti-Zionist Jesse Hagopian of Rethinking Schools to keynote event at Minority / Women’s Leadership Training (WLT) Seminar to Advance Racial & Social Justice

Hagopian was in a ' fireside chat' with Princess Moss, vice president of the NEA.

This weekend, the National Education Association, the largest education association in the country, held its annual Minority Leadership Training (MLT) / Women’s Leadership Training (WLT) Seminar to Advance Racial & Social Justice for states on the West Coast. Next year will be the East Coast’s turn.

The training promises to teach “participants foundational leadership skills, provides tools to proactively understand the impact of racial inequities in education and provides strategies for coalition building around racial, social, and economic equity issues.”

Here is NEA President Becky Pringle talking about the training and its importance in making teachers into activists, making equity central and continuing the NEA’s work in racial and social justice:

And here is Vice President Princess Moss talking about why leadership training that caters only for women and people of color is important - she says “this program creates social justice warriors”:

So what was on the agenda this weekend, besides a keynote address from anti-Israel activist Jesse Hagopian?

This session calls on women and “gender expansive” leaders…

Unsurprisingly for a leadership training conference targeted at women and people of color only, the session for “white people” seems to have been sparsely attended. The purpose of this session was to learn how to “tap into our own self-interest to center race, class and gender in all our work”:

For the full agenda, see here.

Hagopian was there for a “fireside chat” with Vice President Moss

Moss called Hagopian “outstanding” and advertised his upcoming book “Teach Truth: the Struggle for antiracist education.”

Previously reported in this substack, Hagopian, in a conversation facilitated by the Zinn Education Project and Prism on “Teaching Truths: Educators Speak on Justice & Liberation in the Classroom”, had the following to say:

“You’re either teaching for oppression or you’re teaching for liberation. And you have to pick a side.”

“Social justice pedagogy is what love looks like in the public schools.”

“In Gaza they’re facing scholasticide…here in the United States, we don’t have scholasticide but we are facing epistemicide - the destruction of ideas and knowledge.”

“Kids have a choice to make: They can join a long history of white supremacy or they can join the history of allyship. We empower those kids.”

Hagopian has a long history of anti-Israel activism, previously covered in this substack:

Hagopian has a long history of far-left, or progressive left, activism. In 2006, “Jesse served as the campaign manager for Seattle Black Panther founding captain Aaron Dixon’s Green Party bid for U.S. senate with the message of, “Out of war…and into our communities!”” In 2011, Hagopian was part of a delegation to Israel and the Palestinian territories with Interfaith Peacebuilders (now known as Eyewitness Palestine). Eyewitness Palestine has had some unsavory associations over the years and has expressed support for convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

After a return from the delegation, Hagopian took up with Black4Palestine.

Hagopian has also written about what he sees as the connection between Israel’s “settler-colonial” policies and the United States. “Rethinking Schools” and the Zinn Education Project republished the article, which calls to “free Palestine and free Palestine Pedagogy.”

On October 7th 2023, Hagopian posted nothing to his instagram. He was busy on twitter though - justifying the October 7th massacre without even naming the perpetrators. Quite a feat.

He was back on instagram by October 13th though -

Hagopian believes that Israel and the United States are “settler colonial states” that “rely on genocide to exist”

He is also vocally anti-capitalist

Here is Hagopian’s trailer for his upcoming book. It is striking that these social justice educators seem to know what the “truth” is and must be taught - as I’ve said before, indoctrination or activism starts from the premise that truth is known and must be spread, education is about thinking critically to uncover truth. It is clear that Hagopian’s focus is on education as social justice activism and tearing down “systems.”

The idea of education as activism clearly as the endorsement of the NEA.