The College of the Canyons, in the Santa Clarita Valley is paying $25,000 to a self proclaimed communist, so she can explain the wonders of communism. If she was a real communist, she would not take a dime. But like most commies, Angela Davis is a hypocrite.
“Our editorial was not critical of the college’s choice in choosing Angela Davis to speak, although we question their selection because there are dozens of other progressive left-wing speakers without her checkered background.
It’s COC’s pushback by sharing they had no need to expose our kids, their students, to the other side of the political spectrum.
We’ve been told the $25,000.00 (which apparently doesn’t include travel expenses), came from a DEI grant to pay for a speaker to discuss anti-racism. Since the COC population is approximately 60% Hispanic, hopefully they’ll include a Hispanic keynote speaker in the future.
They are using money meant to promote racism, for a racist. At least that is accurate-but NO anti-racist speakers are on the horizon. So the College of the Canyons has become a Klan in Tan headquarters.
Editorial by: Carl Goldman, KHTS, 4/10/23
Two weeks ago, we wrote an editorial about radical activist, Angela Davis appearing at College of the Canyons, this Saturday, April 15, 2023. Since then, her appearance has created passionate feelings from both sides of the political spectrum.
Her speaking appearance at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center is sold out so there’s obviously a lot of interest in hearing what she has to say.
Our editorial was not critical of the college’s choice in choosing Angela Davis to speak, although we question their selection because there are dozens of other progressive left-wing speakers without her checkered background.
It’s COC’s pushback by sharing they had no need to expose our kids, their students, to the other side of the political spectrum.
We’ve been told the $25,000.00 (which apparently doesn’t include travel expenses), came from a DEI grant to pay for a speaker to discuss anti-racism. Since the COC population is approximately 60% Hispanic, hopefully they’ll include a Hispanic keynote speaker in the future.
Almost all the feedback we received was in support of our editorial, asking for a balanced anti-racism speaker’s program. Suggestions for COC speaker invites included Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk, both have viewpoints that differ from Angela Davis, and they are both also anti-racist.
One reader’s comment to our original editorial, by ‘Anonymous’, claimed Angela Davis was never a Black Panther and suggested any Google search will back up that fact.
We believe ‘Anonymous’ simply read the Angela Davis bio on Wikipedia, a source that is known for cleansing left-wing bios and labeling prominent leaders who have a different narrative than Wikipedia’s viewpoint as “promoting conspiracy theories.”
But other than Wikipedia, such prominent websites as the History Channel, Smithsonian, New York Historical Society, the National Archives website, and thousands of other extremely credible websites confirm Angela Davis was indeed a member of the Black Panther party.
Even Wikipedia confirms Angela Davis is a Marxist. She ran two times as the Vice-Presidential ticket for the American Communist party and she’s a strong advocate against Israel.
Another reader claimed we would not be writing an editorial if Kyle Rittenhouse was invited to speak at COC. As we clearly stated in our previous editorial, we called for a balance of speakers, from both sides of the political spectrum. We want our students to be exposed to different viewpoints. What motivated us to speak out was that COC didn’t feel a need for any balance when we asked prior to writing our first editorial. Unfortunately, they still feel that way.
As we previously stated, we’ve been huge supporters of College of the Canyons since we first purchased KHTS radio in 1990. We’re disturbed that in 2023, the administration has not been listening to the concerns of our community.
We released our announcement about Angel Davis’s $25.000.00 speaking appearance hours before COC issued their press release. We received an e-mail that morning from one of COC’s five trustees. That board member agreed with our editorial. We learned the COC Board was not informed of the school’s decision to invite Angela Davis, or that the school spent that much money to secure her.
In the past, the board had always been asked to approve the performers who were suggested to appear at the College’s Performing Arts Center. Apparently, that has not been the case with keynote speakers.
Our intent isn’t to complain about a progressive point of view. We believe dissenting views create a healthy learning environment.
We also looked further into recent speeches by Angela Davis hoping she’s toned down her rhetoric. Apparently not.
In a recent interview, Ms. Davis stated, “We knew that the role of the police was to protect white supremacy.”
At the Women’s March on the day of President Trump’s inauguration, which protested his coming into office, Angela Davis was one of the keynote speakers. She called for the release from prison of Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Assata Shakur.
These three aren’t political prisoners we might exchange with Putin for a female basketball player. All are in American jails, having been convicted of first-degree murder of American law enforcement agents by an American jury.
Davis went on to say, “Over the next months and years we will be called upon to intensify our demands for social justice to become more militant in our defense of vulnerable populations. Those who still defend the supremacy of white male hetero-patriarchy had better watch out. The next 1,459 days of the Trump administration will be 1,459 days of resistance: Resistance on the ground, resistance in the classrooms, resistance on the job, resistance in our art and in our music.”
Click here to see the full transcript of her speech.
What’s especially ironic is Angela Davis was shocked during an interview with PBS when their reporter surprised her with evidence that her paternal lineage was white, her ancestors came aboard the Mayflower, and one of their descendants owned slaves in Alabama. It’s an interview that is still available to watch.
College of the Canyons has other choices to soften its decision to invite Angela Davis to speak by announcing they will invite other speakers later this year from opposite sides of the political spectrum, who will also speak out against racism.
We will continue to put pressure on College of the Canyons, not to stop or protest Angela Davis from speaking, but to have the college understand that we as a community are very upset, and we’d like COC to consider presenting a balance.
