Long story short, Insurgent Visuals, via Breitbart's Big Government, published videos of a course Judy Ancel co-taught with Don Giljum at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC).
The videos are admittedly edited and as of now, Giljum has resigned and Ancel is alleging the edits were deliberate to make her look bad. A meme the far left has taken up vehemently.
Statement by Judy Ancel:
* Breitbart’s version: “Violence is a tactic and it’s to be used when it’s the appropriate tactic.”
* The real version: After students had watched a film on the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike and the assassination of Martin Luther King, they were discussing nonviolence. I said, “One guy in the film. . . said ‘violence is a tactic, and it’s to be used when it’s the appropriate tactic.’ . . . “ The class proceeded to discuss and debate this.
Insurgent Visuals provides the actual video Ancel claims she was quoting from and finds:
In fact, the activist she “quoted” from the 1993 film At The River I Stand, Coby Smith, said, “…we saw non-violence as a tactic, and a tactic alone,” not, as Ancel erroneously claims,”violence is a tactic, and it’s to be used when it’s appropriate, the appropriate tactic” (our emphasis). Smith’s original, full quote appears at 1:02 – 1:15, below:
Go watch the video for yourself, Insurgent Visuals is correct in their transcript of what Ancel claims she was quoting to be quite different from what she said in her initial comments to the students in the course. (video here)
As for the teacher that resigned even though official retirement was just days away, his comments were clear as day and leave no room for misunderstanding:
LaborNotes.org has the facts wrong. Like Ancel, Giljam is misquoting and “selectively editing” himself to remove his admission that he had “inflicted pain and suffering on some people.”
Here is his Giljam’s full quote from the lecture–responding to a student who had observed that “different scenarios call for different action”:
Certainly, and I tend to agree with you, because I think if you look at labor’s history over the years, you’ll find that, you know, we’ve had a very violent history, with violent protest and reaction to suppression, OK? But as time has changed, the tactics have changed, or the need for those have changed, OK? Now, you know, that’s not to say that, in certain instances, strategically played out and for certain purposes that industrial sabotage doesn’t have it’s place–I think it certainly does. But as far as–and I can’t really honestly say that I’ve never wished, or have never been in a position where I haven’t wished real harm on somebody, or inflicted any pain and suffering on some people [Interjection: "We're all human."] that, you know, didn’t ask for it, but, you know–it certainly has it’s place, it certainly makes you feel a hell of a lot better sometimes, but beyond that, I’m not sure as a tactic today, the type of violence or reaction to the violence that we had back then would be called for here, and I think it would do more harm than good.
The portions not in bold, above, were not included in the video we produced. That may not have been the way Giljam would like his quote to have been edited, but it’s a fair edit, in our opinion, and includes Giljam’s confession about inflicting “pain and suffering”–which his statement to LaborNotes.org does not.
Children are impressionable and no teacher from kindergarten through college should be encouraging violence in any way, shape or form.
For the record, a person cannot claim to quote something from someone else, then change the whole quote to make it mean something else and still claim it is someone elses quote.
Once you change a quote, it becomes your quote, your statement.
Ancel can claim she simply misunderstood the initial quote and misstated it, or she can claim the quote as her own, but her BS about it being what someone else said is proven wrong by simply listening to the original quote from the 1993 film At The River I Stand which Insurgent Visuals happily found and provided to show Ancel trying to lie her way out of what she said.
Also, side note, it is annoying that a teacher would use a quote in this manner when she obviously had no clue what was actually said in the first place.
Ancel would definitely get an F if this was an assignment.
Related:
American Power- University of Missouri Fires Communist Labor Studies Professor Don Giljum: Democrat-Media-Complex Decries 'Shirley Sherroding' of Radical Academics
CBS St. Louis- "Union Official, College Lecturer Don Giljum Resigns After AFL-CIO Pressure, UM-KC Won’t Rehire Next Semester."
Big Government- Labor Notes: Union Official, College Lecturer Don Giljum Resigns After AFL-CIO Pressure, UM-KC Won’t Rehire Next Semester
Redstate provides both videos with "Union Leaders Teach Labor Studies Courses on Communism, Violence, Industrial Sabotage & Frying Cats."
Earlier Big Government reports here, here and here
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