“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
This was a quote by Malcolm X imploring consumers of popular media, the general public both yesterday and today, to be critical, skeptical of the messages promoted in the newspapers, online publications, and even social media. This quote was given in the 1960s but still resonates today. For those who don’t know who I am, I am Dr. Keith E. Benson, president of the Camden Education Association, resident of Parkside (Camden), and author of the book Education Reform and Gentrification in the Age of #CamdenRising (2018). I have (alongside many many others) dedicated the better part of the past decade fighting for the strengthening and growth of Camden’s public schools because I know the plan of local Democratic power brokers to upend Camden demographically by displacing swaths of current residents and replacing them with more “desirable” potential residents. Local politicians are never going to publicly admit this during a press conference or in print, but the writing is on the wall. They call it “redevelopment” or “Camden Rising”. But what many may not have known is the role the systemic dismantling of Camden’s public schools has in hastening the forced remaking of Camden. In short, no city gets an influx of higher income, whiter residents without breaking down the existing urban public school system, which is precisely what former Mayor Dana Redd, former Governor Christie, former Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard, George Norcross, current Mayor Frank Moran, and a host of local politicos have been dedicating much of their recent energies to achieve. Part of their effort to achieve their desired ends is through “winning the messaging.”
To be sure, in fighting to preserve our Camden City School District (CCSD) schools, and grow them, we come across many op/eds and mudslinging that is inaccurate and contextually ridiculous. The longer I’ve been the CEA president, the better I’ve become at simply ignoring the nonsense; the drivel. Much of what is being authored that is critical of our schools and celebratory of renaissance schools, over the past few years, comes from organizations and people who are simply paid to parrot a corporate contrived message that CCSD schools are bad, and renaissance schools are the best thing that ever happened to education in Camden. Nevermind the reality that our CCSD students achieve quite well academically and graduate to go off to college continuing their studies like students from all over New Jersey, for them, the narrative has to be CCSD schools are terrible no matter how false the claim. Again, I ignore most of their propaganda because I know, and many other residents know, the authors of such slanted pieces are paid spokespeople. Outside billionaires fund their messaging and messengers. They fund their staff. They fund their offices. They fund their gatherings. Such “Camden-based” groups are in every sense of the word, Astroturf, fake, phony. (To be clear, I take no issue with the staff who work with such groups as I understand decent-paying jobs are far too scarce in this city that has promised billions of dollars worth of tax breaks to huge corporations, but I’ll save that for another submission.)
So what has caused me to finally respond now? Well, recently op/eds and social media postings went up criticizing the New Jersey Department of Education, and the teacher’s union working to save the beloved Cramer Hill school, Veterans Memorial Family School. That is true, our Camden Education Association along with very caring Cramer Hill parents, along with the New Jersey Education Association, NJDOE, and CCSD worked, planned, and mapped out a way to save this 85-year-old staple of the Cramer Hill community, which is work we at CEA especially, are immensely proud of. After all, it takes very little effort, very little imagination or brainpower to simply shut things down or close doors, but it takes much more humanity, care, compassion, and thought to plan a way to preserve and build, and that’s what all of the aforementioned parties accomplished. Because of that, today, nearly 400 Cramer Hill students and growing, attend a wonderful school and will continue to do so into the future, We did that together, and are proud to have done so.
Now what would be said, was that the postings were to ask the NJDOE to release needed supplementary aid to our District. That seems innocent enough right? But what such op/eds or social media postings never acknowledged was why the District needs such aid in the first place. They never conveyed that the former superintendent, who such groups and Camden political operatives fawned over, handled our District’s budget irresponsibly for five years before resigning all while the mayoral-appointed board of education said nothing. Today consequently, the DOE, rather than simply issue the District a check without having a clear understanding of the mess our District’s finances were in because Rouhanifard. The State is, instead, meticulously going through CCSD expenses spanning years so that they have a clear understanding of what is needed here. While the work is indeed time-consuming, the reality is the NJDOE would not have to be doing this work if the former superintendent hadn’t handled our District’s money so irresponsibly – nowhere did last week’s op/ed or social media posting convey that truth. Instead, they’d rather cast aspersions on the DOE and CEA, and call Veterans Memorial a “failing” school in the media. But we know why: They are paid very well to do it by billionaires from all over the country, and the Camden City Democrats’ political aim is to further dismantle our schools to make it easier to collapse our neighborhoods and displace our residents and neighbors.
This is the truth and I’m convinced people recognize honesty when they come across it…I just may have to do a better job in the future responding to the intentional disinformation in a more timely fashion.
