An Advancement Placement U.S. History teacher in New Jersey was honored recently “for his work educating his students about social justice.”
Garbriel Tangalo teaches 10th- and 11th-grade AP US History at Bergen County Technical High School at Teterboro, New Jersey, just across the river from Manhattan.
According to patch.com, “he has been named an Alfred P. Sloan Teaching Champion by the Council for Economic Education… The award honors teachers who effectively deliver content to students in and out of the classroom.”
What exactly it means to “effectively deliver” social justice propaganda “in and out of the classroom” is anyone’s guess.
But we can get an idea of Tangalo’s politics from his a C.V. and a few of his public statements. According to his profile on the website of the Urban League for Bergen County, Tangalo says
As an active union member, I serve as Treasurer, Legislative Action Team Chair and Evaluation Committee Chair of the Bergenfield EA. At the county and state-level, I am active through the NJEA SPARKS Academy, NJEA Apprenticeship for Organizational Development, NJEA Minority Leadership Training Cadre, NJEA Delegate Assembly, NJEA Union School Program and NEA Representative Assembly.
Tangalo also runs a “Social Justice Video Log,” which he describes as a “A weekly video series on my thoughts concerning human rights and social justice.”
Tangalo gave an interview at the 2016 New Jersey Education Association Convention. Initially his answers were more guarded, parroting the standard word salad of social justice platitudes about “activism,” and “awareness,” and importance of “getting involved.” The interviewer said “Social activism in 2017 – define it.” Tangalo responded:
Activism is really just about being “aware” and “involved.” So, if we are talking about social activism, it’s about raising your own social consciousness – being active in your community to advocate for issues that are actually important, not only for you, but also to your community.
As an educator, we’re role models for our students, right. So, in an economics class, or a global studies class, if we’re talking about being involved and being active, we would have to model that, right… it’s really about mobilizing and getting people involved and active civicly.
Tangalo then shifted to the standard oppression talking points, saying “Social justice absolutely – if you look at our history, it’s just been a long struggle from the beginning of our country, through every decade, through every generation.”
Then, in a rare moment of social justice warrior candidness, Tangalo let slip what social justice activism is really about. The interviewer asked Tangalo to respond to someone who might say “Politics isn’t cool.”
Interviewer: Say someone were to say, ‘Politics isn’t cool.’ What do you say?
Tangalo’s response: “Politics is cool. Politics is about power.” Social justice activism “is about continuing to build the power for the issues that matter to you.”
Social justice warriors don’t dislike power, they lust after power. There aren’t for freedom, they are for using the power of the state to force society to do what they say.
Several years ago, the battles over the AP US History Curriculum made national headlines, as social justice educators pushed lessons and perspectives of the cultural Marxists like Howard Zinn. Then, unexpectedly, the SJWs backed off – it appeared to a be a victory for the opponents of the left’s historical revisionism. But in reality, the social justice educators knew they could give in on the official curriculum, then just wait until the parents and administrators left the room and teach whatever they want. Gabriel A. Tangalo’s award for injecting social justice propaganda into his AP US History classes is just more proof of this fact.