Murderous Gang Infiltrates Chicago Public Schools and Even Takes Over Some!

August 21, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Everyone knows that hundreds of people a year die from gun violence in Chicago. The authorities try to pin most of this on conflicts between different gangs. And this truly is a major problem—one that the Revolution Club is working on solving the only way it can be solved, by getting the youth organized into the revolution.

But did you know that the public high schools of Chicago are openly brainwashing thousands of youths and organizing them into the most brutal gang on the planet—one that murders thousands of people a year even in relatively “peaceful” times? Did you know that senior gang members—so-called officers—not only openly walk the halls, but even teach classes and administer entire high schools, sporting their gang colors—complete with insignia showing how many of their “enemies” they’ve killed?

Yes, we’re talking about the U.S. military and its cancerous infiltration and takeover of many public schools in Chicago. This program took off under Mayor Daley II in Chicago, with a lot of the people who ended up in the Obama operation. By 2008, when Obama was elected president, Chicago had the most militarized public school system in the nation. And that remains true today with over 9,000 students participating in JROTC programs in 45 of the district’s 104 high schools. Over 1,000 students are enrolled in one of the six stand-alone military high schools that are literally run by the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, and hundreds more are attending the nine other military high schools that are called “schools within a school.”

The Army Wants You—to Kill and Die for Imperialism

There are two purposes to these programs. First, the army is looking for Black and Brown bodies to kill and be killed in the service of imperialism. In Chicago, 85 percent of public school students and 93 percent of JROTC cadets are Black or Latino. The military preys on students who face a very bleak future. They literally recruit in some schools by comparing what happens if you get killed in the army (making a big deal out of the money your family will supposedly get) and what happens if you get killed gang-banging (a street memorial but no money). This is the choice being offered young Black and Latino people in this country—that fact alone is cause enough for a revolution.

Training Robots Who Brag About Their Obedience

The other purpose is to brainwash these youth. Listen to this well-programmed JROTC student in an online debate with opponents of the JROTC programs: “Right now... every kid is thinking about what to do in their lives. If the economy is fucked up... of course we have to rely on parents... scholarships or the military to fulfill their dreams.” Getting the JROTC cadets to go for this kind of brainwash is made all the easier by the complete lack of training they receive in critical thinking. Another cadet said: “When people see that we went to a military school, they know we are obedient, we follow directions, we are disciplined.” Yes, they do—and that’s NOT a good thing. You are like sheep being led to the slaughter, with the exception that sheep do not brag about their obedience.

There is another horrific, but little discussed, source of attraction of JROTC that is particularly relevant to Chicago. Joining JROTC can keep the police from killing you. A professor who has studied this question put it this way:

Financial benefits are not the junior reserve program’s only draw. It also allows working-class and minority youth an opportunity to dispel negative stereotypes and avoid profiling by associating themselves with one of the country’s most venerated institutions. They recognize it’s one way of not being immediately suspect. In Chicago, it’s so pervasive. To wear a uniform really takes you out of that mechanism of surveillance.

And all this “thank you for your service” bullshit that is so dominant in the culture has impacted students joining JROTC, as the professor explains:

Far from being profiled, junior reserve cadets receive a positive response from the public. Some are even mistaken for military personnel and thanked for their service. For teens who are often viewed with suspicion and hostility, this ability to “command a certain amount of respect” acts as a powerful incentive to join the junior reserve program.

In other words, and borrowing from the words quoted from the cadet above, wearing one of these shameful uniforms marks you as “safe and obedient”—to the most murderous oppressors on the planet.

Drilling Students—in Outright Lies!

This brainwashing comes complete with outright lies about America that are pounded into their heads in this program. The JROTC history books claim that the “Gulf of Tonkin Incident” actually happened in spite of the fact that decades ago it was clearly proven that the entire thing was invented by the U.S. government to justify launching a massive, murderous bombing campaign on North Vietnam in a vain effort to maintain the U.S.’s imperialist domination of Southeast Asia. Similarly, JROTC materials claim that before the U.S. attacked Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein worked with Osama bin Laden and that he may have had weapons of mass destruction—both of which are blatant and well-proven lies. But the biggest lie of all is this: that oppressed people can overcome their oppression by joining and fighting in the army of their oppressor and fucking over other people.

With Trump now threatening war all over the planet and promoting the cult of the military at the same time, it is hard to believe that this whole poisonous program won’t get seriously ramped up. It behooves everyone with a shred of respect for the truth, critical thinking and basic justice to wake these youth up this fall. And it behooves revolutionaries to organize them out of that madness and into the fight to REALLY end oppression—revolution.

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