The Black Panthers of the 1960s and 1970s and the New Black Panther Party today are known for employing violence, intimidation and radicalism to get their way. The Black Panthers were founded in 1966 on Marxist principles, advocating socialism as a solution for the grievances of African-Americans.

Its “Honorary Prime Minister,” Stokley Carmichael, said in a speech that year:

“This country is a nation of thieves. It stole everything it has, beginning with black people. The U.S. cannot justify its existence as the policeman of the world any longer. I do not want to be a part of the American pie. The American pie means raping South Africa, beating Vietnam, beating South America, raping the Philippines, raping every country you’ve been in. I don’t want any of your blood money. I don’t want to be part of that system. We must question whether or not we want this country to continue being the wealthiest country in the world at the price of raping everybody else.”

The far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, which also has curricula that will be featured in this series, has labeled the New Black Panthers a “hate group.” That's saying something.

But that's of little relevance to Wayne Au.

The Seattle high school teacher-turned-professor taught his students to apply the principles of the Black Panthers to their own problems. Seriously.

He wrote:

“I taught about the Panthers in the context of a high school African Studies class in Seattle that focused on African history and the experience of Diaspora. Of the 30 working- and middle-class students, most of them 10th graders, 25 were African American, four were white, and one was Chicana. When I teach about the Black Power Movement, I try to connect the movement to today's issues. One way is by having students review the Black Panther's Ten Point Program and develop their own personal versions of the program.”

Just to appreciate how far on the fringe Au is, consider what he told SocialistWorker.org about standardized testing:

“Wayne Au, professor of education at the University of Washington in Bothell and an editor of Rethinking Schools, noted that ‘test makers purposefully choose to use questions on tests that rich kids will usually answer more correctly than poor kids’ so that the results fall into a bell-curve spread.”

So perhaps the way to get back at the test makers is to employ Black Panthers’ principles.