When is a summer camp not a summer camp? When it is organized by Black Lives Matter

When is a summer camp not a summer camp? When it is organized by Black Lives Matter

Ah, summertime! A chance for kids to commune with nature — to while away the days frolicking in the lake, the nights around the campfire toasting marshmallows and swapping ghost stories.

If that is your impression of summer camp, prepare to be disabused of that notion. The Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter has planned its own week-long summer camp for children as young as 10. But none of the tykes will be wasting time making useless crafts to take home. Instead they’ll be gearing up for the revolution to come.

The brains (if that is the correct term) behind the “Youth Activist Camp and Resistance Space 2017” is Anthony J. Ratcliff, who teaches pan-African studies at California State University-Los Angeles, and CSULA colleague Melina Abdullah.

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According to a post on the Facebook page of Black Lives Matter L.A.:

In addition to learning strategies for organizing social justice campaigns and direct action tactics, the camp will focus on community building, skill-sharing, critical literacy, public speaking, as well as techniques for developing healthy collective- and self-care practices. All youth attendees will be served a breakfast snack, lunch, and afternoon snack.

Parents who normally worry that their children will never bathe during their time away at camp can take comfort in the fact that their 10-year-old will be washed daily. Or at least his brain will.

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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