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AOC’s Masterclass
A lesson plan for teachers everywhere.
Depending on which side of The Pond you’re on, you may have witnessed the battle royale that took place on the floor of the US House of Representatives last week. Briefly, Congressman Ted Yoho accosted Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) on the steps of the Capitol building, informing her that she was “crazy, “out of her freakin’ mind”, “dangerous” and “disgusting”, because hey — that’s how Congressmen let their colleagues know they disagree with their political positions, right?
Here, watch the CSPAN video of her whole speech, because she spends the first three minutes setting the scene.
AOC decided to address the issue, not because of the incident on the Capitol steps, — like many women, she’s been there and is running out of t-shirt space. It was Yoho’s victim-playing non-apology straw the next day that finally broke this camel’s back. Jessica Valenti dissected that speech here, so I won’t reinvent the wheel.
I have watched AOC’s “point of personal privilege” many times now and still marvel at how much she packed into ten minutes. As she said at the time, this wasn’t for her, it was for other women, many of them even younger than she is. (Let me just pause to lament that a thirty year old woman is already having to fight for younger woman.)
