The woman who heads the USC Rossier School of Education’s Master in Arts Teaching Program, Margo Pensavalle, is, I believe, a more insidious witch than I depicted in last week’s Bottom Line piece on her treatment of Sneferu Azikiwe. I only had space last week to tell part of the atrocities she’s committed against Azikiwe. Now I must tell the rest. Those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about need to go back and read last week’s Bottom Line and get mad as hell like the rest of us and up to speed on what must be done to correct this outrage.

Azikiwe (pronounced: Ah-zee-key-way), was born in Belize, speaks perfect Spanish, and grew up on 55th and Broadway. He developed an Afro-centric attitude and, like so many of our brothers, changed his name from the one his mama gave him to something more reflective of his view of himself, hence: Sneferu (which I can’t pronounce and don’t even fool with) Azikiwe. His mother was a teacher; his grandfather was a teacher; his two aunts are teachers and all he’s ever wanted to be is a teacher — an urban educator — a preceptor of truth, a classroom docent explaining to children the beautiful and intricate tapestries of their heritage, a molder of minority youth into all that they can be after they understood all that they have been.

Azikiwe was born to do this. While still a teenager, Azikiwe created the African Truth and Correctness Committee that set about teaching younger kids to read books on African history. As an undergraduate honor history student at USC, he joined the campus chapter of 100 Black Men in which he and other like-minded students mentored little brothers with their studies, heightened their aspirations and took them on field trips to expand their horizons beyond the ’hood in which they lived. Azikiwe taught at John Adams and Muir middle schools and is currently teaching at Manual Arts High School, where he is much like the Pied Piper, attracting inquisitive boys to his side for lunch hour mind-expanding games and intellectual pursuits. But his dream of grabbing the brass ring, a California teaching credential, has been denied him because of the animus of one crazy White woman — Pensavalle.

Azikiwe is praised for his intellect and teaching prowess by everybody who has experienced, observed or taught him. He was a straight-A student in the USC teacher training program until Pensavalle took him under her personal wing. She gave him all Ds and denied him the teaching credential he should have gotten in May. She found fault with everything he did. She criticized him for doing the things for which everyone else praised him! Why? Because he is a strong, confident, charismatic Black man with a multicultural world view, of prime leadership quality, with a deep support system, and is an exquisite role model for inner-city kids, is destined for greatness and will inspire a whole lot of Black kids to be just like him.

Let me give you an example of what Pensavalle did. One of Azikiwe’s students asked in class why is it that during slavery time none of the freed slaves had guns. Azikiwe explained that the White people wouldn’t let them have guns. He said: “What would you do if your mama, sister, wife or child was being beaten or sold by some plantation owner and you had a gun?” The student answered: “I’d shoot him.” Azikiwe responded: “And that’s why they didn’t have any guns.”

Pensavalle went ballistic. She accused Azikiwe of inciting violence in the classroom! I submit that he was doing no such thing. He was telling an historical truth. Pensavalle went off on Azikiwe again about his perfectly appropriate response to a student’s question about Thomas Jefferson’s sexual relations with his Black slaves. I further submit that Pensavalle is way out of line, as no lily White woman has any right to impose her concept of slavery on a Black man imparting Black history upon a formerly enslaved people! She needs to be fired.

I see Pensavalle is an equal opportunity bigot. In addition to Azikiwe, Pensavalle gave two other credential hopefuls her “personal, special attention” this spring and one of them was a Chinese immigrant who has lived in the U.S. most of his life. He’s an older gentleman who has already earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in mathematics from UC Berkeley. He enrolled in the USC teacher program because he wants to teach math. But Pensavalle ended that dream by denying him a teaching credential that he, too, should have gotten in May. Why? She didn’t like his accent. Acocording Azikiwe, she suggested that he talked funny!

The third student is reported to be female whose fate is still unknown to me. But she could have been a Latina who, while teaching her students about the great Army Gen. John Pershing, whom we honor with a downtown square, might have mentioned that as great a military man as he was, he never did catch Pancho Villa, who was one of only two foreign militia since 1812 to attack the United States and get away with it. If so, Pensavalle may have accused her of inciting revolution in the classroom! Or the student may have been a Native American, who, following the same lesson plan, may have mentioned Pershing’s killing campaigns against the Apaches, his roundup and deportation of huge numbers of Cree to Canada, and oh, his participation as a second lieutenant in the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre. If so, Pensavalle would have fled the classroom in fear for her scalp!

I believe we should put the blame for Pensavalle where it belongs — squarely on the shoulders of USC President Steven Sample. It’s his university. This despicable woman works for him. He is totally responsible for this outrage and he must fix it now. Sample is the USC face the community sees, as he often appears at community functions talking about the “partnership” between USC and the community and the goodwill that exists between us, yet this bigoted broad over at his place is messing with our best and brightest. If I go to another event and look up and see Sample at a podium talking about the symbiotic relationship between the community and USC, I’m going to throw my shoes at him!

And Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has a responsibility here. Ridley-Thomas has a doctoral degree from USC and is a close personal friend of Sample, who actually headed Mark’s transition team and delivered the keynote address at his supervisorial installation. He’s got some sway with Sample and he needs to use it. He needs to beat Sample up over this outrage.

Ridley-Thomas needs to stop what he’s doing — lighten up off that Crenshaw Line and that King Hospital thing long enough to get Azikiwe his teaching credential by any means necessary. Ridley-Thomas and our legislators must bypass Sample and USC and bring the state of California in on this matter if they have to. Azikiwe’s teaching credential is too important to us as a people to let this stand. Mark, Karen, Mike, Curren, Rod, Steve — you need to fix this now because we don’t have a moment to lose. And if I don’t see any movement in the right direction, my next Soulvine will be entitled: “Mothers, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Trojans Unless They Have A Snowball’s Chance in Hell of Being Football Stars!”