College district’s explanation for standing by Walker misses mark
The San Diego Community College District last week stood by its decision to have author Alice Walker as the keynote speaker at the district’s investiture celebration May 31, an event in which the district formally confers power on its new chancellor, Carlos Cortez.
Walker, author of “The Color Purple,” was recently dropped from participating in the Bay Area Book Festival because of her support for David Icke, a writer whose work she has promoted regularly despite those works advancing antisemitism and conspiracy theories.
For example, Icke has pushed conspiracy theories around COVID-19, spreading misinformation about the virus and even suggesting a Jewish group had been involved with its spread, according to the BBC.
As Vox Media noted in its thorough breakdown of Walker and Icke’s relationship, Icke has also incorporated a wide variety of antisemitic conspiracy theories in his work suggesting Jewish people financed the Holocaust, were behind the slave trade, and are pulling the strings for racist groups, like the Ku Klux Klan.
Despite the actions of other organizations and receiving criticism from some in San Diego’s Jewish community, the district defended its decision. It told the Union-Tribune’s Gary Robbins that Walker is a source of inspiration for many in the community — including Cortez — and the decision does not mean it agrees with every statement she has made.
“(She) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and her participation is consistent with the District’s support of the free exchange of ideas and opinions,” the district said.
There is a lot to unpack here about Walker and Icke, but let’s start with that explanation from SDCC because it relies on a copout people lean on far too often when confronted by hateful speech.
This isn’t about a free exchange of ideas or someone trying to “silence” some part of a conversation. This is about reckless rhetoric and whose voices we choose to elevate in a conversation.
There is no doubt that Walker has contributed mightily to literature, just as she has undeniably forged an impressive record advocating for social justice going back
to her early days working for the New York Department of Welfare and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
However, that doesn’t mean we refuse to look at the entire person, and it doesn’t absolve her of the dangerous ideas she has chosen to promote.
Icke is not someone who should be admired or have his work promoted because he traffics in absurd conspiracy theories and his work is unapologetically antisemitic. The fact that Walker chooses to use her platform and well-earned cultural cache to promote him is disturbing.
Even setting Icke aside though, it is problematic for SDCC to turn a blind eye to Walker’s own words and essentially honor her with the unchallenged platform that comes with being a keynote speaker. As writers like Nylah Burton and Yair Rosenberg have noted, Walker herself has directly espoused antisemitic rhetoric. Among other things, Walker published a poem on her blog in 2017 called “To Study the Talmud,” in reference to a book of Jewish law that is often quoted out of context by extremists to attribute a litany of ills to Jews.
For example, Walker uses her poem to claim the ancient text condones pedophilia and the murder and the enslavement of nonJews.
Those kind of views go beyond simply exchanging ideas or differences of opinion. They’re hateful and dangerous, and community leaders like Cortez and SDCC have a moral obligation to not allow those views to go unchallenged.
Preventing someone from having an unchallenged platform is not canceling someone, and that is one of the fundamental issues with SDCC’s choice here.
In an event like a book festival, which I actually think should have kept Walker’s panel, a person is typically forced to engage in a give-and-take with a moderator and audience members during which a person faces a degree of accountability for their views.
In an event like a keynote address, though, there typically is none of that. Someone like Walker is given a position of honor, as well as the opportunity to share whatever they want unchallenged, all while never having to answer for past actions.
I’m not sure what values or culture Cortez and SDCC think they’re creating by bestowing someone like Walker with the honor of that platform. It sends a disheartening message to members of our Jewish community, and I’d argue it calls into question how seriously leadership takes bigotry in other forms.
Compounding all of this is also Walker’s refusal to acknowledge Icke for what he is, and her refusal to acknowledge the validity of some of the criticisms that have been directed at her. She has hidden behind the guise that this has to do with her advocating for Palestine, which is asinine.
Walker has long criticized the Israeli government and its behavior toward Palestinians. There is nothing wrong with some of those criticisms, just as there’s nothing wrong with criticizing any other government. But there is a difference between saying the Israeli government treats the rights of Palestinians differently than the rights of other citizens, and promoting conspiracy theories like a cabal of Jewish people are running everything or Holocaust denial.
Walker should know that. And the fact that she doesn’t or is intentionally ignoring it should disqualify her from being given this honor and an unchallenged platform.
I sincerely hope that Cortez and SDCC re-evaluate the decision or at a bare minimum provide a much more thorough and thoughtful explanation for why they are standing by Walker. Because this is a weird message to send to the community early in your tenure.