Academic freedom of thought takes a hit again- Alice Walker

[ellenrr]

Three weeks ago, the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women (CEW) “disinvited” Alice Walker from speaking at its 50th Anniversary celebration. Walker, a Pulitzer Prize winner and world-renowned writer, was informed by her agent that the CEW withdrew its invitation because donors to the department took issue with some of Walker’s comments regarding Israel.

http://mondoweiss.net/2013/09/in-the-wake-of-alice-walker-cancellation-university-of-michigan-must-clarify-its-position-on-academic-freedom.html

[Recursion]

1. Kind of ironic coming from a supporter of BDS, though

[msanthrope]

3. Her public refusal to allow The Color Purple to be translated into Hebrew is even more

ironic, no?

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2012/0620/Alice-Walker-refuses-publication-of-The-Color-Purple-in-Hebrew

[ellenrr]

4. oh well... no Alice Walker fans here I guess...lol

[Recursion]

7. I love Walker. I also support BDS, for that matter

It just seems strange to do that and then complain about academic freedom when the same tactic is used against you.

[ellenrr]

12. but BDS asks academics not to participate, this action was not asking, it was compelling.

ok, I see the point you are making,
but the point I was making is that this is just one of many incidents of people being refused for their stance on Israel.
And the students evidently agree with me, as they have mounted a protest.

[roody]

9. What is BDS?

[Recursion]

10. Boycott/Divest/Sanction

An attempt by pro-Palestinian activists to use the same tactics used against apartheid South Africa against Israel (this has also sort of seamlessly merged into the "one state solution" faction). I only bring it up because a lot of the actual mechanics of BDS involve not inviting academics from Israeli institutions and not accepting invitations to those institutions.

[msanthrope]

2. She's been invited to speak at the university at another event. And who can blame them for not

wanting her to speak at the CEW's 50th? Alice Walker recently claimed that white women can't lead because they have too many cell memories of witch burnings....

I think we should have women leadership and I think it should be indigenous women and women of color. Because those are the women who actually know how to live on the planet. A lot of the other women, unfortunately white women, who have been in cahoots often with the men, they have lost this ability.

I think the witch burnings frightened a lot of European women so severely, I mean, in their bones, and in their cells, that they have lost the ability to actually stand alone if necessary and fight for what is just.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21726465

I mean, seriously? Her BBC interviews are legendary for their lunacy. You wonder why they don't want her to speak at CEW's 50th?

[cali]

6. wow. what garbage

having said that, I think the objections to her speaking are still silly.

[msanthrope]

11. Well...we don't really know what the objections are....I've booked public

speakers, and when you have a 'celebratory' event, you may not necessarily want a firebrand who is going to go off in the woo when what you really want is someone who adds a bit of festiveness.

She's rebooked at another event, one that I think will provide fair warning to all attending that the subject matter isn't going to be light-hearted.

[mythology]

5. Reading the article

I was struck by the fact that they called the Anti-Defamation League a Zionist organization. I tend to discredit people who use that term, especially seemingly as a catch all for meaning any Jewish group.

Plus Alice Walker is a nutjob with some of the things she's said in my opinion.

[Recursion]

8. Well, ADL calls rejection of Zionism inherently racist

Not to slip into the vortex of the I/P group (that way lies madness), but it's hard to describe an organization that says the world is divided into people who support Zionism on the one hand and anti-semites on the other anything but "Zionist".