Celebrated author Alice Walker criticised for antisemitism

[Innula Zenovka]

The author Alice Walker has been heavily criticised for her unqualified recommendation of David Icke's antisemitic work, And the Truth Shall Set You Free, in a recent interview with the New York Times. This is apparently no recent development -- she's apparently a long-standing fan of his, to the extent she told the British radio programme Desert Island Disks that Icke's book Human Race Get Off Your Knees would be her choice if allowed only one book (other than the Bible and Shakespeare) on a desert island.

She's also, I discovered, the author of a really dreadful, and openly antisemitic poem, published last year, It Is Our (Frightful) Duty To Study The Talmud | Alice Walker | The Official Website for the American Novelist & Poet.

How should people react to this? What is one to make of it when such a talented and important important author turns out to believe in rabidly antisemitic nonsense and publishes stuff like that poem? Stop buying her books, or what?

 

[Free]

How should people react to this? What is one to make of it when such a talented and important important author turns out to believe in rabidly antisemitic nonsense and publishes stuff like that poem? Stop buying her books, or what?

People read her books? (Seriously, I've never been a fan of hers.)

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

People read her books? (Seriously, I've never been a fan of hers.)

That's okay. I'd never even heard of her before now.

 

[Essence Lumin]

That's okay. I'd never even heard of her before now.

She is very famous in the book world. I've never read anything by her though.

 

[Kaimi Kyomoon]

I read The Color Purple long ago and I loved it. I don't know what else to say.

 

[Myficals]

David Icke? David Icke?! Oh my word is there volumes to unpack in there.

I had know Walker had some unkind things to say about Israel, but as far as I were aware, her dislike was mostly confined to the State itself and it's handling of Palestine. I now find myself wondering whether the anti-semitism is an out growth of activism, or vice versa.

 

[Myficals]

I read The Color Purple long ago and I loved it. I don't know what else to say.

There's a certain irony in the fact that the film version of her most famous book was directed by Stephen Spielberg.

 

[Beebo Brink]

There's a complicated history here that's not immediately obvious unless you've read the fascinating Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self , by Rebecca Walker, who is Alice Walker's daughter.

In the 1960s, Alice Walker married a white Jewish lawyer and they were both heavily involved in the civil rights movement. Eventually, however, the marriage fell apart and their daughter ricocheted back and forth between two increasingly divergent worlds as both of her parents became more and more of what they were, instead of trying to live out their original idealistic vision of integration.

Which is not to say that Alice Walker can't be an anti-Semite. But it's definitely more layered than you'd expect, given her personal history.

 

[Myficals]

Which is not to say that Alice Walker can't be an anti-Semite. But it's definitely more layered than you'd expect, given her personal history.

On the one hand Beebo, I see your point. On the other hand though, being a student of David Icke isn't exactly indicative of some "casual" politely worded, gentle bigotry. That's some Protocols of Zion, alien space lizards crackpottery. This is heavy duty level hate.

 

[Blue Green]

I'm not sure which is more disconcerting, the possible bigotry or the fact that an apparently normal and highly respected person can believe there are lizard people walking among us trying to take over the world.

 

[Beebo Brink]

On the one hand Beebo, I see your point. On the other hand though....

I think you missed my point. I'm not saying that her marriage in any way mitigates her current beliefs and prejudices. I'm saying people are complicated. So here's a woman who should -- by virtue of her past history -- be less prejudiced, and instead she is marching steadily into extremism. That's some fucked up shit she has going on.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

I think you missed my point. I'm not saying that her marriage in any way mitigates her current beliefs and prejudices. I'm saying people are complicated. So here's a woman who should -- by virtue of her past history -- be less prejudiced, and instead she is marching steadily into extremism. That's some fucked up shit she has going on.

So, back in college, I was taking a music history course. I, as has been remarked upon by others before, commonly use british english spellings, not american ones. This professor took off points from a paper, from my grade, for this.
Turns out, her ex-husband was English, and so she had a knee-jerk reaction to it [this from her]. She didn't fix my grade either.

So, actually, if the divorce was at all messy? If she on some level blamed him for it? Then it almost makes sense.

But yeah, no excuse for bigotry like that.

 

[Free]

I'm not sure which is more disconcerting, the possible bigotry or the fact that an apparently normal and highly respected person can believe there are lizard people walking among us trying to take over the world.

Trying?

 

[danielravennest]

How should people react to this? What is one to make of it when such a talented and important important author turns out to believe in rabidly antisemitic nonsense and publishes stuff like that poem? Stop buying her books, or what?

An author's work stands or falls on it's own. I still like Orson Scott Card's books, although he's turned out to be a homophobe. It just means I won't invite him to dinner.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Check out David Icke's Wiki page. If you are like me, and had never heard of him, this thread might make it easy to still underestimate how much of a nut case he really is.

Also, I actually read her poem linked in the OP. It seems to support the theory on this thread that maybe, just maybe, her anti Semitic views came from bitterness over her divorce. It sounds full of projection onto the Jewish people.

 

[Plurabelle Laszlo]

Also, I actually read her poem linked in the OP. It seems to support the theory on this thread that maybe, just maybe, her anti Semitic views came from bitterness over her divorce. It sounds full of projection onto the Jewish people.

I read that poem, too. I have a hard time psychologizing this level of antisemitic hatespeech as 'bitterness about a divorce' and projection. It must have been some seriously traumatizing (and mentally debilitating) divorce to jump from your bad experiences with one Jewish man to publically demonizing an entire people and their religion throughout the centuries - well knowing that this kind of defamation has lead to the brutal murder of millions.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I read that poem, too. I have a hard time psychologizing this level of antisemitic hatespeech as 'bitterness about a divorce' and projection. It must have been some seriously traumatizing (and mentally debilitating) divorce to jump from your bad experiences with one Jewish man to publically demonizing an entire people and their religion throughout the centuries - well knowing that this kind of defamation has lead to the brutal murder of millions.

I don't like to get too deep into psychoanalyzing people. ...but she ALMOST comes out and says it at the beginning of the poem:

The man who charged me
Was a friend.
A Jewish Soul
Who I thought understood
Or could learn to understand
Almost anything.

He could not understand
However
Why I thought Israel should give back
The land it took
From a poorly defended
People in a war that lasted
Six days. I cringed
About our small house
In Mississippi (where black people
Often assumed he was a racist)
Deeply offended by his attempt
To insult my character
And spoke to him
Earnestly of “dignity” “justice”
“honor” and “peace.”

By no means am I saying this excuses her wacky beliefs. I'd not be surprised if he is actually a really nice guy. But the fact that she mentioned him (likely him) at the beginning of this poem seems to support the notion that it's deep in her mind.