Angela Davis Says She's 'Stunned' After Award Is Revoked Over Her Views on Israel

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Angela Davis Says She’s ‘Stunned’ After Award Is Revoked Over Her Views on Israel

By Niraj Chokshi
Jan. 8, 2019

Angela Davis, the activist and scholar, said this week that she was “stunned” after a civil rights group in her native Birmingham, Ala., reversed its decision to honor her with an award amid protests over her support for a boycott of Israel.

Professor Davis, once a global hero of the left who has since earned renown for her scholarship, had been selected for the human rights award months ago by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, but the group’s board rescinded the honor on Friday.

In announcing the move, the institute did not offer an explanation, saying only that “she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based.” But Professor Davis said in a statement on Facebook on Monday that she had learned it was because of her “long-term support of justice for Palestine.” The revocation of the award, she added, was “not primarily an attack against me but rather against the very spirit of the indivisibility of justice.”

In a statement expressing dismay at the controversy, Mayor Randall Woodfin of Birmingham said the decision had come amid “protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies.”

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/us/angela-davis-israel-civil-rights-institute.html

[Power 2 the People]

1. The influence of foreign powers over our government is getting more and more concerning.

[Igel]

2. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

is not part of the government.

It's more of the "you did something really good, and, we, we'd have liked to have rewarded it, but you did this other thing other there you did, maybe 30 years ago, but, you know, it's sketchy. So rather than run the risk of encouraging the good, and with it failing to properly point out that we condemn the bad stuff and be accused of rewarding the bad stuff, we're going to deny or revoke the reward."

Next up: Requiring at least one miracle before beatification, and two more for canonization.