Support Angela Davis and academic freedom
By Antonio Serrata
I am responding to the Feb. 22 article titled, "Taxes help pay
for Davis’ job, UC says" to express my deepest anger at the
uncritical reprinting of The Associated Press article. First of
all, "taxes" pay for the salaries of all UCLA faculty and staff and
secondly, it is not Professor Angela Davis’ job that is being
criticized but the Presidential Chair award presented to her.
I know the Daily Bruin will disavow the responsibility for
verifying facts since it is an Associated Press article, but to
acquiesce to anti-communist redbaiting seems deplorable to me. No
mention is made of her excellent teaching record, her publications
record and her service to the university. And of course, no mention
of service to the larger community in which she works and
lives.
I am sure if the Bruin had investigated their own files they
would have found evidence that Chancellor Charles Young supported
her presence at UCLA under the rubric of academic freedom. If we
compare her service to the University of California with the hiring
of Michael Milken, a convicted felon, we can understand why
right-wing zealots would want to silence someone like Angela
Davis.
In the UC system we have faculty who teach that the Holocaust
never happened, deny the slaughter of Armenian peoples and worst of
all, those who claim that African Americans are genetically
inferior. All this under the umbrella of objective research. Why is
not the same standard being applied to Davis?
We are living in times of rapid ideological change and for The
Bruin to print something so one-sided and biased and to fail to
provide any counter information is irresponsible and in my opinion,
violates the reason that a newspaper, like the Daily Bruin,
supposedly exists.
I am totally supportive of UC President Jack Peltason’s decision
to award Davis the Presidential Chair award and for his similarly
courageous act to support the decision. We are now inundated with
zealots like Senator Bill Leonard (R-Upland) in every facet of our
public and private lives, and this demands a response from those of
us who believe that the freedoms won by our struggles are worth
fighting for and maintaining.
I ask the feminist community, the African-American community,
the ethnic studies community, the academic community on campus and
all interested in fairness and justice to write letters of support
to Davis and Peltason, and remind them that this struggle is our
struggle. This is a time when our very existence in the university
is at stake.
Serrata is a UCLA staff member.