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Author Alice Walker, who won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her book, “The Color Purple,” will be a featured speaker at the investiture ceremony that the San Diego Community College District will hold on May 31 for its new chancellor, Carlos O. Cortez.
The free ceremony will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Petco Park in downtown San Diego, during an event the district says will be “a home run for social justice and inclusion.”
The 78 year-old Walker also is a well-known human rights activist who regularly speaks at colleges across the country about diversity, equality and inclusion.
She also has been a source of controversy.
Walker was recently disinvited to speak at the Bay Area Book Festival. The festival’s organizers said in a statement that, “Our decision was based solely on our determination, shared by numerous other cultural organizations and news outlets, that Ms. Walker’s promotion of the conspiracy theories and disinformation of David Icke is dangerous.”
Icke is a conspiracy theorist who, among other things, has suggested that the Holocaust never happened. Twitter permanently suspended his account on the platform in 2020, primarily because he was spreading misinformation about the pandemic.
Walker will help celebrate the investiture of Cortez, who became chancellor of the district on July 1. The district is composed of three credit colleges — San Diego City College, Miramar College and Mesa College — as well as seven campuses devoted to continuing education.
Source: This post first appeared on sandiegouniontribune.com
