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March 28, 2024

Prof. links democracy with cultural diversity

By EMILY MCDONALD | April 27, 2017

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Courtesy of Samantha Seto Glaude stressed the importance of fostering inclusive democracies.

Eddie Glaude Jr., professor of religion and chair of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University, gave a talk on diversity and democracy at the Bunting-Meyerhoff Interfaith Center on Thursday, April 20. 

The talk, “Standing in the breach: Fugitive democracy and the work of Ella Baker,” was the first in the lecture series “The Project in America Pluralism,” hosted by the department of political science.

Adam Sheingate, chair of the political science department, introduced the lecture.

“The idea of pluralism calls us to recognize and respect religious, ethnic and cultural distinctions, not melt them away, as the metaphor of the ‘Melting Pot’ might suggest,” he said. 

Glaude began his lecture by criticizing the value gap, a term meaning the belief that white people matter more than others.

“[The value gap] has constrained the reach of our concern and of who is considered worthy and has stood in the way of our being together since the country’s inception,” he said. “The value gap deforms our characters and blocks the development of the kinds of dispositions that democracy requires.”

He went on to discuss the significance of African-American civil rights activist Ella Baker.

Baker worked for several organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was led by Martin Luther King Jr.

Glaude said that Baker promoted the notion that all individuals are capable of exercising responsibility. 

“What Baker believed we needed most was the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership in others,’” he said.

Glaude concluded by explaining Baker’s ideas about democracy.

“Democracy requires a richly textured democratic culture close to the ground, where the habits and dispositions necessary for its flourishing are alive in the experiences of everyday, ordinary folks,” he said.

Nathan Connolly, the Herbert Baxter Adams associate professor of history, spoke positively about the lecture.

“Eddie is a great speaker, and I like the idea of really focusing on Ella Baker as a model,” he said. “I think there was something really important about the way he laid out the problem of freedom as constantly being in process.”

P.J. Brendese, assistant professor of political science and co-director of the Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship Program, was interested in the practical applications of Glaude’s ideas.

“By the way he invokes Ella Baker, he doesn’t just replace a male heroic mode of history with a heroinic mode of history but rather a broader sense of the coalitions and the consolations of power that were the demos itself within the civil rights struggle,” he said.

Brendese was also interested in the way that Glaude presented democracy.

He highlighted how Glaude challenged people to think about democracy in terms of how people treat each other.

“Democracy isn’t just a form of government, but it’s an ethos,” Brendese said. “We have to strive to treat each other as equals and think about what it would mean to do that, even though we’re different.”

Graduate student Bryan Carter felt that the lecture was relevant to his own work.

“[Glaude] has interesting ideas about the role of democracy,” Carter said. “I didn’t agree with a lot of what he said, but I think the kinds of conversations in which he’s engaging are important, and the people with which he’s engaging are important thinkers.”

Lynn Hunter, a senior at the Maryland College Institute of Art, was surprised about some of Glaude’s points.

“When you talk about revolution you usually stray away from democratic ideals and go more into socialism or Marxism,” she said.

Overall, Hunter enjoyed the talk.

“A lot of wise words were said,” she said. “I’m glad I came.”


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