UCLA RAVE invites Judith Butler to discuss resistance to Trump
Judith Butler, professor of comparative literature and program of critical theory at the University of California, Berkeley, spoke about resistance under President Donald Trump. (Esmeralda Lopez/Daily Bruin)
By Dina Stumpf
Feb. 16, 2017 5:12 p.m.
Renowned philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler discussed how to resist President Donald Trump’s administration at UCLA on Wednesday evening.
About 200 people listened to Butler’s lecture, “This is What Resistance Looks Like,” hosted by UCLA’s Resistance Against Violence Through Education organization.
Laure Murat, professor of French and Francophone studies and director of the Center for European and Russian Studies, said RAVE formed the day after Trump’s election because of possible threats to funding education, undocumented students and Muslims.
RAVE is a faculty group that aims to question and challenge Trump’s decisions and statements and provide support for members of the UCLA community who have been targeted since the election.
Murat added RAVE hopes to accomplish its goals by hosting teach-ins, speakers and office hours for students who want to talk to faculty about ongoing political events.
RAVE invited Butler to speak because of her work against the patriarchy and xenophobia, Murat said.
Butler began her lecture by differentiating between opposition and resistance.
“Opposition suggests that our political structures are intact, but we position ourselves against the body of Trump,” Butler said, “We are actually fighting for democracy, so we are fighting for a resistance movement.”
Butler also discussed how she thinks Trump attempts to gain power through his speech.
“What Trump says is true, or rather becomes true, because he says it,” Butler said. “In our response, we have to check to see whether he really does have the authority or is just acting as if he does.”
Butler said she thinks resistance must become global to be effective.
Butler also said she thinks those who want to create change must address the 50 percent of the U.S. population eligible to vote who did not.
“The depoliticized public has to become re-politicized,” Butler said.
Butler said some civil servants resisted by refusing to implement Trump’s executive orders. She added she thinks disobedience from public workers shows he lacks power.
She said nonimplementation will be one form that resistance takes.
“Some would call what we see on the streets a civil rights movement, but I want to argue that it is a surprising and complex resistance movement,” Butler said.
However, Butler does not support taking down the Trump regime by any means necessary, such as violence, she said.
Some students in the audience said they found Butler’s talk inspirational.
Tanika Mehra, a first-year mathematics and economics student, said she liked how Butler said there are various mediums that could be used to fight Trump, such as digital activism and investigative journalism.
Alli Carlisle, a Spanish and Portuguese graduate student admired Butler’s optimism.
“I think that I haven’t had much optimism (since Trump’s election), but Judith Butler always makes me optimistic because she’s smart with what is going on and takes you out of the panic, fear and the immediate emotional reactions,” said Carlisle.
