In May, CAA hosted an unforgettable fireside chat with basketball legend, social justice champion, and New York Times bestselling author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He discussed his latest book, We All Want to Change the World: My Journey Through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today. After the event, UC Berkeley Journalism graduate student Marquis Chambers, ‘26 interviewed Abdul-Jabbar about his life experiences and higher education’s role in social justice.
Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How did your early experiences shape your awareness of social justice?
My father was a decorated police officer who was well respected in our community. When I walked through our neighborhood with him, I could see how people appreciated his integrity and willingness to protect them. I realized then that achieving social justice was not a passive endeavor, but sometimes required risk.
Another great influence on me was learning about the death of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy who was beaten and tortured to death by white racists when he was visiting relatives in Mississippi. His murderers were acquitted by an all-White jury, after which they bragged that they’d killed him. I realized that if white men could get away with murdering a Black teen and then admit it in the national press with no repercussions, then I would never be safe. That combination of fear and anger was a great motivator for me to pursue social justice in all its forms.
How have you navigated the challenges of being both a professional athlete and an activist during times of social upheaval?
Being outspoken back in the 1970s was very different than it is now. We didn’t have social media that allows you to post your opinions directly to people. Instead, whatever I said was filtered through the press, and that sometimes led to them editorializing my statements. For a successful Black man to speak about injustice rubbed some people the wrong way. They felt that I should be grateful for my career and shut up and count my money. They didn’t realize that money and fame does not insulate anyone from racism, that I was still nervous when I was out driving and saw a police car. Or that I couldn’t feel complacent about my success until everyone had the same opportunities for success.
The disorienting part was that I would play ball in front of thousands of cheering fans who loved me for entertaining them, then away from the game, I would face death threats from others who hated me for expressing my thoughts.
You write that the pace of change can be slow and doesn’t always happen “right now.” Some say that attacks on democracy and our rule of law are happening so quickly that if we don’t act now, we may not have an opportunity later. What do you think?
Those are not mutually exclusive statements. There definitely is an urgency to act now if we want to save American democracy from becoming a nostalgic curiosity, like Beanie Babies. Protests, boycotts, pressure on elected officials, and voting out politicians undermining democracy are all crucial strategies that must be done now. The “wait and see” strategy is no longer viable.
However, the elimination of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and other maladies of our society require long-term commitments because they never go away, they just hide in the shadows until some charismatic would-be dictator rises and tells the bigots that they were right all along. Stopping that from happening requires defending an educational system that teaches critical thinking rather than compliance thinking. That’s how we reduce the number of bigots. And it requires supporting free speech and free press against all attackers. That’s how we keep wannabe dictators from using disinformation to manipulate the uncritical populace.
What advice would you give young people who are passionate about making social change today?
Don’t use discouragement as an excuse to quit the fight. It’s easy to get discouraged when you witness so much injustice and so much indifference to that injustice. Real, lasting change takes time, and even then, there are always people who are pushing to destroy progressive change. The battle is long, but the cause is just. That’s not a bad way to spend your life.
