Why Stanford Graduates Walked Out of Their Commencement

Meet the lead organizer of the Stanford graduation commencement walkout. Unlock the full video and transcript of Sonali's interview with Amanda Campos by upgrading your subscription.

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FEATURING AMANDA CAMPOS -  Stanford University graduates walked out of their commencement ceremony this past Saturday June 13 in protest of Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s keynote. Central to the issues they were angered by was Google’s involvement in the apartheid and genocidal state of Israel and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, which has terrorized immigrant communities in the US. 

Amanda Campos is a Brazilian organizer and recent graduate of Stanford University, where she has been a student activist fighting for climate justice, immigrant rights, and Palestinian liberation. She works in environmental justice policy and advocacy. Amanda, who led the organizing around Stanford's graduation walkout, spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about her motivations.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: Before we get into why you walked out, let's talk about what happened. There are reports suggesting a few dozen people walked out. One outlet said about 200 people walked out. Tell me, in your words, what happened. 

Amanda Campos: In my experience, simply walking out of my seat and seeing a crowd of people, that I would say hundreds of students, of conscious walking out. It was absolutely exhilarating and honestly heartwarming to see so many people visibly and very loudly taking a stance against Google's human rights crimes through its complicity in genocide and apartheid in Palestine, as well as the kidnappings of our neighbors here in the US through ICE. 

And just people's convictions were extremely noticeable, people's braveries, people's just feeling of community when walking out. And to describe specifically what happened, we quickly began chanting, "Free, free Palestine." Some people had whistles. Community members in the audience, I could hear their support while we walked out and then headed to the People's Commencement, which was organized by student organizers, community members, and other supporters. And instead, we chose to listen to Mahmoud Khalil, Dr. Subeh, as well as a student speaker, who actually gave us the life advice that we should follow.