On March 4, The New York Times’ political columnist Jamelle Bouie spoke in Kresge Auditorium as part of the Tom Cassidy Lecture Fund and Viewpoint Exchange speaker series. Bouie, previously a chief political correspondent for Slate Magazine before joining the Times, spoke in conversation with Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Anthropology Bianca Williams. The discussion covered abolitionist history, the fracturing of institutional trust and what ordinary Americans can do in times of democratic crisis.

Bouie opened by looking back at American history. He argued that the abolitionist movement offers a model for political work today, explaining that the era’s outcomes were the product of decades of labor by people who never knew whether they would win what they were fighting for.

“You do the work, and perhaps events will give you an opportunity to capitalize on the work that you’ve done,” Bouie said. “It may [also] be that your job in your life is to just carry the torch as far as you can bring it, and there’s honor and dignity in that as well.”

In response to Williams’ question on where immigrants and newcomers fit into American democracy, Bouie drew on a 1858 speech that Abraham Lincoln delivered in Chicago, in which Lincoln explained the true meaning of citizenship.

“A lot of Americans here have no connection to the founders…, but if they read the Declaration [of Independence] and those words stir up something in them and they feel that—[Lincoln] calls it an electric cord—then that is their connection to the founding.

That is their connection to the country. And Lincoln says that that makes them as authentically American as anyone else,” Bouie said.

Williams asked how individuals can seek respite amid political turmoil and when, if ever, those engaged in political struggle can find rest. Bouie explained that the more useful question is what becomes possible in less acute minutes of distress.

“The thing about moments of crisis—they narrow the focus,” Bouie said. “It’s when the crisis is resolved that opportunities for thinking creatively pop up.”

Bouie later addressed the question on how to find trustworthy news sources in an era of misinformation.

“The problem right now isn’t that there isn’t plenty of good, reputable information. There’s just a deluge of stuff, and so much of the task is sifting it out,” Bouie said.

Bouie explained that the decline in institutional trust is not as sudden as it may seem, but it will take continued effort to rebuild.

“It’s the work of a generation to tear down the trust that Americans had in their government, in their country and [in] their ability to do things. And so it’ll be a generation of just building up self confidence about our ability to [enact] change,” Bouie said.

When Williams asked for a concrete call to action, Bouie highlighted the significance of local civic participation. He described his three years on the Charlottesville parking commission, an unelected body that made decisions on how the city spent millions of dollars per year.

“Maybe this current generation of Americans might just have to engage in a small-scale project of civic rebuilding,” Bouie said. “Maybe there isn’t going to be a big national thing. Maybe it just is in our own communities [where] we try to rebuild a healthier civic life, and that’s the thing that we can pass on to the next generation of Americans.”

In an email to the Orient, attendee Jickinson Louis ’26 reflected on the significance of the talk for Bowdoin’s student body.

“These talks are extremely important for students. Not only do they expose us to perspectives that go beyond the classroom, but they serve as an opportunity to hear how public intellectuals approach complex topics in real time,” Louis wrote. “These talks create space for reflection, which is integral for college students developing their own viewpoints.”