Angela Davis’s Legacy of Collective Solidarity
Angela Davis’s Legacy of Collective Solidarity
“The masculinist mode of representing history makes it so that, too often, credit is not given where it’s due.” These words—among an impassioned treasure-trove of others—were delivered by longtime political activist, radical queer feminist, writer and scholar Angela Davis this past Monday night.
On the 43rd anniversary of her release from prison following her acquittal of “conspiracy in the 1970 armed take-over of a Marin County courtroom, in which four people died,” Davis spoke to a full house of students, faculty and general audience members at USC’s Bovard Auditorium.
The event, titled “Angela Davis: A Lifetime of Revolution,” hosted by USC’s Black Student Assembly and the USC Speakers Committee, saw the 71-year-old former Black Panther Party member address issues of pernicious racism in a “post-racial” world; intimate partner violence; and how “diversity is not a synonym for justice.”
“Diversity is a corporate strategy,’” cautioned Davis. “It’s a difference that makes no difference at all.”
Never one to shy away from calls to action, the prominent civil rights figure delved into the ways that we must address how America’s long-established history of “state violence” teaches those most targeted to internalize that aggression. “Where do you think people learn that violence is a solution?” she asked.
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“The problem with this country is that we are encouraged to forget our histories,” said Davis, speaking of histories often marked by disproportionate violence against women, people of color and other marginalized communities.
Having spent nearly a lifetime discussing her essay, “Violence Against Women and the Ongoing Challenge to Racism,” Davis continues to call for recognition of the inextricable links between many of the social justice issues that we face today:
There can be no great triumph over racism without addressing capitalism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, the environment that we live in and the food that we consume. We have to recognize all of these connections.
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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/02/26/angela-daviss-legacy-of-collective-solidarity/
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