a talk with Dr. Angela Davis
Northwestern students had the honor and pleasure of hearing THE wise and daring Dr. Angela Davis on Thursday, November 12th. Due to the hard work and planning of “For Members Only,” our school’s Black Student Union, we were able to glean remarkable insights on topics of abolition, protest, and the reimagining and transformation of corrupt and violent systems.
As soon as our community heard that she was the speaker for this year’s State of the Black Union, we were first in shock, and then in dire anticipation. When I saw the announcement, I was lost for words and instantly started fangirling. Dr. Angela Davis has been one of my biggest inspirations, especially as I constantly reflect upon what I believe justice should look like and the role that I should play in that struggle. During my college application process, I was often asked “Who inspires you most?” Without hesitation, I always answered Dr. Angela Davis, as I admire her tenacity, her courage, her intellect, and her hope despite the sometimes hopeless nature of our world. As she spoke on that Thursday, passion and power poured from her lips in an effortless yet impressionable way. For those who were not able to experience the space, I have highlighted a few key quotes and a reading/film list compiled using some of her recommendations along with my own.
10 Key Quotes from Dr. Angela Davis:
“For the past 50 years […], we have been arguing that dismantling carceral and policing institutions will be a central aspect of the process of bringing down structural and systemic racism. And that ultimately, eliminating racism will entail abolishing its structural incarnation.”
“The elimination of racism will never be accomplished simply by the rise of Black and Brown individuals to positions of power. It will not occur as simply as a function of diversity and inclusion strategies. [...] It is going to require acknowledging and breaking down the structural and systemic embeddedness of racism in all of our institutions.”
“Let me say that police and prisons are intimately connected. No transformation of one of the fields can work without also transforming the other field.”
“We use the term abolition precisely because of the resonances to the struggle to abolish slavery.”
“Abolition is about recreation. It is about rebuilding, reimagining. We do not get rid of the old and assume the new has to be constructed on the same foundation as the old. We create new foundations, new footprints, new societies.”
“As you are participating in actions at this very moment, we have to continue to organize, to protest, to march, to sing, to dance, to let those who have been elected know that we expect the next four years to yield concrete results.”
“We can’t simply reform these terrible institutions that have been so responsible for inflicting the racist violence not only on Black communities but on indigenous and Latinx communities. We have to stop being misled that reform will solve the problem, which means that we have to pull back and realize that the problem is much larger.”
“If we support our trans comrades, then we push all of us in a progressive direction.”
“The youth have been working profoundly at the level of the grassroots to change people’s minds, and I think that often times we underestimate the value of that work because it never gets recognized.”
“What we do is we try to think about our demands against the backdrop of how we imagine a long-term struggle unfolding. And how do our demands create a richer sense of what that struggle should be and how those demands help to lead us in the direction of abolition. Abolition is not a one strike thing. It happens as a result of work that will create new institutions that will convince people that we need a different framework of education that does not involve repression and punishment. We need different forms of justice. There is so much we can include within the abolitionist frame, but I think most importantly what we should understand are the connections.”
For more quotes and insights, listen to her speak here.
Her words were truly perfect timing, as I believe our entire student body, especially student activists on campus who might be experiencing burnout or fatigue, needed her words as fire to reignite our hearts and minds. Countless Black and Brown students are working tirelessly to empower and uplift our community on campus and are applying pressure onto administration to do the same thing. I would like to take space here to express my gratitude for them and their dedication to making our school a safer and more equitable place. Even Dr. Angela Davis was in awe of their work and took time to formally thank them for their persevering spirits. I left the Zoom call feeling grounded, centered, and motivated to continue the difficult yet necessary work of demanding justice. Often, we let our own fear and doubts stand as bulwarks to change. Dr. Angela Davis’ words and legacy reminds us that fighting for change is not only attainable, but is our obligation.
