Are You Still an Activist When No One is Listening?
I went to hear Angela Davis, famed prison/WOC rights/queer rights activist, and Michelle Alexander, author of the critically acclaimed "The New Jim Crow" in live conversation about the Spirit of Justice and how activism is changing a few weeks back. And yes, it was just as amazing as you're imagining. So rather than attempt to coalesce my thoughts and give you a few major points, which I feel would be a disservice, I just made them orderly for you. Here you go:
#SpiritofJustice
*What does it mean to be “revolutionary”?
*The devolving Of the times
*The personal is the political
Don’t focus on who you are now. Think about it from a generational standpoint. Who were your ancestors? How have there been changes since their time?
We are the manifestations of the slaves who fought and struggled for our freedom. We are their wildest dreams.
On activism and speaking out:
On prisons and ways to attain justice:
If ever black lives were to matter, it would follow then that all lives matter.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Now go forth and do great things. xx
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| It's blurry but they're in there |
#SpiritofJustice
*What does it mean to be “revolutionary”?
*The devolving Of the times
*The personal is the political
Don’t focus on who you are now. Think about it from a generational standpoint. Who were your ancestors? How have there been changes since their time?
We are the manifestations of the slaves who fought and struggled for our freedom. We are their wildest dreams.
On activism and speaking out:
- We have to act is if revolution were possible
- Even if the world doesn’t change the way we need it to right now.
- What aspects of the movement have changed?
- How much progress has been made?
- What is required of us now?
- Activism can also promote a sense of togetherness and collective community.
- The fight is not always just for you. It’s generational. You’re not doing this just for the present but also for future generations to experience a better life than we do now.
- What’s exciting and important about being a revolutionary is how we show up in our time. There will always be new issues. You will always be challenged.
- Sometimes when you address what appears to be a relatively small issue, it can actually end up shedding a lot of light on the larger issue in general.
- Why is change in the negative so hard to foresee struggles?
- Knowledge acquired in praxis of practice and activism and witnessing change
- “There is no point in fighting for human rights on a planet that is destined to die.” -on environmentalism being the bedrock of the social justice movement
- Does white ally-ship promote or weigh down the forward movement of the black cause for freedom? Neither. In short, generalizations don’t get you very far. Take it on a case by case basis.
- Be careful of the reforms you embrace
On prisons and ways to attain justice:
- What if the justice system is not fixable?
- Institutions that made it possible to incorporate a previously enslaved people were never entirely dismantled.
- It’s not ONLY about assimilation, or diversity or misogyny or inclusion. Why would you want to be a part of such a misogynist, divisive, racist, supremacist society?
- Prisons are sites of the reproduction of violence.
- Incarceration itself is a form of violence.
- It’s about creating a society that no longer NEEDS prisons
- Revolutionary approach to restructuring society
- Aspirational nature of prison abolition
- People are fearful of the safety and security of themselves
- Failed to create conversations about the meaning of justice
- Restorative justice. Transformative justice. What do these look like??
- Justice would still be reattributed
- Processes that lead to healing would be instituted (how?)
- Putting people in prison or killing them doesn’t make those who are left behind looking for “revenge” typically feel any better.
- Create a system and prospective based on not just what I need right now
- Creating new relationships to understand others in a different way.
- Cannot use the state to take revenge on someone who hurt you as a way to compensate.
- People willing to stand up for political prisoners, not “regular” criminals
- Incarceration feminism as substantially different from inclusive feminism that desires to assimilate all women.
- State as perpetrator of gender and sexual violence in the form of strip and cavity searches.
- Being imprisoned as a blessing in disguise and learning to do better work as a result. ***THIS IS CONDITIONAL
- Being in prison as a woman brings back memories and flashbacks of sexual violence on the outside.
If ever black lives were to matter, it would follow then that all lives matter.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Activist group to know - Generation 5- child molestation victims and perps activist organization
- “If they come for you in the morning, they’ll be coming for us at night” open letter by James Baldwin to Angela Davis
- If They Come For You in the Morning by Angela Davis
- Stuart Hall- “Race the Floating Signifier” video lectures - acknowledges the role racism has played and also sees race as socially constructed and understanding racism as a language in that it allows us to understand our relation/s to each other.
- Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis
- Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis
Now go forth and do great things. xx
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