Angela Davis spoke at UNE in the 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Celebration. Davis first spoke about how the NFL moved the Superbowl one year from Phoenix, Arizona to Pasadena because Arizona would not recognize Martin Luther King Day. She also spoke about how in the 21st century we have begun to recognize women upbringing in the way that women are now taking over representative seats and are taking over power. Also, there is a connection to be made between race violence and gender violence. Rosa Parks was a pioneer of the movement and she raised money secretly. She was also involved in the 1930’s event when nine girls were raped, and she wanted to make a movement for it. Another event of gender violence was when Recy Taylor was gang raped in Alabama.
Davis spoke about how Anne Braden in 1972 wrote a letter to white southern women about Thomas Wansley, who was falsely charged of rape. Braden stated how they haven’t found the strength to create a movement because of the divide between white and colored women. Davis then began to speak about how race is a generalized category for example, how people say “Black lives matter” but everyone should actually be saying “All lives matter” because it shouldn’t matter what race you are for your life to matter. From the beginning the focus was put on minority like white men. Generality in the Constitution actually only fit a small group of people.
“Arrested Justice” was the exact words used from the speech, but the main idea was getting rid of violence by removing stigmas around those attracted. Imprisonment was used for the punishment apparatus and the gender vinery (gender apparatus) was presented in a way of explaining how there are women and men prisons but what happens to the people who don’t define themselves as male or female. Then there is the repressive apparatus that includes middle class women’s privacy. Carceral feminism assumes that the lives of women can be safe guarded by police and imprisonment, this is addressed by abolition feminism. Davis spoke of a documentary about R. Kelly and how they wondered what pushed him to be the monster he was. Also, she spoke about how Kelly was abusing young women but still continued to make music even though he was doing this to young women. Davis also had made a comment about how people just get more violent in prison so how can someone be safe guarded by police and imprisonment and I agree with that completely.
In the summary of the speech community violence was described as a global issue and gender violence was described as the biggest issue worldwide. We don’t realize how big of issues these both have become in our lives today. We suffer from our provincialism because we aren’t the center of the world and we don’t realize that. Especially when people fear speaking out because they don’t want to be punished for it. For example, Leyla Guven was on a hunger strike for 77 days for speaking out in Turkey. Angela Davis spoke about how she was going to receive an award, but it got rescinded because of her support for Palestine. Davis has received letters and statements from people all around about how her award should not have been rescinded. The concluded words were from MLK when he said, “justice is indivisible”.
I’m glad you mentioned something about R. Kelly and the controversy around him. When Angela Davis was talking about that in her speech, I thought it was a really good example of how large-scale controversial events happen- like someone in the Hollywood spotlight abusing women- and the public continue to support that person through listening to their music/buying their songs or even continuing to go to their concerts. In a perfect world anyone who did that would have no support. I didn’t specifically mention R. Kelly in my blog, but I did quote Angela by stating, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.
I thought everything you wrote was well put together. I did not get to sit through the whole speech because I had a class at two and the whole speech started late. But when I read what your wrote about, It is very clear what she was talking about in her speech and you did a really good job summarizing it up, with all the different issues she had talked about during it. What you wrote about was very interesting points that she had brought up. I think you did a really good job!
Great observations about what Davis said about white and black women needing to come together to create a movement. Do you agree that we are not there yet or have we made some strides at uniting women of all colors?
Hi Alexis! We wrote on a lot of similar topics in our blog posts! I talked about Rosa Parks and how she was a pioneer of her time. I said, “One dominant woman that Davis discussed was Rosa Parks. Parks is mostly remembered for refusing to give up her seat on the bus, but we forget that she also spearheaded the anti-violence movement in the 1950’s”. I have seen the “Surviving R. Kelly” and also have wondered drove him to be the monster he is. I like how you talked about how everyone should be saying all lives matter. One of my favorite quotes from Davis’s speech is “as if all lives matter is in opposition to black lives matter”. I like how you ended your blog post with Davis’s final remarks “justice is indivisible”.
Your use of Davis’s language and few quotes in your work are very effective here. They help to reveal your understanding of her speech and help accentuate her ideas within your post. For instance, you referenced the quote she used from Martin Luther King Jr. “justice is indivisible”, the quote while small, is very successful in punctuating her speech and your own post. This clever use of her concluding words also demonstrated your own active listening of the talk. You did well talking and summarizing her points in your post as well!
Hey Alexis, I just wanted to start off by saying that I really loved reading your blog post. You did a really good job of summarizing Dr. Davis’ main points and memories from her speech. I definitely agree with you saying that the way our prison systems are set up is not ideal for either the gender binary or allowing violent people to be properly rehabilitated to society. This is one of the many things that will need to be fixed by our generation in the future. I really enjoyed hearing your interpretation of what Angela Davis said and think your post was very well thought out and written.
Lexi, I can relate to your notes on so many levels. I am also making my podcast on losing a friend and just reading your post resonated with me on so many levels. I completely agree that many people are ashamed to share their struggles with others, and that is what leads them to have suicidal thoughts. I think you have an excellent point that sharing stories like this can create desperately needed social cohesion.