Angela Davis

"We have inherited a fear of memories of slavery. It is as if to remember and acknowledge slavery would amount to our being consumed by it. As a matter of fact, in the popular black imagination, it is easier for us to construct ourselves as children of Africa, as the sons and daughters of kings and queens, and thereby ignore the Middle Passage and centuries of enforced servitude in the Americas. Although some of us might indeed be the descendants of African royalty, most of us are probably descendants of their subjects, the daughters and sons of African peasants or workers."

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Source: Frontline Interview, www.pbs.org. 1997.

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Angela Davis

Angela Davis

Political Activist, Scholar

Angela Davis is a prominent activist, scholar, and author known for her work on civil rights and prison reform, particularly through her book 'Women, Race, & Class.'

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"You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time."

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"Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society."

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"Feminism involves so much more than gender equality and it involves so much more than gender. Feminism must involve consciousness of capitalism (I mean the feminism that I relate to, and there are multiple feminisms, right). So it has to involve a consciousness of capitalism and racism and colonialism and post-colonialities, and ability and more genders than we can even imagine and more sexualities than we ever thought we could name."

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"When children attend schools that place a greater value on discipline and security than on knowledge and intellectual development, they are attending prep schools for prison."

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