Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

In this speech at Davidson College on February 12, 2013, Davis speaks to her audience about solidarity. She stresses the interconnectedness and the “symbiotic” relationships that exist between freedom struggles globally and throughout history. For example, the Black freedom struggle has inspired others, such as the Palestinians deriving inspiration from Black Freedom Riders, and was inspired by other struggles, such as the South African freedom struggle. She also speaks of the solidarity she herself received from people globally when she was in jail.

However, Davis also believes that the freedom movements in the 1960s would not have been needed if slavery had been fully abolished, that is, culturally and economically, or if such issues had been allowed to be addressed during the Radical Reconstruction era. She criticizes the narrow framework of civil rights that the 1960s freedom movement (as it was referred to by its participants at the time) was eventually placed into. This narrowing falsely implies that civil rights, while important, are equal to the broader concept of freedom, thus creating the wrong idea that “the struggle for freedom can be relegated to the past” (122). Instead, freedom includes economic freedom, free education and health care, and affordable housing, all of which can be found in the Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program, which remains relevant today.

As she does in other speeches and interviews, Davis urges her audience not to forget that it was a collective effort of many individuals, especially Black women, that brought about the freedom movement of the 1960s. Davis discusses the reelection of President Obama but is wary about placing too much hope in any individual who is after all still “the president of the racist, imperialist United States of America” (123). While Obama may be a symbol of progress, Davis still believes that there is much work left to be done, such as with respect to immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, and Islamophobia. For example, she insists on going beyond the heteronormative framework in fighting for LGBTQ rights. All of these issues plus more should be a part of the Black freedom struggle. She concludes with her call for solidarity by reminding her audience of Dr. King’s famous quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (127).

This is a speech by Angela Davis at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey, on January 9, 2015, in which she hopes to encourage international solidarity around the world and across movements. Davis recalls the support she received from people in Turkey when she was in jail and her own effort to provide solidarity in return to those in Turkey. Davis connects the experiences of Black people in the United States to those of Armenians experiencing genocide in Turkey, stating that many members of both groups were deprived of being able to trace their own ancestries. She reflects on the term “genocide” and its official definition provided by the United Nations. In 1951, the Civil Rights Congress of the United States sent a petition to the UN that charged genocide against Black people in the United States, but the definition of genocide has historically applied only to certain peoples and has not included experiences of Black people in the United States. She criticizes our inability to talk about the history of genocide against Indigenous peoples or about slavery in the United States. She believes there needs to be discussion of living on colonized land or poverty, poor health, and high incarceration that Native Americans currently experience. In connecting struggles, Davis notes that “Our histories never unfold in isolation” (135).

She also elaborates on modern context of how racism is informed by terrorism theories in the 21st century. Davis is skeptical of the use of the word “terrorist” because of her own experience and that of other Black people who “have endured a history of unacknowledged terror” in the form of bombings and attacks by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (141). She notes many US police officers or FBI agents have received counterterrorism training in Israel, which manifests itself in the militarization of officers in Ferguson. It is through these connections that international solidarities are created, such as Palestinian activists providing advice to Ferguson protestors on Twitter based on the same experiences with tear gas.

Davis again rejects the neoliberal focus on individual needs or individual victims or perpetrators. Racist state violence cannot be resolved by only focusing on individuals. She advocates again for abolitionist goals towards the death penalty and prison, which she believes are inadequate means of addressing lack of education, housing, and health care. In the same manner, “carceral feminism” calling for imprisonment does not solve sexual violence or heteropatriarchy either because sexual violence is not just an individual idea or isolated incidents. Davis highlights the importance of feminist theories and practices as a guide because feminism helps understand connections we do not always see. She insists on exploring ourselves and our own lives because “[t]he personal is political” and therefore we “often do the work of the state in and through our interior lives” (142). Davis concludes by stating the feminist understanding of intersectionality, not just of identities but of struggles all over the world, is key to developing transnational solidarities.