AMHERST – A couple hundred people, mostly students, stood on their feet and applauded as Doctor Angela Davis walked up to the podium in the fine arts center at UMass Monday night.
Davis is a world-renowned civil rights activist who started in her youth as a Black Panther. Now at age 71, she is still lecturing across the world about the struggle of humanity.
The talk was free but the event was sold out days in advance.
The theme of the night was sustaining social justice movements and intersectional struggles and of the personal being political.
Much of Davis’ talk was about women and the inequality that they face on a daily basis and how they have become strong and influential leaders.
Just decades ago, domestic abuse was a private concern – an era of silence as Davis called it. Violence against women was not addressed from the root as it should have been because it happened behind closed doors most of the time. Spousal abuse was not considered even an issue because it was linked to intimacy.
It is shameful that people objectify women so much that violence towards them was not even talked about until the latter half of the twentieth century.
Davis said that when it became something to finally address it was looked at as a problem for people who are minorities and yet this is simply not true at all.
Davis also said that violence towards transgender women, particularly transgender women of color, and how they are treated in the mainstream culture may make them a group most targeted for violence.
Transgender women who find themselves in violent and dangerous situations are arrested (usually an implication of a zero tolerance policy) and placed in jails according to sex, not gender.
Women who are mentally ill are also in danger of facing violence because they are misunderstood and the general public is not educated on their needs and their psychiatric vulnerability.
“To be a mentally ill black woman and confront the police is lethal. You will be shot. You will be killed,” said Davis.
“Women are consistently the largest target of violence in the world,” said Davis, the crowd erupting with cheers of agreement – hope for change seemed possible and encouraging.
Davis warned of the prison industrial complex.
“Profits are more important to people,” Davis said about that system.
Marginalized communities are threatened with their potential welfare leading to their incarceration. This sexism, classism, and racism is embedded institutionally.
“We have to end incarceration. Incarceration as a strategy to benefit capitalism must end,” said Davis. “The relationship between punishment and economy must end.”
Davis said that the militarization of police officers nation-wide and on school campus mirrors the weapons used against Palestine. She said that the separation of states is similar to the racism experienced here in America and that it is used to generate anti-Arab and anti-Muslim feelings to fuel the “War on Terror”.
“We say ‘no’ to imperial policies,” said Davis as the crowd applauded.
“Indictments are not the answer,” said Davis.
She reflected on what would have happened if Darren Wilson was indicted for the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri – the grand jury decision would not have given justice, she said.
She said 1.4 million Americans are incarcerated today and she called for an, “abolition of the police structure as we know it.”
“Free education for everyone and free healthcare, especially for the mentally disabled,” were on Davis’ list of changes she would like to see.
The largest institutions for the mentally disabled are Ryker’s Island, Cook County, and Twin Towers – these are also prisons for those who are unfamiliar.
Davis finished up the lecture by telling the audience “you have to do the rest of the work. I can only invite you [to do it]. Join the rising and struggling communities and together we can change the world.”
Erika Hayden is a WSU student, citizen journalist and grassroots writer.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of this publication.
