Posted on 09/16/2004 7:26:48 PM PDT by scan58
Prisons says author and long-time activist Angela Davis. They don't rehabilitate. They exist to keep companies in business, building penitentiaries and keep troublesome minorities away. The responsible thing to do, she says, is get rid of them.
Davis will speak in the Twin Cities Friday, September 17, hosted by the Givens Foundation for African American Literature. Her address, “Education not Incarceration: Protecting the Future of Black America,” will draw from her latest book, “Are Prisons Obsolete?”
The book was written, according to Davis, to encourage readers to question their assumptions about prison, in the same way that many have come to question the death penalty.
“During my own career as an anti-prison activist, I have seen the population of U.S. prisons increase with such rapidity that many people in black, Latino, and Native American communities now have a far greater chance of going to prison than of getting a decent education,” she writes in the introduction. “When many young people decide to join the military service in order to avoid the inevitability of a stint in prison, it should cause us to wonder whether we should not try to introduce better alternatives.”
Davis’ long strange career as an activist began when she was a youngster in Birmingham, Alabama, during the civil rights movement. In 1969, she rose to national prominence after being fired from a teaching position at UCLA, when then-Governor Ronald Reagan vowed that Davis would never again teach anywhere in the University of California system. He was wrong.
In 1970 she made the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List for charges most legal experts believed were false. She was hunted down in one of the most famous cases this country has ever brought to trial. She served 16 months in prison, by which time, a global “Free Angela Davis” campaign led to her 1972 acquittal.
Davis currently teaches at the University of California in Santa Cruz, is a member of the Advisory Board of the Prison Activist Resource Center and currently is working on a comparative study of women’s imprisonment in the U.S., the Netherlands and Cuba. She has lectured in all 50 states, Africa, Europe and Asia, and is the author of “Angela Davis: An Autobiography,” “Women, Race, and Class; Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday” and “The Angela Y. Davis Reader.”
The Givens Forum NOMMO Lecture Series brings in high-profile authors to talk about their take on issues of pressing importance to African-Americans. Past guests include Randall Robinson, author of “Quitting America” and “The Debt: What America Owes To Blacks” and Ebony executive editor Lerone Bennet, Jr “Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream.” ||
Angela Davis speaks on Fri., Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. at the Minneapolis Marriott Hotel City Center, 30 South 7th Street. Her appearance is part of the Givens Forum NOMMO Lecture Series. The lecture is free and open to the public.
As a teacher, I tend to agree, but I think it all goes back to the family. When a large number of the children in those communities are being raised by teenagers and without fathers, there are going to be problems, IMO.
I see a need to go back to the old ways, in terms of morals & values.
Next time we catch a really disgusting serial sex killer, lets send him to live with Angela since she doeasn't believe in prisons and I'm guessing, the death penalty...
"Do the Hustle!"
Back to basics. Stop the pussy-footing around and teach right from wrong.
Davis should do less talking and pay more attention to kids having kids.
Here's what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had to say about her. I guess her sympathy is only for certain kinds of prisoners:
"...a group of Czech dissidents--addressed an appeal to her: `Comrade Davis, you were in prison. You know how unpleasant it is to sit in prison, especially when you consider yourself innocent. You have such great authority now. Could you help our Czech prisoners? Could you stand up for those people in Czechoslovakia who are being persecuted by the state?' Angela Davis answered: `They deserve what they get. Let them remain in prison.' That is the face of Communism. That is the heart of Communism for you."
Davis went on the run and the Federal Bureau of Investigation named her as one of its "most wanted criminals". She was arrested two months later in a New York motel but at her trial she was acquitted of all charges. However, because of her militant activities, Ronald Reagan, the Governor of California, urged that Davis should never be allowed to teach in any of the state-supported universities.
Davis worked as a lecturer of African American studies at Claremont College (1975-77) before becoming a lecturer in women's and ethnic studies at San Francisco State University. In 1979 Davis visited the Soviet Union where she was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize and made a honorary professor at Moscow State University. In 1980 and 1984 Davis was the Communist Party's vice-presidential candidate.
I, personally, haven't seen anyone "joining the military to avoid prison". Actually, that doesn't make much sense to me. It's like she's saying there is no other alternative and it's the government's fault for the choices people make (which is exactly her ideology).
But I agree that "it all goes back to the family".
By participating in VVAW demonstrations, Kerry marched alongside many revolutionary Communists. Exploiting his presence at such rallies, the Communist publication Daily World prominently published photographs of Kerry addressing anti-war protestors, some of whom were carrying banners with portraits of Communist Party leader Angela Davis. Openly organized by known Communists, these rallies were typified by what the December 12, 1971, Herald Traveler called an “abundance of Vietcong flags, clenched fists raised in the air, and placards plainly bearing legends in support of China, Cuba, the USSR, North Korea and the Hanoi government
But she's not going to do that. She wants that sort of chaos. Breaking down cultural morality in America is one of the communist goals.
An acquaintance gave me that book a few weeks ago and I read it. It's pretty short and also interesting.
Prisons (penitentiaries) and extended periods of incarceration are, in terms of human history, very recent developments. They are still an experiment. Her book details how rapidly prisons and prison populations have recently grown, particularly in the United States and particulary in the last few decades.
Don't be afraid to read it. ;-)
I thought I saw her on the calander of the Commonwealth Club in SF to speak soon, but I don't see it now. Nor is it archived if she spoke Sept 11 or later.
Don't let that old picture fool you she is now going to Michael Jackson's Dermatologist.
LOL
Now if anything needs to be repeated about kerry's past, it's that...over and over.
I thought she was dead.
Is she still alive?
This memorandum is to inform everyone that, through extensive court cases and rebuttals, Angela Davis, Professor of Philosophy, will no longer be a part ot the UCLA stalf. As head of the Board of Regents, I, nor the board will not tolerate any Communist activities at any state institution. Communists are an endangerment to this wonderful system of government that we all share and are proud of.
Please keep in mind that in 1949 it was reaffirmed that any member of the Communist Party is barred from teaching at this institution.
Cordially,
Ronald Reagan, Governor
Angela Davis: An Autobiography. Angela Davis: pg 379. "The Case of Angela The Red" Time. October 17, 1969.
?Are Prisons Obsolete?? ?
"They don't rehabilitate. They exist to keep companies in business, building penitentiaries and keep troublesome minorities away. The responsible thing to do, she says, is get rid of them. "
No,Angela, given the similar conditions but in a different government institution, the REAL question is:
?Are Public schools Obsolete?
BTW - I read he was born in Flint, MI. michael moore must be proud.
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