Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

A few days ago it was announced that the officer who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson six years ago won't be charged. A gut punch in the midst of ongoing worldwide protests against police violence. Angela Davis addresses this and a whole lot more in this collection of interviews and speeches. Freedom is a Constant Struggle is a book about intersectionality and transformative change. Though short and somewhat redundant, there's a whole lot to percolate on. Davis packs wisdom and brilliance into few words, and sometimes you (or at least I) need time to sit with what she says to digest its full meaning. Many feminists understand how sexism connects with racism and homophobia. There is a certain level of consensus that zeroing in on gender as a sole or primary form of oppression is impossible and insufficient. But here Davis urges us to expand our thinking geographically and temporally. How do present struggles link up with past and future struggles? How does Ferguson relate to Palestine? How does Portland relate to Hong Kong? Making these connections is a prerequisite to meaningful social change. In a culture where we are taught to think of ourselves as distinct individuals and are taught to think of education as a means to a material end, it can be difficult to really reimagine how we could do things to better serve everyone. To reimagine what our society could be rather than simply assimilating marginalized peoples into what already is. By connecting inequity here to inequity there, by building coalitions across identities and struggles where previously there was misunderstanding and contempt, we get out of our own way, enabling ourselves to see the roots we aim to grasp and extricate. Marriage equality and implicit bias trainings, and even, Davis adds, prosecution of individual police officers, will not get us far unless we address what allows these patterns to emerge and problems to reproduce unchecked. As Audre Lorde famously said, the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. This is hardly a good place to start your antiracist or feminist reading, but Davis is outstanding. I'm excited for her [b:next release 53657256 Abolition. Feminism. Now. Angela Y. Davis https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1590836554l/53657256.SX50.jpg 83977949].