WORDS OF WISDOM / EXPERT
Equality Angela Davis shares her wisdom with the UHart community
In February, noted activist, scholar, educator, and author Angela Davis appeared before a capacity crowd in Lincoln Theater and a standing-room-only crowd that watched via livestream in Konover Campus Center. During a two-hour “A Conversation with Angela Davis,” she shared her expertise on many topics while responding to questions from Javon Jackson, chair of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz in The Hartt School, and from a panel of four students, Xavion Whitmire ’20, Jessica Floyd ’18, Shyan Weir ’18, and Alexia Maitland ’18. Here are some of her thoughts on diversity, inclusion, and the struggle for equality.
ADVICE
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Q
Jessica Floyd ’18 asks: If we simply demand equal access for people of color, women, LGBT identities, and other group identities, are we supporting a superficial variation of multiculturalism that allows this institution called America to supposedly transform itself but continue to function in the old way? Angela Davis: That’s the issue. Somehow, we’ve been led to believe that all we need to do is create diversity. All we need to do is guarantee inclusion. I’m not saying we don’t need diversity and inclusion but it’s important to ask the question “inclusion in what?” Inclusion in the old structures so that they function in the same way they used to? What sense does it make for black people or Latinx people, or indigenous, or Asian American people to be included in a society that is still structurally racist? And right now, given that there is a great deal of attention on sexual harassment and sexual assault—finally. This should have happened a thousand years ago. But what kind of sense does it make to ask for the inclusion of women in a misogynist society that remains exactly the way it was when it excluded women?
Q
Shyan Weir ’18 asks: We are seeing history repeat itself in terms of civil rights rolling back and inequality increasing. Is it possible to overcome a second time? Angela Davis: Well, we never really overcame the first time. As a matter of fact, the emergence of the mid-20th century freedom movement (which everyone calls the civil rights movement but I prefer [to say] freedom movement) occurred because the work that should have been done in the immediate aftermath of slavery never happened. So here we are in the 21st century still addressing issues that should have been dealt with in the late 1860s and 1870s. This time, we have to be more determined. We have to recognize the extent to which structural change is needed. It is not just about assimilation or integration; it’s about transformation.
SPRING 2018