Angela Davis Reflection
Activist Angela Davis has been deeply involved in our quest for social justice. We sat in the Harold Alfond Forum for a little over an hour, actively listening to Davis speak and take part in our MLK day celebration. Right off the bat, Dr.Davis had already educated me on something I guess I just never really realized or fully understood. I had always thought of MLK day just as a day to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Simply remembering he was the one standing up and actively speaking out about racism and trying to help create change, and the despairing result was assassination while he tried doing so. During MLK not only do we need to honor, appreciate, and remember Dr.King, but also acknowledge that this day of honor is additionally a Black Freedom Movement Day, focusing on intersectional understanding. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that all fifty states began observing MLK day. A fun fact Davis stated was that one year the Super Bowl, that was supposed to be played in Arizona was moved because the state would not honor it, that’s just a prime example of how significant this holiday is.
Dr.Davis spent some time taking about the major uprising of women within time and how far women have become in society. The “Black Lives Matter” social movement was led by women. More women are in congress than ever before. Additionally, the first Palestinian women was inaugurated into the House of Representative. When Dr. Davis spoke about how the “Black Lives Matter” movement I began to think to myself, yes that’s true. However, I personally believe it should be “All Lives Matter”, and no sooner or later Davis agreed that “All Lives Matter”, because if we just say “Black Lives Matter”, then does that mean African Americans lives an opposition?
Another topic of discussion was racism violence vs gender violence. Some examples she stressed on gender violence was towards how society is shifting in gender; such as the LGBTQ community and people who are transgender. She focused a small discussion on how men and women jails are a prime example of gender violence. We almost question, does prison actually make people less violent? Because typically people who end up in prison end up even more violent. Shifting gears to racism violence, abortion is a clear example. Davis spoke, “Abortion is guaranteed because of a women’s right to have privacy with a doctor”, however what about the women who have no doctors? The constitution is another prime example of racism violence. The constitution refers to a small minority. “All people are created equal”, however the more we dive into that we begin to realize its more of “All men are created equal” because women were excluded. Diving even deeper, “All white men are created equal”, because males and females of other races didn’t matter and didn’t have voice in society that we currently do. Although racism and gender violence have become less of a focus, there is still work that needs to be done to arouse the importance of these violence’s.
Concluding Dr.Davis’ powerful, enlightening speech. She nonchalantly spoke slightly about her political view. Our government is currently shut down because of the neglect of allowing President Donald Trump to build a wall. “People trying to flee are people who are fleeing violence, and the solution is a wall?” Spoke Davis. All of us citizens in the United States need to think internationally, globally, and be able understand that we can learn from struggles unfolding in other parts of the world to help better ourselves, our society, and our nation as a whole.
Angela Davis is an extremely vital historical figure, and I feel so greatly honored to be able to have had the opportunity to say I was able to listen to hear her speak.
8 thoughts on “Angela Davis Reflection”
Awesome! I can really relate to this reaction to the speech. Dr. Davis was such a great speaker and it was an honor to be able to listen to her perspective on different topics. As you stated that you were opened up to a new avenue of how to view Martin Luther King Day, I had written a very similar quote in my reflection. I had written, “Davis talks about it was ironic that it was such a long fight to dedicate a day to acknowledge the long fight that King, along with many others, had to fight for their rights. This movement, known as the Black Freedom Movement, gives a much deeper understanding of discrimination.”
This is an exceptional post! I loved how much you dove into analyzing all the political issues she addressed, as well as incorporating your opinions as well. An example of this is when you said: “I personally believe it should be “All Lives Matter,” and no sooner or later Davis agreed that “All Lives Matter,” because if we just say “Black Lives Matter,” then does that mean African Americans lives an opposition? By doing this, you bridged her words and your ideas into an overall cohesive idea, that everyone can interpret that. It was an honor to be granted the opportunity to hear her speech!
That was a great reflection of the Davis’ speech. In my opinion the quotes you used were some of her best lines during the speech. I also personally I also relate to the confliction of the idea of “Black Lives Matter” vs. “All Lives Matter” however she fought that away perception by explaining how “All Lives Matter” is being used to counter and interrupts the “Black Lives Matter” cause. I also liked how you talked about the idea that our history books quote “All men are created equal” really meant “All white men are created equal”. This relates to what I was saying about our perspective of history because “our history books are biased towards white men and their impacts and don’t give black women credit.”
You’re reflection following the speech by Angela Davis was very interesting and easy to follow. I like the way you incorporated your ideas and her ideas together and also elaborated and interpreted her speech in your own way. I agree and relate to you when you mentioned you never looked at Martin Luther King day as more than Dr. King’s own personal stance on racism. After her speech I also began to think about this day as a Black Freedom Movement day. I also think it was valuable that you included her points on woman. In my reflection I said similar things as you when I stated, “Seeing woman like her is inspiring for woman to stand up and fight for equality despite of other political and social beliefs”. Listening to her speak of her own experiences was very interesting and I appreciate her coming in to enlighten us on these important topics.
Your work here is really amazing! Firstly, your ability to able to highlight important topics, such as gender violence and women’s roles in activism, is displayed well in your work. This makes your summary really clear and understandable. Your analysis of each point Davis made showed how you really connected with her words and your ability to interject your own words and ideas made it very personal as well. For example, when leading into Davis’s ideas about MLK day you started with, “Right off the bat, Dr.Davis had already educated me on something I guess I just never really realized or fully understood.” with her ideals trailing after. This quote shows that you really took time to actively listen to her and were able to make new connections and as well as being able to connect her to your opinion.
I really enjoyed reading your post! I also really liked how you mentioned the part of the speech when Dr. Davis said, “We shouldn’t say black lives matter we should say all lives matter.” I personally really liked that quote because I never thought of it like that and it just really stood out to me in general. I also agree with you when you said, “Although racism and gender violence have become less of a focus, there is still work that needs to be done to arouse the importance of this violence.”, because there definitely needs to be more work done on those subjects! Overall, I really liked your blog post!
I like how you touched on so many different topics in your reflection. I agree that I was unaware about how many different reasons we celebrate MLK day for, until this talk, I always assumed that it was simply for remembering how much MLK did that affected the outcome of the civil rights movement. In my paper I also touched on how Angela Davis talked about how all lives matter, instead of just all black lives matter, because she felt that that was not a correct statement either since it counts out the white lives. I also like how you added your own personal thought on the topic of the all lives matter, disagreeing as well about how it shouldn’t be that simply all black lives matter.
Hello Alyssa! I really enjoyed your post. The first paragraph was really great, because you included how you learned about MLK. I also did not realize that MLK day is not just in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Instead it should be a day to recognize MLK, but also black history in general. I also really enjoyed how you tied in women with the Black Lives Matter movement. It was an interesting take on bringing the two ideas together. I also discussed the Black Lives Matter movement, but I did not think to discuss that the movement is led by women. Great post!