February 2012
220 posts
Angela Davis on violence
when she was in the California State Prison - 1972
Interviewer: a year ago the black panthers were much more active. We heard much more about that type of struggle. Is the time of the black panthers past?
Angela davis: the black panthers still exist, and the black panthers are still extremely active in the Oakland community and communities all over the country. I’m not sure whether or not you are aware of what is now happening in the black panther party and the kinds of things that the members of that party are doing now.
Interviewer: no but tell me.
Angela davis: first of all, if you’re gonna talk about a revolutionary situation, you have to have people who are physically able to wage revolution, who are physically able to organize and physically able to do all that is done.
Interviewer: but the question is more, how do you get there? Do you get there by confrontation, violence?
Angela davis: oh, is that the question you were asking? yeah see, that’s another thing. When you talk about a revolution, most people think violence, without realizing that the real content of any revolutionary thrust lies in the principles and the goals that you’re striving for, not in the way you reach them. On the other hand, because of the way this society’s organized, because of the violence that exists on the surface everywhere, you have to expect that there are going to be such explosions. You have to expect things like that as reactions. If you are a black person and live in the black community all your life and walk out on the street everyday seeing white policemen surrounding you… when I was living in Los Angeles, for instance, long before the situation in L.A ever occurred, I was constantly stopped. No, the police didn’t know who I was. But I was a black women and I had a natural and they, I suppose thought I might be “militant.” And when you live under a situation like that constantly, and then you ask me, you know, whether I approve of violence. I mean, that just doesn’t make any sense at all. Whether I approve of guns. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Some very, very good friends of mine were killed by bombs, bombs that were planted by racists. I remember, form the time I was very small, I remember the sounds of bombs exploding across the street. Our house shaking. I remember my father having to have guns at his disposal at all times, because of the fact that, at any moment, we might expect to be attacked. The man who was, at that time, in complete control of the city government, his name was Bull Connor, would often get on the radio and make statements like, “niggers have moved into a white neighborhood. We better expect some bloodshed tonight.” And sure enough, there would be bloodshed. After the four young girls who lived, one of them lived next door to me…I was very good friends with the sister of another one. My sister was very good friends with all three of them. My mother taught one of them in her class. My mother—in fact, when the bombing occurred, one of the mothers of one of the young girls called my mother and said, “can you take me down to the church to pick up Carol? We heard about the bombing and I don’t have my car.” And they went down and what did they find? They found limbs and heads strewn all over the place. And then, after that, in my neighborhood, all the men organized themselves into an armed patrol. They had to take their guns and patrol our community every night because they did not want that to happen again. That’s why, when someone asks me about violence, I just, I just find it incredible. Because what it means is that the person who’s asking that question has absolutely no idea what black people have gone through, what black people have experienced in this country since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa.
The African Flying Machine Rests: What Lot's Wife... →
eating-poetry:
Do you remember when we met in Gomorrah? When you were still beardless, and I would oil my hair in the lamp light before seeing you, when we were young, and blushed with youth like bruised fruit. Did we care then what our neighbors did in the dark?
When our first daughter was born on the River Jordan, when our second cracked her pink head from my body like a promise, did we...
Wear your scars like jewels: Attention Muslims... →
joshishollywood:
baby007:
I noticed most of you are scared to death over dogs. Why? My 4lbs chihuahua is not mean. She loves to play and cuddle. I read that you consider them diseased… Well this is America. Our dogs have shots, vacines, and are not diseased. I bath my chihuahua weekly…
This makes me sad…and its sight not site boo…
Another day, another lawsuit about Obama's... →
thegirlwiththefinchertattoo:
This one may take the cake. The racist cake.
Barack Hussein Obama II, a.k.a. Barack Hussein Obama, a.ka. Barack H. Obama has the race status of being a “mulatto.” Barack Obama’s father (Barack Hussein Obama I) was a full blood Negro being born Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya and raised in the Colony of Kenya. Barack Obama’s mother (Stanley Ann Dunham)...
Can Tyler Perry please make a movie where the...
Co…fucking…sign
“It reminds me of the “bike to work” movement. That is also portrayed as white,...”
– Comment/response left on the Racialious post “Sustainable Food & Priviledge: Why is Green always White (and Male and Upper-Class)” »BOOM!
nezua:
Your new super power is remaining aware of what is in your control, and what is not; to firmly grasp the former, to let the rest slip into the wind.
Word
“A couple of reasons that free yoga classes are held and advertised in...”
– colorblue | this is not a post about yoga!
this! i wrote a post about this like three years ago, and i still cant get myself to take a yoga class or get my certification for teaching yoga. and im so glad that she linked this to seed patents (i made the same connx in my post back when…)\
oh h/t...
honeyedexcrements:
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” - Plato
Word
“When I started making those weird voices, a lot of people told me how whack it...”
– Nicki Minaj (BlackBook Magazine)
THAT’S. WHAT. I’VE. BEEN. SAYING. y’al be letting your anti-femmeness fool you. just cause she’s wearing pink don’t mean she ain’t fucking with shit in some supercreative and intelligent ways.
(via so-treu)
Boom shot
(via blackamazon)
Thanks for reminding me I...
Oprah needs to GTFO South Africa and come to... →
silentlydrawn:
battle-studies:
withrevolutionarycries:
zorascreation:
Pron fuckin’ to.
:|
Get ya ass over here and build an academy for Black AND Brown kids of ALL GENDERS PLZ.
i’m sorry but i’m going to have to disagree with you. there is nothing wrong with investing in Black and Brown girls specifically. Most of the service projects that I see this days are aimed at Black boys. I...
