Freedom Is a Constant Struggle : Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

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It is sometimes incorrectly thought that genocide means the complete and definitive destruction of a race or people. The Genocide Convention, however, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1948, defines genocide as any killings on the basis of race, or, in it specific words, as “killing members of the group.” Any intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial, ethnic or religious group is genocide, according to the Convention. Thus, the Convention states, “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,” is genocide as well as “killing members of the group.” I make no accusations. I do think it is interesting to think about. I finally heard Davis's name in Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching and decided to read more. Even though numbers of books, both scholarly and popular, have been written on the role of women in the 1955 Boycott, Dr King, who was actually invited to be a spokesperson for a movement when he was entirely unknown—the movement had already formed—Dr King remains the dominant figure.

Although the book cites and specifies many important things we should start considering, understanding, and realizing, the speeches provided were repetitive. I appreciated the interviews more because of the questions asked along them, which allowed me to ask myself questions and get a broader understanding of the point trying to be made. I understand how sometimes it is necessary to repeat points over and over because, sadly, sometimes people don't want to listen. With that being said, instead of putting repetitive and similar interviews and mentioning topics that were not covered too in depth, I feel like the structure of the book would have been better if, instead of repeating things and only touching on them, the writer/author went more in depth of what she tried to convey. For example, Angela is clearly passionate about prison abolition, so instead of repeating her similar points, it would have been better to go more in depth about it. The same goes for the mentions of feminism, Palestine, and more on Ferguson.This review is a mess but hey, the academic year is over and I have no interest in writing coherently anymore. By Fazeela Siddiqui, currently a Staff Attorney at a large non-profit legal service organization in New York City.

Which is a shame, because I really do think that she is brilliant and is able to see and connect movements and concepts that I probably would never have seen without someone to point them out. She is able to provide context and perspective to movements that I could never experience and was only taught about in very biased and skewed ways. (I mean, it's unsurprising that this would happen, and the more that I read on this topic and learn, the more I realize how little I know.) As I was listening to this, I took a bunch of notes and jotted down quotes and thoughts that I had in reaction to her talks. I wrote down other books to add to my list, and other topics to read more on, particularly conflicts and movements outside of the US. I know VERY little about them beyond basic info one would see on the news, but after listening to Davis relate them to the movements here, it's easy to see how it's all the same fight... and as I continue to read and learn about history that shaped THIS country, and how it brought us to where we are, I should expand that to encompass other countries that have, and are still, fighting for equality and freedom - not just racial, but feminist and gender based, and LGBTQ+ and all manner of intersectionality. It's all relative, and it's all important. This is vintage Angela: insightful, curious, observant, and brilliant, asking and answering questions about events in this new century that look surprisingly similar to the last century." —Mumia Abu-Jamal Lincoln Center’s artistic excellence is made possible by the dedication and generosity of our board members

But I have been speaking too long. And despite my critique of closures I am compelled by time restrictions to close my talk this evening. So I want to close with an opening. Davis’s book hinges on the parallels of the struggles in Ferguson and Palestine to illustrate the necessity of transnational solidarity between movements. At one point Davis is “critical in a friendly way” of Michelle Alexander’s important book “The New Jim Crow” for not incorporating a global framework. Davis suggests that without this global understanding, it is difficult to understand the apparatus that has produced mass incarceration in the US. She specifies that if an activist wants to abolish the prison-industrial complex in the US it is a necessity to realize the interrelated need to abolish apartheid and end the occupation of Palestine. Davis connects these movements by examining the concerted global strategy to deal with disposable populations from the Global South that involves putting them in a “vast garbage bin” (prison) and creating an “ideological illusion that the surrounding society is safer and more free”.