Angela Davis fills McCosh 50, discusses Palestine, elections and the legacy of her activism

In a public lecture given on the evening of Tuesday, October 22, Angela Davis reflected on the importance of voting in elections, solidarity and support for Palestine, and its ultimate goal, revolution.

The 445 seats in McCosh Hall 50 were not enough to contain a large turnout, with dozens of people standing against the walls and lining the stairs to hear Davis in conversation with African American studies professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor . About 100 people also gathered in an overflow room down the hall to watch the event virtually.

“You don’t have to succumb to the kind of historical amnesia that is encouraged in this country,” Davis told a cheering audience. “I hope we all learn from this time.”

This lecture was at least the fifth time that Davis spoke at Princeton.

As a political activist, Davis was a member of the American Communist Party and the Black Panther Party, co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization aimed at dismantling the prison-industrial complex, and was the third woman to be placed on the top ten of the FBI. list of wanted people. Angela Davis is currently Professor Emeritus of History of Consciousness and Women’s Studies at UC Santa Cruz.

After brief introductory remarks from Taylor, Davis was greeted with a standing ovation.

The conversation began with a reflection on progress. Although Davis says systems of oppression continue to persist, she also highlighted the progress that has been made in terms of “people who are on the front lines and playing the lead roles,” citing the status of women of color of Vice President Kamala Harris.

“It’s something very new, because we’ve always had to fight for this,” Davis said.

Next, the conversation turned to the issue of political extremism in relation to the upcoming presidential election. Some Democrats, as well as former members of Donald Trump’s administration, have described him as a fascist. Taylor questioned whether elections were really the solution to stemming the rise of political extremism. Davis responded by saying she reluctantly voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“At that time, you had to be really strategic,” she says, “to maintain our ability to engage in the struggle.”

“I was really, really upset during that time,” she continued. “Often we have to do things we hate doing, but we do them even if it makes us feel bad. We do them for the sake of larger collectives and for the sake of what might come next,” she said, vaguely suggesting listeners vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in this election.

For Davis, elections are the only way to protect certain rights – she cited Roe v. Wade as an example of a right that has been dismantled because of Trump – and to maintain the social conditions in which political activists can then organize for revolution.

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“I still want a revolution,” Davis clarified, “I want to overthrow the capitalist system.” This sentence was greeted with applause from the audience.

The second half of the conversation focused on the issue of free speech, particularly in the context of recent pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. Davis shared an anecdote about growing up during McCarthyism, watching family and friends being followed by the FBI.

“It’s really important that we don’t find ourselves in another period like this, where we have to use all our energy to fight to save those who are the targets of repression, instead of doing the organizing that we should be doing for the revolution,” she said. .

Academic freedom of expression is an issue that Davis has experienced intimately. In 1969, Davis was fired from her professorship at UCLA for her involvement in the Communist Party. Davis described how, even after being rehired, she received so many death threats that she had to be escorted around campus by campus police and have her car checked daily for bombs.

After acknowledging the support she received from UCLA faculty and students, Davis criticized those who promoted academic freedom without supporting other forms of freedom in the face of repression.

“These problems are structural,” Davis said. “We cannot address one without addressing the other.”

Returning to the issue of pro-Palestinian protests on campus, Davis was “pleased to see for the first time, especially on campus, this incredible support for solidarity for Palestine.”

She also compared recent pro-Palestinian campus protests to student protests against apartheid in South Africa, explaining how protests against South Africa “had an intellectual impact” and “helped us think more deeply.”

Davis then criticized administrators’ handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus following a question from Taylor describing the criminal proceedings of 15 people arrested during the Princeton protests in the spring.

“Why do college campus administrators, who might now boast about the fact that there have been protests on campus…want to at the same time suppress those who speak out against the colonial and racist state of Israel? said Davis, describing the Columbia University website detailing the 1968 takeover of Hamilton Hall during protests against the Vietnam War.

Davis added that “speaking out against Israel does not mean engaging in an anti-Semitic act at all. In fact, it’s the opposite,” referring to his experiences with Jewish organizations opposed to Zionism, such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow. She described how many Jews “feel that to be faithful to the history and culture of the Jewish struggle for liberation, there must be alliances with others.”

This follows Davis’ concluding comments on capitalism, criticizing how individualism has made people “short-sighted.”

Davis emphasized the need to “learn not to be so myopic that you only think about what’s happening at that moment.” For Davis, this could apply to issues ranging from climate change to individual happiness.

The conversation ended with a second standing ovation.

This event took place as part of the Stafford Little Lecture series and took place on October 22 at 5 p.m. It was co-sponsored by the Department of African American Studies and Labyrinth Books.

Nikki Han is a News Contributor for “Prince.”

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