It looks like former Communist Party USA leader and Black Panther Angela Davis is doing a grand tour of American schools.

After speaking at Catholic Seattle University and Elizabethtown College, she gave the keynote address for the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s (UMD) Summit on Equity, Diversity and Multiculturalism.

And it was everything you would expect from such a speaker:

Angela Davis spoke to nearly 400 people about slavery, education and incarceration in UMD’s Kirby Ballroom.

“How many opportunities will one get to see Angela Davis?” said LaShaunda Newsom, a UMD transfer student majoring in psychology. “It’s Black History Month, so I’m taking my time to educate myself on Angela Davis and other black historical leaders. Now is the perfect time to do it.”

Davis started her lecture by discussing college education in California.

“The percentage of black students on some California campuses hovers between 3 to 6 percent,” Davis said. “That’s a scandal.”

Davis spent the past 15 years at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she is now professor emerita of history of consciousness, an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program, and of feminist studies.

Davis also has taught at San Francisco State University, Mills College, Berkeley and several other colleges.

Davis folded those statistics into the larger conversation about slavery and racism.

“It seems to be difficult for the public to engage in a public discussion about slavery,” Davis said. “We only talk about slavery if we see it in movies like ‘12 Years a Slave’ or ‘Django.’”

Davis said she was in Germany when Nelson Mandela died, and she said the coverage on Mandela, South Africa and his death was amazing because people freely discussed racism in those subjects. She said that the United States doesn’t do that, but she hopes that will change.

“We should stand up against racism, and we should stand up for immigrant rights, disabled rights, homophobia and LGBT organization rights and education,” Davis said. “We need much more activism today.”

Imprisonment was the final subject in Davis’ lecture. She discussed how the United States has the largest incarceration numbers and how U.S. teachers can file a report to the police if a child “acts up” in class.

“Now days, it is easier for a child to have a ‘record,’?” Davis said. “People don’t know that imprisonment robs children and individuals of their family and future. We are becoming a prisoned nation.”


 
 0 
 
 0