The success of the feminist strike 2018, the power that emanated from the mass demonstrations was one of the expressions of a rearmed feminism that shook the pillars of thought and action at the international level. What was happening? Shipwrecked with the utopias of the 20th century, was feminism the possibility, the answer, the lever of change? Five years later, we can cry for the lost unity or interpret the bitter internal discussions of the movement as a proof of its transcendence. Engine of transformation, but also sounding board of the reaction.
Finally, feminism is the voices that populate it. Echoes from the past and clamors of newcomers who demand to open doors and windows. Looks that explore one’s own body and visions that encompass and explore the limits of dissidence. Among them, that of Angela Davis. Legend and present. Thought and activism. His biography is a lesson in nonconformity. Referent of feminism, of the fight against racism, symbol of the global left and cultural icon. A magnetic figure that continues to be a benchmark and target of attacks.
Davis is the proud daughter of civil rights activists. She was born in 1944, in full force of the Jim Crow Laws of segregation. He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. also called Bombighan, due to the incendiary bombs that the Ku Klux Klan He pitched against African Americans. Specifically, he was born in the neighborhood nicknamed Dynamite Hill (Dynamite Hill), center of the attacks. The “sounds of dynamite exploding & rdquor; They are part of Davis’s memory: “Terrorism is part of our history & rdquor ;.
Davis is the bright young woman who, from scholarship to scholarship, studied French at Brandeis University (Massachusetts), Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt and received a doctorate in Humboldt University in East Berlin. He was part of communist party and of the Black Panthers. Her political affiliation cost her the position of professor at the University of California, dismissal promoted by Ronald Reagan, then state governor; and his anti-racist fight placed it on the list of the “10 most wanted & rdquor; by the FBI, accused of murder and kidnapping. That was the only time in his life that he hid his afro hair, much more than an aesthetic decision. Imprisoned for 16 months, the demand for her release sparked an international campaign: ‘Free Angela Davis’. In 1972, she was cleared of all charges.
Davis is the prolific author, Emeritus Professor at UC Santa Cruz since 2008 and the philosopher who, among other black writers and activists, has just been excluded from an African-American studies course project at a Florida college. Its governor, a Republican with presidential ambitions, had already announced that he would ban the proposal. The draft intended to delve into issues such as the black feminist experience, ‘queer’ studies or intersectionality (how race, class, gender, sexual orientation, or other factors interrelate, overlap, and impact a person). “It is inevitable that every time we move in a progressive direction, there are countervailing forces that will try to push us back,” Davis said of the annulment.
Related news
Davis remembers those days when he was asked: “Are you black or are you a woman?” As if both were stagnant categories -and struggles-, as if the violence that is exercised for one condition or another were not related. Now, use that question to refer to the trans controversy within feminism: “If you want to get rid of violence directed against people in the world, whether it be racist violence or gender violence, you should support black trans women who are subjected to more violence than any other group of people. And if we move forward in our fight to defend black trans women, all communities that experience violence will be able to feel those victories.”
Davis is memory: “I can see that the work that was done 50 and 60 years ago really mattered, although there were times when we all felt that it was in vain & rdquor ;. And also future: “We need hope. We cannot do anything without optimism & rdquor ;. This March 8, despite the troubles and disagreements, It is a day to rearm hope. The differences also serve to spur the debate, extend it and break down borders. So that no fight for human rights is in vain.