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Poor people, people of color – especially are much more likely to be found in prison than in institutions of higher education.

Angela Davis

If we do not know how to meaningfully talk about racism, our actions will move in misleading directions.
ANGELA DAVIS

Action Black Lives Matter Direction Mislead Racism
Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible.
ANGELA DAVIS

Actual Hope Justice Struggle Work
We live in a society of an imposed forgetfulness, a society that depends on public amnesia
ANGELA DAVIS

Depend Live Public Society
I’m suggesting that we abolish the social function of prisons.
ANGELA DAVIS

Abolish Function Prison Social Suggestion
Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo – obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.
ANGELA DAVIS

Convert Danger Design Each Other Human Jail Obedient Population Prison Zoo
Well of course I get depressed sometimes, yes I do.
ANGELA DAVIS

Depression Human Nature
Walls turned sideways are bridges.
ANGELA DAVIS

Bridge One Liner Wall
It is essential to resist the depiction of history as the work of heroic individuals.
ANGELA DAVIS

Essential History Individual Work
It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.
ANGELA DAVIS

Finding Hope Optimism
I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.
ANGELA DAVIS

Acceptance Change Entrepreneur Hustle Inspirational
Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group.
ANGELA DAVIS

Development Perhaps Racism Vision Women
If they come for me in the morning, they will come for you in the night.
ANGELA DAVIS

Feminism Morning Night
I don’t think we have any alternative other than remaining optimistic. Optimism is an absolute necessity, even if it’s only optimism of the will, as Gramsci said, and pessimism of the intellect.
ANGELA DAVIS

Absolute Alternative Intellectual Necessity Optimistic Thinking
We should seek out all the doors which still remain ajar, however slight the opening might be.
ANGELA DAVIS

Door Hope Jail Open Seek
I decided to teach because I think that any person who studies philosophy has to be involved actively.
ANGELA DAVIS

Acticity Decision Involvement Person Philosophy Study Teaching
We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.
ANGELA DAVIS

Feminism Liberty Mind Society Talk
Prison relieves us of the responsibility of seriously engaging with the problems of our society, especially those produced by racism and, increasingly, global capitalism.
ANGELA DAVIS

Capital Global Prison Problem Produce Racism Relieve Responsiblity Serious Society
Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it’s perhaps far more terrible than it’s ever been.
ANGELA DAVIS

Hide Perhaps Phenomena Racism Terrible
The only weapons that make me dangerous are my mind, mouth and pride, which will surely educate you.
ANGELA DAVIS

Danger Education Mind Mouth Pride Weapon Women Power
No march, movement, or agenda that defines manhood in the narrowest terms and seeks to make women lesser partners in this quest for equality can be considered a positive step.
ANGELA DAVIS

Agenda Consideration Equality Movement Seek Women
The process of empowerment cannot be simplistically defined in accordance with our own particular class interests. We must learn to lift as we climb.
ANGELA DAVIS

Climb Interest Learning Particular Process Women Empowerment
Progressive art can assist people to learn what’s at work in the society in which they live.
ANGELA DAVIS

Art Assistance Live People Progress Work
Well for one, the 13th amendment to the constitution of the US which abolished slavery – did not abolish slavery for those convicted of a crime.
ANGELA DAVIS

Abolish Amendment Constitution Convinction Country Crime Slave
Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.
ANGELA DAVIS

Commitment Life Lifetime Onself Revolution Serious Struggle
Radical simply means “grasping things at the root.
ANGELA DAVIS

Grasp Radical Root
Anyway I don’t think we can rely on governments, regardless of who is in power, to do the work that only mass movements can do.
ANGELA DAVIS

Government Movement Power Regard Thinking
As a black woman, my politics and political affiliation are bound up with and flow from participation in my people’s struggle for liberation, and with the fight of oppressed people all over the world against American imperialism.
ANGELA DAVIS

Country Participation People Politics Racism Struggle World

Poor people, people of color – especially are much more likely to be found in prison than in institutions of higher education.

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Poor people, people of color – especially are much more likely to be found in prison than in institutions of higher education.

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