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I never saw myself as an individual who had any particular leadership powers.

Angela Davis

To understand how any society functions you must understand the relationship between the men and the women.
ANGELA DAVIS

Function Men Relationship Society Understand Women
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
Feminism insists on methods of thought and action that urge us to think about things together that appear to be separate, and to disaggregate things that appear to naturally belong together.
ANGELA DAVIS

Action Appearance Feminism Method Separate Togetherness Urge
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
You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.
ANGELA DAVIS

Act Radical Time Transformation World
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
I think we have to really focus on the issues much more than we may have in the past.
ANGELA DAVIS

Focus Issue Past Struggle
Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of our social problems.
ANGELA DAVIS

Prison Problem Response Social
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
I think in black communities today we need to encourage a lot more cross racial organizing.
ANGELA DAVIS

Black Lives Matter Community Encouragement Radical
You can’t criticize people for wanting to have a decent life or wanting to live decently.
ANGELA DAVIS

Criticism Decent Life Live People Want
It’s true that it’s within the realm of cultural politics that young people tend to work through political issues, which I think is good, although it’s not going to solve the problems.
ANGELA DAVIS

Culture Issue People Politics Problem Solution True
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’m suggesting that we abolish the social function of prisons.
ANGELA DAVIS

Abolish Function Prison Social Suggestion
When children attend schools that place a greater value on discipline and security than on knowledge and intellectual development, they are attending prep schools for prison.
ANGELA DAVIS

Children Development Discipline Intellectual Knowledge Prison School Security Value

I never saw myself as an individual who had any particular leadership powers.

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I never saw myself as an individual who had any particular leadership powers.

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