Activist
Urges Audience to Keep
Up the Fight
By Ioana Patringenaru | March 6, 2006
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| Angela Davis, a UC Santa Cruz professor and an activist, spoke at the Price Center Ballroom Wednesday. |
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On the first day of Women’s History Month, a veteran activist and former UCSD student urged a spirited audience at the Price Center to keep up the fight for racial and gender equality.
Angela Davis, now a
professor at the University
of California, Santa
Cruz, gave a lecture
entitled “Women
and Social Justice Movement:
Then, Now, Tomorrow”
in front of a sold-out
crowd at the Price Center
Ballroom. Her talk is
part of a series of
events celebrating the
10th anniversary of
UCSD’s Women’s
Center.
“She is a living witness to the historical struggles of the contemporary era,” said Women’s Center Director Emelyn dela Pena.
Audience members often interrupted Davis’ speech with thunderous applause. Someone even cried out “I love you, Angela.” The audience was made up of people of many races and ages.
During her lecture, Davis delivered a scathing critique of the Bush administration. She also said racism is alive and well in America. She pointed to the plight of New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. She urged her audience not to forget its victims.
“As we are gathered here this evening, the people of New Orleans, they still cry, they still mourn their losses,” she said.
Davis also talked about the deaths of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King. She warned that their stories don’t mean that discrimination has been put to rest and racism has been overcome.
“We are much
further from democracy
today than we seemed
during the civil rights
movement,” she
said.
But she cautioned that promoting diversity for
the sake of diversity
isn’t enough.
Secretary of State Condoleeza
Rice shouldn’t
be put on the same level
as Sojourner Truth,
she said.
“The price of diversity is sometimes too high,” she said.
Davis pointed to Latin
America as an example
of hope. The region
has recently elected
several socialist heads
of state, including
Michelle Bachelet of
Chile, a single mother
and former victim of
torture under the dictatorship
of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Unfortunately, in the
United States, a female
president can only be
found on TV, as Geena
Davis, in NBC’s
“Commander-in-Chief,”
Davis said.
Audience member Shelley Plumb said she admired Davis’ ability to speak truth to power.
“She’s been a heroine of mine for 30-some years,” Plumb said.
Plumb also said Davis
had been treated unfairly
in the past. In 1969,
Davis was removed from
her teaching position
at the University of
California, Los Angeles,
as a direct result of
her activism and membership
in the Communist Party.
She later was rehired
after her firing caused
an uproar in the community.
Davis also landed on
the FBI’s Ten
Most Wanted List for
allegedly participating
in an escape attempt
from the Marin County
Hall of Justice. She
was cleared of the charges
in 1972.
Janaha Ransome, a student majoring in urban studies and planning, said she admired Davis’ “dedication to the struggle.”
Georgette Gomez, an organizer with the Environmental Health Coalition, said she was looking for inspiration from Davis’ speech. Being an activist can be draining, she said.
“I’m sure it’s going to be re-energizing,”
Gomez said.
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