There's a certain woman here named Angela Davis. I don't know if you are familiar with her in this country, but in our country, literally, for an entire year, we heard of nothing at all except Angela Davis. There was only Angela Davis in the whole world and she was suffering. We had our ears stuffed with Angela Davis. Little children in school were told to sign petitions in defense of Angela Davis. Little boys and girls, eight and nine years old, were asked to do this. She was set free, as you know. Although she didn't have too difficult a time in this country's jails, she came to recuperate in Soviet resorts. Some Soviet dissidents--but more important, a group of Czech dissidents--addressed an appeal to her: "Comrade Davis, you were in prison. You know how unpleasant it is to sit in prison, especially when you consider yourself innocent. You have such great authority now. Could you help our Czech prisoners? Could you stand up for those people in Czechoslovakia who are being persecuted by the state?" Angela Davis answered: "They deserve what they get. Let them remain in prison." That is the face of Communism. That is the heart of Communism for you.
If you know anything about the ideological battles of the 20th century, I needn't comment further, and certainly not to not how widely shared this sentiment was on the left.
1 comment:
Is your intention to delegitimize the black liberation struggles of the 60s/70s, or is it to emphasize the failures and injustices of the Soviet government?
I would hope that you aren't suggesting much of a relationship. I would be interested to hear that relationship argued, though. It would certainly be a stretch to base much on a single quote of unverifiable attribution, especially given that the quote is sufficiently contradicted by a lifetime of the professor's writings and lectures. You might inquire into Davis' general stance on incarceration.
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