This moment of abolition-- and of abolition feminism-- helps us to create new points of departure for our ongoing efforts to reveal how repressive systems and structures that thrive on racism, heteropatriarchy, and class hierarchies hold us captive to the past, tether us to capitalism in so many ways, and prevent us from collectively envisioning socialist futures.
Davis, a lifelong communist keeps pushing for a socialist future, her many references to "late capitalism" come across as an enervated proposition -- but the alternatives are bleaker and whiter.
Yes, I've been thinking -- fantasially -- about Angela Davis. Not long ago, I came across an old Atlantic piece that described the origins of California, where I was born. The name derived from the mythical island of California in the fictional story of Queen Calafia, as recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandia'n by Castilian author Garci Rodrguez de Montalvo. The account says that Queen Calafia's kingdom was a remote land rich in gold and pearls, inhabited by beautiful Black women who wore gold armor and lived like Amazons, as well as griffins and other strange beasts (probably proto-hippies and Panthers). I like to think of Davis as an Amazonian woman warrior, a proud lesbian taking sh*t from no one. She was said to be a Muslim defender (making Caliph-ornia her dominion). I am writing an epic poem about the queen. Here is Canto 1. If I may be objective: I love Angela Davis. And I'm a lesbian, too.
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A companion to Abolition is the documentary film 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay. which unpacks the 13th Amendment, and covers a lot of the same ground as Abolition (and even includes an interview with Angela Davis). It is available for free viewing at YouTube.
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