Thread by @BonicMichael

Angela Davis on the University, political ideas, institutional racism in America and the need for knowledge to transcend immediate political & economic realities in order to transform them

Angela Davis speaking at UCLA 10/8/1969

[A long thread]

2/[@4:18]
“Now I maintain that political opinions should be brought into the classroom. They belong in the classroom. I think that education itself is inherently political. Its goal aught to be political. It aught to create human beings who possess a genuine concern for their

3/"fellow human beings, and who will use the knowledge they acquire in order to conquer nature, but to conquer nature for the purpose of freeing man, for freeing man from enslaving necessities...

[4:51]
But I'd like to..talk..about another kind of politicalization of education.

4/"The University has become political in a very overt sense. It’s become political as far as politics are defined by the controlling political apparatus in this country. No one I don’t think can deny the fact that universities continually receive research grants from the

5/"government which are directly related to Defense. Research grants which force the scholar to develop more efficient means of, for example, furthering the war in Vietnam. This is the politicalization of the University…

[6:19]
“Now the kind of racism that’s at work in the

6/"education system is far less overt, but it’s far more harmful. It’s far more harmful because of the difficulty we have in pinpointing it. Now how does institutional racism - and this is institutional racism we’re talking about - affect the University? Now I think there are

7/"certain requirements and standards which are supposedly maintained by the University…What is it? You have to get a B average in order to be accepted? And you have to have certain academic courses during your high school years in order to be brought into the University. Now,

8/"at first, this kind of a requirement seems to be neutral…

[8:02]
“Now what was the result of this research that I’m talking about? They found that the Black and Brown students, who, according the standards and requirements of the University of California, that only about 3%

9/"…were actually…quote qualified enough even in order to be considered by the admissions office for admission into the University…And then we talk about establishing “new standards”. We talk about things like “potential” rather than actual achievement because the occasion for

10/"actual achievement has not yet been created in this country in the high schools and the ghettoes. Now, when we say that we want to create “new standards”, a lot of people in the University cry out and say that this [i.e. the University of California] is an institution for the

11/"elite, this is an institution designed to create the future leaders of our society. Therefore we can’t afford to lower our standards. Nobody had ever said anything about lowering standards. They interpret new standards as a lowering of their standards. Now this is what

12/"institutional racism is. This is the kind of racism that’s not immediately visible. This is a kind of racism that we must fight. This is a kind of politicalization of the University which has to be neutralized…

[Do you understand what Angela Davis is saying here? It's key.]

13/[9:57]
“And the results were that students in the Los Angeles ghetto schools cannot read. They’re far below the average norm. Now this is a part of the conspiracy that I’m talking about. When these student reach College they will have been totally eliminated from those who

14/"were qualified to attend the University. And of course the reason for refusing them entrance won’t be because they’re Black or Brown but because they aren’t qualified, because according to the neutral statement, that they have to satisfy certain qualifications, certain

15/"requirements, certain standards, they will not be allowed to participate in the so-called sacred activities of education…

[11:25]
“Now I want to read a quote from Herbert Marcuse’s latest book, “An Essay on Liberation”…He says:

“What appears as extraneous politicalization

16/"of the University by disrupting radicals is today, as was so often in the past, the logical internal dynamic of education. Translation of knowledge into reality, of humanistic values into humane conditions of existence, denial of the right of political activity in the

17/"University, perpetuates the separation between theoretical and practical reason and reduces the effectiveness and the scope of intelligence.”

Those people who don’t understand these internal dynamics of the educational process maintain, as I stated earlier, that political

18/"opinions ought to be kept out of the classroom. Of course totally ignoring that there are political opinions already in the classroom, but they’re political opinions which reflect the political power in this country. Now in maintaining that the University is no place for

19/"political thought, they are denying something which is the most crucial aspect of knowledge: its transformation into reality…

[13:15]
“Now, of course knowledge has to be capable of transcending mere material necessity. It ought to be capable of transcending the present

20/"political and economic situation. But for what? Should knowledge be cooped up in a vacuum which is unrelated to human reality? My position is that knowledge has to transcend the immediate political reality for one purpose, for the purpose of transforming it. For the purpose

21/"of setting the stage for the elimination of human suffering and misery. For the abolition of racism. For the creation of a society which reflects the interests of the people who constitute that society. And I suppose this was why the Regents fired me. They intend to keep the

22/"knowledge developed in the University in the service of the prevailing oppression. And I guess they were right from their point of view. The fact that I’m a member of the Communist Party, that I’m involved in the activities of the Che-Lumumba Club, which is an all-Black

23/"collective of the [Communist] Party committed to the struggle for Black Liberation, says something about the kind of mind that I have. I can’t and I won’t keep my political opinions out of the classroom. I think they belong there. Now I’ve come to the conclusion that the

24/"elimination of racism [and] human suffering can only come about through Socialism. Since knowledge should provide answers to these problems I feel that I have every right, when the occasion presents itself, that is when it’s relevant to what’s at hand, to say to my students:

25/"“I have given these things a lot of thought. My conclusion is that only some form of Communism is going to solve our basic human problems." And I want them to think about it. To criticize. To say what they think. To say whether they think I’m wrong. To say whether they think

26/"I’m right. And to present other solutions perhaps which they feel might be better. Now this is the process of education. It’s supposed to be a free atmosphere where everything can be subjected to a critical attitude. And I think the critical attitude is truly the mark of an

27/"educated person. But I have to inject here the fact that this is not really what the Regents meant when they said that my membership in the Communist Party makes me biased and renders me incapable of teaching in the true sense. So when I said “they were right”, that my

28/"membership in the Communist Party says something about the kind of mind I have, I didn’t mean that I received directives from the Party as to how to conduct my class or that my mind has been rigidified by my experiences in the Party that I would be incapable of free thought."

29/An Interlude In Winter
Is A Winterlude
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterlude
[5—21 Feb 2021]

Winterlude - BOB DYLAN (COVER)


“Winterlude, Winterlude, oh darlin'
Winterlude by the road tonight
Tonight there will be no quarrelin'
Ev'rything is gonna be all right”…