Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Reflection 2
Davis, A.Y. (2016). Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. (F. Barat, Ed.). Haymarket Books.
“…all over the world the institution of the prison serves as a place to warehouse people who represent major social problems… prison serves as an institution that consolidates the state’s inability and refusal to address the most pressing social problems of this era.” (p. 25)
Summary
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis is a collection of ten interviews and speeches in which Davis discusses the interconnectedness of struggles against state violence, oppression, and terror across the world. This book, amassing only 146 pages of prose, is a master class in highlighting the interwoven nature of struggles, movements, and peoples separated by lands, seas, and histories. There is so much depth to this book that I cannot touch on all of its nuance and perspective, but I will focus on a few highlights that stood out to me. Davis connects structural racism and classism, the prison industrial complex, and police brutality in the U.S., particularly after Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson, Missouri, with the Palestinian struggle against settler-colonialsm and apartheid. In doing so, she draws on historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Assata Shakur, and Nelson Mandela along with historical movements such as the fight against South African apartheid and the Civil Rights Movement to highlight the need to elevate collective voices and collective struggles over the individual.
Critiquing neoliberal ideologies and capitalist individuality, Davis clearly outlines how promotion of such capitalist individualism is insidious in its eclipse of larger structural injustices and how it only serves to distance recognizable figures from the countless people who actually built the movements that made said figures recognizable. Admirably relentless in her support of international solidarity, Davis also highlights the connection between U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Israeli military apparatus, and the nearly $8.5 million dollars/day in military aid that the U.S. provides to Israel (p. 54). One example of the power of transnational solidarity that Davis is arguing for happened when young Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza recognized the tear gas canisters that were used on Ferguson protestors and tweeted advice on how to minimize the effect of the tear gas to the protestors. I highly recommend that everyone read this book.
Pedagogical Use
In conceiving of my future teaching context as L2 Arabic classrooms, this book is fundamentally not very useful from a linguistic perspective. That said, however, this is actually something I have been wondering throughout the semester: What is the pedagogical role of a text that might not enhance language learning/input but enhances engagement with content and social justice? What role do English/L1 texts have in the L2 classroom? I would like to use this text in my future classes, but think it would take some contextualization as it is not in the target language. In that case, I think this text could be used for any level of tertiary learner. Another option would be to use a translated work of Davis’, if not this exact text, then another. In this case, I think it would be most useful in an intermediate high-advanced class or even a class focused on the nuances of translation. In which case, I would try to bring in a guest speaker as I am not very knowledgeable on the ethics behind translation work. If I were to use Freedom is a Constant Struggle as it is written in English to foster social justice/content engagement, I think it would be especially important in novice level classes at tertiary institutions. In conducting research for my AL capstone paper, many students expressed that they did not discuss any social justice topics, in English or Arabic, in lower levels and felt like teachers dismissed them because of their proficiency level. Using this text in English could be a very interesting and different path towards engagement with other social justice texts/topics in Arabic at a lower level.
Reflection Points for Students
Davis highlights the political agendas that often underpin the use of the terms ‘terrorist/terrorism’ when describing people and events. I think this is a very important point to engage in the Arabic classroom. A large portion of students who begin learning Arabic in the U.S., particularly those who begin in college, do so with goals of working in counterterrorism, national security, and intelligence. I have personally been witness to the thought processes that this can bring into the classroom. I do not wish to downplay the goals of these learners, rather I want to highlight the perceptions of who is a terrorist that are brought into the language classroom. Davis states, “It was not until George W. Bush proclaimed a global war on terror in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, that terrorists came to represent the universal enemy of Western “democracy.” To retroactively implicate Assata Shakur in a putative contemporary terrorist conspiracy is also to bring those who have inherited her legacy, and who identify with the continued struggles against racism and capitalism, under the canopy of ‘terrorist violence’” (p. 77). Some interesting questions for discussion could be as follows:
- What does terrorism mean? Who decides?
- How does this conception of post-9/11 terrorism align (or not) with your understanding of who is called a terrorist? Would you say that terrorism is a racialized term, that is, it gets prescribed to people who look a certain way?
- In thinking about the violence and brutality that Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities in the U.S. and Palestine have endured at the hand of the state, do we categorize this violence as terrorism? Why or why not?
In the third interview, “We Have to Talk about Systemic Change,” a UCLA student and member of his campus’ Student Justice for Palestine chapter asks, “What is the role of student activism today, and how should students think about the relationship to the broader community and the movements that surround their campuses particularly in a time where universities are becoming increasingly elite institutions (p.43)?” I think this is a great question to pose to learners. It could be tailored more towards language learning as well. Here are a few ideas:
- What do you (the learner) see as the role of student activism in fighting for social change?
- In what classes do you discuss social, political, and economic inequity? What classes do you not discuss it? Why do you think that is?
Convergence with SJLT Course
At the core of this book, Davis encourages readers to examine movements that might seem unrelated but are in fact deeply connected in a global struggle against racism, capitalism, militarization, and settler colonialism as a way to build organized resistance and stand in solidarity with one another in order to precipitate lasting freedom and change. She touches on quite literally every topic we have discussed: race, gender, neoliberalism, trans rights, institutional violence, class, the list goes on, to expertly support her point that none of these struggles, none of these movements exist in a vacuum; something we have discussed all semester. Davis highlights that a fundamental underpinning for this kind of work is intersectionality and implores the readers to teach, learn, and disseminate knowledge surrounding socio-historical realities based in structural inequity (p. 45). This class has shown me that not only is it important to discuss social justice, but it is imperative that we give students the tools with which they can engage outside the classroom in ways meaningful to them. This book exemplifies what that can look like– continued engagement outside of academia with people in contexts different from our own but united against the injustices of our institutions.
Hey Sydney,
Great reflection of your book. I like the 3rd question you posed for your future students because it always reminds me of the paradox of tolerance – where exactly do we draw the line, and who decides where the line actually goes? I remember learning about the difference between terror organizations and governments in Intro to International Relations, and we constantly had to remind ourselves that just because behavior form governments can’t *technically* be classified as terrorism, it doesn’t mean that the behavior in question isn’t questionable (or a human rights violation).
Jada- thank you for your response! You pose such great questions. Terror/terrorist/terrorism is such a politically charged and racialized term. Davis really drives home the point that when Black, Brown, and Muslim folks commit violent acts, they are terrorists but when White folks do it, they are mentally ill or lonely or too young to know better… The structural racism and the ways in which that gets codified by policies and then enforced by the prison industrial complex is blatant.
I can’t wait to read this book Sydney especially in Turkey (like the rest of the Middle East), terrorism is a hot topic and sadly not as contested as it should be. What’s strange however in Turkey that its meaning has shifted thanks to the governing party and now anyone who says anything critical of their policies and work are considered to be a “terrorist” and simply put into jail without even going through court or anything. You can stay in jail for as long as 7 years (maybe more?) without a proper legal action is filed against you! So maybe I’d add to your questions – who is considered a terrorist in your country and who decides who is a terrorist or not.
Hi Sydney!
Wow, thanks for the great summary at the beginning! It really made me want to read this book. I have been wanting to learn more about Angela Davis, and all of the topics you listed that are tackled in this book. I feel like this is a major interest area of mine but I have a pretty big knowledge gap about it. I think only now might I be properly equipped to delve into these issues – before, they seemed very daunting and I believe I was lacking adequate scaffolding.
Your ideas for discussion seem incredibly interesting and important. I love the idea of finding a way to involve L1 texts in the L2 classroom and I like hearing you explore the nuances of that choice. Connecting situations that took place in Arabic-speaking places with situations that took place in the U.S. seems like a great way to get students engaged and interested in topics, as well as scaffolding them so they can understand better.
This post is super well written, clear, and chock-full of ideas! Thanks for sharing, Sydney.
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