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Quote by Angela Y. Davis

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Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement

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Angela Y. Davis

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“If he's a poet, why's he in jail?" demanded a suspicious voice. Madam Chairwoman shrugged velvet shoulders. "Perhaps he writes free verse," she suggested cunningly. A stir of approval answered her. Mice are all for people being free, so that they too can be freed form their eternal task of cheering prisoners--so that they can stay snug at home, nibbling the family cheese, instead of sleeping out in damp straw on a diet of stale bread.”

PrisonAbolitionPrison Abolition
Book:The Rescuers
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“Whenever you conceptualize social justice struggles, you will always defeat your own purposes if you cannot imagine the people around whom you are struggling as equal partners. Therefore if, and this is one of the problems with all of the reform movements, if you think of the prisoners simply as the objects of the charity of others, you defeat the very purpose of antiprison work. You are constituting them as an inferior in the process of trying to defend their rights.”

Prison Abolition
Book:Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement
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“It's both a tremendous obligation and honor to undertake the unfulfilled work of the best of our abolitionist precursors--those who did not only want the abolition of white supremacist slavery and normalized anti-Black violence, but who also recognized that the greatest promise of abolitionism was a comprehensive transformation of a civilization in which the sanctity of white civil society was defined by its capacity to define 'community' and 'safety' through the effective of its ability to wage racial genocides. The present day work of (..) abolition has to proceed with organic recognition of its historical roots in liberation struggles against slavery, colonization, and conquest--and therefore struggle to constantly develop effective, creative, and politically educating forms of radical movement against the genocidal white supremacist state and the society to which it's tethered.”

DecolonizingPrison AbolitionAbolition NowCr10Critical Resistance
Author:Dylan Rodriguez
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“A major challenge of this movement is to do the work that will create more humane, habitable environments for people in prison without bolstering the permanence of the prison system. How, then, do we accomplish this balancing act of passionately attending to the needs of prisoners- calling for less violent conditions, an end to state sexual assault, improved physical and mental health care, greater access to drug programs, better educational work opportunities, unionization of prison labor, more connections with families and communities, shorter or alternative sentencing- and at the same time call for alternatives to sentencing altogether, no more prison construction, and abolitionist strategies that question the place of prison in our future?”

PrisonPrison Abolition
Author:Angela Y. Davis
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“The very existence of the prison forecloses the kinds of discussions that we need in order to imagine the possibility of eradicating these behaviors. Just send them to prison. Just keep on sending them to prison. Then of course, in prison they find themselves within a violent institution that reproduces violence.”

AbolitionMass IncarcerationPrison Industrial ComplexPrison AbolitionCarceral State
Book:Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement
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“In an equally abusive placement, gender variant women are being V-coded close to the end of their sentences. This location works to keep women incarcerated because if they defend themselves against rape or other violence that occurs with their "husband" or cellmate, it is common for them to be charged with assault then placed in the "hole". The assault charge then shreds the previous parole possibility and release date”

SexismMisogynyPatriarchyAnarchismRape CulturePrison AbolitionTransmisogyny
Book:Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex
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“What virtue signallers do not seem to realize is that a virtuous act can only be spontaneous and immediate, in the present moment. It cannot be premeditated, because if it is preplanned then it is done for motive, and that is an act of the ego. The most common motive is to elevate one’s image in the eyes of others. But in fact, such a calculated act will only serve to weaken your power in the long run, in the eyes of the Universe. The most common offending groups are politicians and celebrities.”

VirtueEgoVirtue QuotesEgo QuotesVirtue SignalingVirtue SignallingVirtue SignalVirtuousnessVirtue Signalers Fake People
Author:Jack Freestone
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“Nichts kommt von selbst. Und nur wenig ist von Dauer. Darum — besinnt Euch auf Eure Kraft und darauf, dass jede Zeit eigene Antworten will und man auf ihrer Höhe zu sein hat, wenn Gutes bewirkt werden soll.“ ("Nothing happens automatically. And only few things last. Therefore — be mindful of your strength, and of the fact that every era wants its own answers, and you have to be up to its speed in order to be able to do good.") Message to the Socialist International Congress in Berlin, September 15, 1992”

ChangeModernityDoing GoodEffective LeadershipIndependent ThoughtPolitical Thought
Author:Willy Brandt
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