Angela Davis Public Intellectual

Angela Davis is the picture-perfect public intellectual, she is known for being an African American rights, women’s rights, and prison reform activist who is not afraid to demand change and share her commentary on society and culture. The public intellectual is defined as “an intellectual, often a noted specialist in a particular field, who has become well-known to the general public for a willingness to comment on current affairs”—which is exactly what Angela Davis is. She was born in Birmingham Alabama on January 26, 1944 in a neighborhood infamous for regular attacks by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Davis’ neighborhood became known as “Dynamite Hill” due to all the attacks by the KKK. She was raised by Her mother, an Elementary school teacher, and her father, a Service station owner. Davis was considered middle class, but for a young African American girl in the 1950’s that didn’t mean what it meant today. Angela Davis lived through a time where America was wildly segregated and she endured almost constant discrimination for the color of her skin—racial turmoil was at its peak during her early life. She was born right before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so she got to experience a major shift of acceptance within her lifetime — especially with her still being alive today to see the progress made (though still not anywhere near perfect equality). Angela Davis is a public intellectual in many spheres. She is an avid feminist and writes on feminism and pioneered the concept of intersectionality. She also creates intellectual commentary on democracy and prison reform (or abolishment). Angela Davis is a public intellectual because she adds meaningful commentary to a wide variety of topics within politics, society, and culture

From a very young age, Angela Davis was exposed to intellectual thought. As a teenager, she would accompany her mother to her masters classes at NYU. Davis later in life became an educator herself teaching college courses on activism and other civil rights issues. She studied a wide variety of topics including philosophy and politics. Davis was an infamous member of the communist party—which got her into trouble considering the American tensions from the Cold War with Russia. Being a communist was a very bold statement at that time and employers were not too fond of Angela’s decision, and she was costed a couple jobs due to her political affiliation. Angela Davis is known for this kind of behavior; she is not afraid to believe in and support different causes unapologetically. That constant going against public thought and belief is arguably one of the reasons that Angela Davis is a public intellectual. According to professor and writer Stephen Mack, a public intellectual is someone who does not conform to the norms in society, but someone who is able to “keep the pot boiling.”(Mack).

“It is also, however, the obligation of every citizen in a democracy. Trained to it or not, all participants in self-government are duty-bound to prod, poke, and pester the powerful institutions that would shape their lives. And so if public intellectuals have any role to play in a democracy—and they do—it’s simply to keep the pot boiling. The measure of public intellectual work is not whether the people are listening, but whether they’re hearing things worth talking about.” (Mack).

Angela Davis poked and prodded and challenged the institutions that she was raised in because she experienced one of the most significant times of challenging the institutions that shaped you—the Civil Rights Movement of 1964. Davis brought that same mentality from the Civil Rights Movement of 1964 into the rest of her life, and used that to fight for other change that she believes need to still be changed today. One example of this being that she is an avid feminist that continues to challenge modern feminism and what it means to be a woman. She is famous for saying “I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change…I’m changing the things I cannot accept”. Davis has such a drive for change because she saw what people can do when they come together and make change. She is a public intellectual because she didn’t stop fighting after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, she continues to challenge people to stand up for what they believe is right.

One idea that Angela Davis is very infamous for is her call to get rid of all prisons. This is another extreme example of Davis’ ideas for change that run very counter to what society says and accepts. She is a major advocate for the abolishment of all prisons, as someone who spent a year in prison, Angela Davis makes the claim that prisons do not make people safer, instead lock up minorities disproportionately to the rest of society. Davis went to prison for one year due to false charges that were eventually dropped. Davis was connected in a courthouse shootout through the purchase of the guns used in the shootout—this placed her on the FBI’s most wanted list and costed her a year in prison before she was acquitted. Davis’, through this experience of wrongful imprisonment, created a and deep connection to prisons and lit the fire under her to advocate for their change and even abolishment. Davis argues that prisons are ineffective due to their disproportionate criminalization of minority people. She even argued that they are also disproportionally filled with people suffering mental illnesses, and that these people need help not incarceration. She gives the statistic that there are more people suffering from mental illness in prisons than in mental institutions—twice as many to be more precise.

In theory, and looking at all these facts, the abolishment of prisons seems like it could be a good way to restore even more equality and fair treatment into society, but it is completely implausible. While this does sound lovely in theory, prisons are so necessary—so much so that almost every single country in the world has some sort of a prison to detain people who are a threat to society. Prisons were made for people who break the law in some way or another—they are made as a way of both punishment and correction for those who do not obey the law. Breaking the law in America means that one forfeits their rights as a law-abiding citizen and goes to jail to serve a sentence for the crimes that they have committed. A society without prisons simply does not work, people need threat punishment in order to follow the laws and keep everyone in society safe. A perfect example of this is the recent uptick in crime in LA county. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is infamous for his progressive views on reducing incarceration which in turn has dramatically increased crime rates. One example is that homicides are up by 46.7% and shooting victims are up 51.4%. This isn’t even to mention the dramatic rise in theft after proposition 47—The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act—in California. Without any punishments people would and do run rampant—Prisons are for the better good of society and serve as a reason for people to not commit crimes. It is important to keep all criminals off the streets—murderers, rapists, thieves, and so on—because it protects the rest of society. With all of that being said, prisons are nowhere near being as fair as they should be. While I do agree that there are excessive amounts of people incarcerated that do not need to be, that does not mean the entire system is flawed and needs to be abolished.

Another one of Angela Davis’ famous ideas is the idea of intersectionality. Davis was a pioneer of intersectionality and studying it as a formal study. She regularly discussed that the intersection between race and gender and sexuality as well as a myriad of other factors did not have to compete with one another, instead they can all work together. “Intersectionality” as a term and a study was first coined in 1989 law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. Intersectionality as a concept “invites us to see various forms of inequality as a prism” (George). One example given by Davis is how Black women suffer differently from men— one cannot study racial oppression without studying men and women separately because they both have their own unique set of struggles that come from the gender and the social implications of that. When Davis became an educator, she realized that she could not teach about society without addressing the unique situations that intersectionality explains. Her book Women, Race, & Class was the reason that Davis was known as one of the prime movers for integrative studies on race, gender, and class. Intellectually this was grown breaking because what seems so trivial was not something studied and really expanded knowledge on humanity and our past in a way that had not been explored before.

Another completely different topic that is interesting to discuss when thinking about Angela Davis is religion and its ties to public intellect. Davis lived in a time where most of her suffering and the discrimination brought against her was in some way justified by religion and the bible, yet she still grew up religious and constantly preaches on faith. Davis understands the difference between society and religion; however, and she is a strong supporter of their separation and going against the exploitation of Christianity. Davis is a strong supporter and advocate for ideas that are not historically approved by the bible or religion and have brought difficult conversations and polarizing views due to what the bible says and whether the law can be based in religious morals. A strong example being Davis’ support of the LGBTQ+ community. Professor Stephen Mack brings up a similar idea when relating religion to intellect.

“…deep religious conviction did not permit negotiation or compromise—that zealots almost always prefer death (their own or that of some “heretic”) to a spiritually imperfect society. Indeed, Williams’ insight goes beyond eighteenth century politics: Modern democracies are, by culture and by design, a way of life in which decisions are made by process, persuasion, consensus, and accommodation. In such societies, all or nothing, religiously inspired political zealotry is poison.” (Mack).

There is a reason that church and state are separate in America—it is because not everyone believes the same thing. Like mentioned in this quote, religious zealots live and die by their religion; how can that work as a governing force when not everyone agrees? Davis knows this and she is even an advocate for the fact that Christianity in itself is so poisoned nowadays by polarizing opinions that it could not govern us. Morals and laws are important to society, but if religion was the basis no one would agree. Christianity is only about 65% of the American population. This is a religion that people use to attempt to ban LGBTQ+ rights as well as a myriad of other topics. The Bible is a book that claims that lying is the same in God’s eyes as murdering someone. Angela Davis is good at acknowledging that religion and law and society must stay separate in order for society to progress and accept those who do not believe the same things.

Angela Davis is a public intellectual not just because she is someone who comments on current affairs in a public way, she is a public intellectual because of her willingness to go against what is commonly thought to be “normal”. In the way that she was raised and the historical events that Davis went through, it is not in her DNA to settle for what is common—she never has and she never will. Angela Davis is one individual who has made such a profound impact on society and will be featured in history books for years to come. Her theories range from extreme to revolutionary—from her advocacy to remove all prisons to her pioneering the formal study of intersectionality. She understands that everyone has different opinions, but ultimately her entire goal is to create equality for all people. Equality that she fought for and continues to fight for in racial equality, equality of men and woman, and equality for people of all different sexual orientations.