I love Angela Davis. I really need to learn more about her. I saw this video posted somewhere during 2020, and for folks who can resist the urge to impatiently skip past what she’s setting up in the beginning, the payoff at the end of her response to the banal question of whether she supports violence for her cause is (IMO) exceptionally powerful.
It’s actually kinda short, but the first time I watched it I think I didn’t expect what she describes at the beginning to play so directly into her final words, nor to be so very personal at one tragic point. I think I was kinda going “OK I know awful things were happening back then” I’m embarrassed to say. Once realizing that she was putting all that together for a specific purpose, I had to go back and watch it word for word - so I could have been projecting my own general impatience with video clips onto others. :)
I wouldn’t describe it as a reversal, the actual serenity prayer as stated already has the “courage to change the things I can,” so anything that is within the speaker’s ability to change should already be covered. And the last part, the wisdom to know the difference, already asks to have the ability to discern the two categories, and seeks to avoid accepting the things that can be changed.
It’s clever, but doesn’t actually say anything the serenity prayer itself doesn’t already say.
In 1970, guns belonging to Davis were used in an armed takeover of a courtroom in Marin County, California, in which four people were killed. Prosecuted for three capital felonies—including conspiracy to murder—she was held in jail for over a year before being acquitted of all charges in 1972.
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
I love Angela Davis. I really need to learn more about her. I saw this video posted somewhere during 2020, and for folks who can resist the urge to impatiently skip past what she’s setting up in the beginning, the payoff at the end of her response to the banal question of whether she supports violence for her cause is (IMO) exceptionally powerful.
https://youtu.be/2HnDONDvJVE
Thank you for the reco. I will check this out and keep your comment in mind.
It’s actually kinda short, but the first time I watched it I think I didn’t expect what she describes at the beginning to play so directly into her final words, nor to be so very personal at one tragic point. I think I was kinda going “OK I know awful things were happening back then” I’m embarrassed to say. Once realizing that she was putting all that together for a specific purpose, I had to go back and watch it word for word - so I could have been projecting my own general impatience with video clips onto others. :)
isn’t this more broadly a reference to the Serenity Prayer than any one person?
It’s her reversal of the Serenity Prayer, changing it into a call to action instead of acceptance of the (seemingly) inevitable.
I wouldn’t describe it as a reversal, the actual serenity prayer as stated already has the “courage to change the things I can,” so anything that is within the speaker’s ability to change should already be covered. And the last part, the wisdom to know the difference, already asks to have the ability to discern the two categories, and seeks to avoid accepting the things that can be changed.
It’s clever, but doesn’t actually say anything the serenity prayer itself doesn’t already say.
I dont think she understands the Serenity Prayer then.
Did she use an AK to effect her change?
At least once, yes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis
Yikes