We live in a society of an imposed forgetfulness, a society that depends on public amnesia.
Angela DavisRead
Had it not been for slavery, the death penalty would have likely been abolished in America. Slavery became a haven for the death penalty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Angela Davis suggests that the institution of slavery preserved the continuation of the death penalty in America.
In this quote, Angela Davis argues that the historical context of slavery in the United States allowed for the perpetuation of the death penalty, implying that if slavery had not existed, society might have progressed towards abolishing the death penalty much earlier. She highlights the connection between systemic injustices and the legal practices that sustain them, prompting reflection on how historical oppression shapes contemporary legal and moral landscapes.
Themes
SlaveryDeath PenaltyJusticeHistoryOppression
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the legacy of slavery and its influence on modern justice systems.
More from Angela Davis
All quotes βWell, we see an increasingly weaker labor movement as a result of the overall assault on the labor movement and as a result of the globalization of capital.
Angela DavisRead
Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it's perhaps far more terrible than it's ever been.
Angela DavisRead
Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of our social problems.
Angela DavisRead
It's true that it's within the realm of cultural politics that young people tend to work through political issues, which I think is good, although it's not going to solve the problems
Angela DavisRead
Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root.'
Angela DavisRead
Similar quotes
Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be.
Terry PratchettRead
We have seen enough criminality on the part of government. It is hypocritical to make this allegation against me. They have narrowed the public sphere of influence.
Edward SnowdenRead
The primordial image, or archetype, is a figure--be it a daemon, a human being, or a process--that constantly recurs in the course of history and appears wherever creative fantasy is freely expressed. Essentially, therefore, it is a mythological figure. . . . In each of these images there is a little piece of human psychology and human fate, a remnant of the joys and sorrows that have been repeated countless times in our ancestral history. . . .
Carl JungRead
When I was a young man, near the beginning of my life, I looked around with true mindfulness and saw that all things are subject to decay.
Gautama BuddhaRead
Americans tended to think of war as something that had to be done from time to time, for a particular purpose or goal. They fought not for the sake of fighting but for the sake of winning.
David Hackett FischerRead
He had one illusion - France; and one disillusion - mankind, including Frenchmen.
John Maynard KeynesRead