[Reading Notes] Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement - Angela Davis


2025 08 27    |    etc    no date    2024 +    2025    entries    home

So far, just the introduction written by Frank Barat.

Introduction, IX

You can be an outsider, but not outside the system, and you can have political beliefs, even radical ones, but they need to stay within the bounds of the permissible, inside the bubble that has been drawn for you by the elites.


  • I am reminded of something I recently heard, a negating view of George Carlin that had not, heretofore, occurred to me, though it probably should have. We tend to see Carlin as a bit of an outside, a negator of the status quo, even rebellious. But this person had said that Carlin "exists because they let him". There's a lot of implication there. One thing that comes to mind is a pressure valve, and one of proximity. Listening to Carlin allows us to release some of the pressures we feel living in the culture that we do. He frames and vocalises our own critiques. And, by that proximity, we might feel we also have. Once we do, perhaps we sometimes feel we've "done our bit" and slide back into complacency again.
  • The means by which so many of us vocalise our frustrations now, build budding community, and even start our foray into protest - social media - are channels we do not control. These channels are owned and controlled by elites of varying stripes. They allow us these channels, shape the content we have access to, throttle or even silence the words of our online compatriots, and can even erase those same channels with the flip of a switch. If they weren't so greedy for money, they'd no doubt be gone altogether.
  • While some have learned to manipulate these channels for the benefit of the "good guys", that number of people is tiny and doesn't exist on all platforms. I am thinking, really, of how some users of TikTok have learned to play with the algorithm in order to push out pro-Palestinian content past the "shadow banning" and other forms of content curtailing.


Introduction, X

... an imposing building made of grayness and glass.


  • So many modern structures might be imposing by size, but are they in any other way? Buildings of importance used to be attractive, architectural marvels, designed to be remembered and impacting. But, to me at least, the structures of stone and glass so prevalent now, seem created so we don't remember them, so their impact plays on quietly in the background as our eyes slide over their edifices one after another, a nondescript grey wall, a weird form of forgetful homogeneity.


Introduction, XI

The powerful have sent us a message: obey, and if you seek collective liberation, then you will be collectively punished.


  • We all know now that not only is what's happening to Gazans particularly is not only a collective punishment for them, it's a warning to the rest of us. That message was always there, particularly loudly from the US at times, in the form of how they so easily allow their own children to die rather than enacting gun legislation that could save them. "We will do this to our own. We will do it to you." Other genocides pass in crushing and saddening silence. We never know what's going on in Sudan or Congo in order to provide us our comforts, But, Palestine is loud - it's a canon shot in the face to us all: you're next. Acclimatise to the allowed cruelty and keep your mouth shut.


... all around us and up close, we are being told not to care, not to collectivize, not to confront.


  • I remember, back in October 2023, someone who'd been engaged in activism for a long time, gave the newbies a piece of advice. They warned us that the situation with Gaza was going to be a long fight, years, and that we needed to pace ourselves so we could be in it for the long haul. Pace ourselves so we didn't burn out. I learned that there is no shame in needing to take a step back for however long you need in order to keep going again. We know the cruelty to Palestinians doesn't let up, but there are enough voices and bodies out here on their side that we can take our turns away from the fight so that the collective of us can keep the battle going.


Introduction, XII

... talk about our struggle as activists.


  • Granted, most of us don't know where to start and will almost never put in the body-breaking level of work that some activists do. But, what has surprised me most ... no, that's not the right word or way to put it. What I've found most saddening, disappointing, about the past couple of years, is the level of even minimal inconvenience people are willing to embrace in order to even do something as simple as send a message. By which I mean things like following some of th BDS recommendations and doing something as small as not buying from Starbucks. How hard can it be to give that up so that union busting Z-supporting conglomerate gets one less dollar to harm Palestinians with. I thought better of people.


... how to build links with other social struggles [...] what is happening in Palestine is also about them.


  • Outside the obviousness of so much of our tax dollars being sent directly to Israel, how it is that so many people can so readily claim this situation has nothing to do with them is baffling to me. How does one choose to not empathise with the inhuman conditions visited upon them, or have compassion for the battered Palestinian people? If I hear the phrase "It's got nothing to do with me" one more time...


Introduction, XIV

... it's in everyone's power to partake in the struggle.


  • That is almost universally true. You can, even if you can't leave the house.


Look up:

Frank Barat

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