Racism has taken on "unfamiliar forms" in society today but still persists, social activist Angela Davis told an overflowing crowd in Salomon 101 Thursday.
"I want us to think about that which was not eliminated, those aspects of racism that have been allowed to continue, to develop and have grown even more intense than they were a half-century ago," said Davis, who was delivering the University's 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture.
Davis' lecture was well-received by the audience, which punctuated the speech with applause and murmurs of agreement throughout. Because the lecture hall filled quickly, additional spectators viewed the lecture on a simulcast in Salomon 001, which was also nearly full.
Davis originally became famous during an international campaign to free her from an 18-month incarceration following her implication in an attempted prison break by the Black Panther Party. Her flight following the incident led the FBI to place her on its Most Wanted list, making her only the third woman ever to be placed on the list.
Davis now works as a professor of history of consciousness and feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has written eight books and lectured nationwide. A predominant theme in her work has been the social injustice of criminalization and the American prison system.
To draw a contrast with today's more subtle injustices, Davis spoke about her experience growing up in pre-civil rights era Birmingham, Ala., which was, according to her, "the most segregated city of the South."
"The protocol of racism I learned as a child I no longer have to observe today," Davis said, referring to segregation. "But I would be grossly exaggerating the contemporary circumstances of the city if I generalized by saying we have successfully eliminated racism."
Speaking about the literal signs that pronounced the separation of blacks and whites during that era, Davis said, "Now that the signs are gone you might argue discriminatory practice continues under the sign of equality."
Davis said that racism is still as overt as it was during segregation, but that "perhaps we do not recognize it as being so overt because we have learned how to ignore it. We have learned to be colorblind."
She went on to talk about how being "colorblind" means that "on a college campus, we do not notice the dearth of black and Latino students." Americans also do not notice that prisons are "exactly the inverse" of college campuses, with a predominately black or Hispanic population, Davis said.
Davis' lecture also addressed recent race-related remarks in the media, including Golf Channel announcer Kelly Tilghman's use of the word "lynch" on air in a quip about Tiger Woods. She said what concerned her most was not necessarily the comments themselves but "the extent to which we treat all these incidents as separate."
Of the civil rights movement, Davis said, "Ordinary people became collectively aware of themselves as potential agents of social change, as holding within their collective hands - not their individual hands - the power to create a new world."
She stressed the importance of the collective body over the individual, tying her lecture to the 2008 presidential election.
"Regardless of who is elected, we can't assume that he or she will effectively represent our dreams in the future," she said.
Davis concluded her lecture by answering questions from the audience for about 30 minutes.
"Each generation has to find its own way," she told an audience member who asked her how to fight racism today.
The difference today, she said, is that people are "isolated individuals" rather than a community of people fighting together for change, as during the civil rights movement.
"Helping others is charity, volunteerism, now," Davis said.
Davis also elaborated on her research about the American prison system and its injustice during the audience question period, saying that there is a "contradiction" inherent in rehabilitating criminals from behind bars.
"How can you teach someone to be free if you determine every move they make?" she asked.
Davis said that prison reforms are always about "a better prison," but should instead be about the eradication of incarceration altogether. She stressed the importance of bettering the education system, saying that most criminals would not be in prison if they had access to quality education in their childhoods.
