This year, Honors provided a few lucky students with tickets for the annual Western Regional Honors Council (WRHC) Conference, hosted this year by Chapman University. We all drove down on a Saturday evening to hear the keynote speech by Angela Davis, a renowned writer, educator, and activist. Because I was not born in this country, I did not know who Angela Davis was until I heard her speak my junior year at the Black Student Union (BSU) Gala on this campus. When I was provided with the opportunity to hear to her speak again, I jumped at the opportunity. Between the BSU gala and the WRHC conference, I had grown to look up to Davis and to admire her influence. I especially admire her speeches on equality when it comes to gender, race and sexuality, and as an aspiring activist, I was excited to hear her speak on these topics once more, along with the issues of capitalism and the prison industrial complex.
As a black woman, I found her thoughts on gender equality, race, and intersectional feminism the most captivating. With the voices of women seeking justice now louder than ever, it is easy to think that women are only now speaking out against the injustices that plague our society. Davis invites us to remember that women have always been the backbone of social justice movements. Further, she invites us to think of the future, of the equality we can achieve despite systematic injustices that may hold us down in primarily racist and patriarchal institutions. After hearing her speak, Davis really made me feel as if I could achieve the level of influence and activism she has in her life. She urged us to act as if it is possible to change the world and made me feel that I could enact that change in my lifetime as she had.
I was not the only one to walk away from Davis’ speech with a newness of understanding. Sophomore Ethan Hoffman was really impressed by her thoughts on gender equality, gender identity, sexuality, and toxic masculinity. “I really liked how she talked about respect for a person’s identity. It’s about ensuring that the individual is supported and seen rather than seeking to define them on your terms. Angela Davis shared such an incredible insight that I will carry with me for years to come.” Freshman Emily Johnson said her eyes were opened by Davis’ words on the prison-industrial complex. “For me,” Johnson said, “This was the key part of her speech. Until she spoke of it, I wasn’t fully aware of the involvement of corporations in America’s prison systems, specifically private corporations that exploit the work of inmates. I believe that Davis’s work of educating people is important to our futures as both students, workers, and citizens.”
Senior Holly Hayton had this to say about her experience: “I was really impacted by Angela Davis’ ownership of her identity—she is so widely known for her activism in the civil rights movements, but as I listened to her speak I also felt like I was witnessing someone at the forefront of a very present ideological revolution. She demands the application of legislation not only as systems of government but as changes that are vital to the progressive mentality of America’s understanding of race and racism.”
— Javia Headley, Senior