The Meaning Of Freedom By Angela Davis: Chapter Analysis

In chapters 7 and 8 in the book The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues, Angela Davis explains her perception on racial injustice and how slavery in many ways, is not abolished entirely. In chapter 7 Davis explains the continuance of racism to be linked to the emotions that we have been trained and taught by racism (Davis, 2012). These emotions stem from ideological influences that project upon society, essentially determining what race/ethnicity will remained punished my racism. Those who believe that racism has been abolished entirely have trained themselves to adapt to the idea that it is no longer prevalent in society, since the aspect of legal racial segregation has been abolished, but in all actuality racism has now formed …show more content…
Throughout both chapters, the key points that she chooses to elaborate on allow for the reader to truly change their perspective towards racism, and how it is still very prevalent in society today. Davis states in chapter 7, “Racial justice has been achieved, affirmative action is no longer necessary to achieve racial or gender equality,” this sentence demonstrates the ignorant societal perception towards racism that has adapted throughout recent history (Davis, 2012). By furthering this stance, Davis explains that ideological influences have shaped individuals within societies perception on certain race, sexualities, genders, etc., following this with how prisons are guilty of contributing to these ideological influences. This strengthens this chapter’s argument, and truly shapes the context provided to the reader about the prisons position within society. A weakness of this chapter is that there is a continual jump between one argument to another, which makes it difficult to remain focused on each issue that Angela Davis has chosen to explain throughout the