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(and her song).
Left:Davis in prison in 1972 being interviewed for the Swedish documentary
The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-75
Middle: Pop/jazz singer Esperanza Spalding
Right: Beyoncé! in the movie Austin Powers
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PBS had a documentary titled: The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975, which I thought was on black music of this period, so I tuned in to listen to post-60s black music and instead I was viewing the Revolution Being Televized.
What I found the most fascinating about this documentary on the Black Panthers was Angela Davis. She looked beautiful with her full head of afro, and her surprisingly mild voice (even when she gets into her speeches, she seems to lament rather than yell).
Of course, she went on trial for murder and served 18 months in prison. Once out, she resumed pretty much a middle class black life, teaching in a university, which was pretty much her family's black middle class background when she was growing up in Alabama. Her parents were university graduates, and both teachers at one time. She is now a professor in a respectable university, although she can't keep away from "revolutionizing" and teaches in the "Women's and Gender Studies" department at Syracuse University.
What happens to a Black Panther at middle age? She lives a safe middle class life (albeit tinged with memories of exciting revolutions), in an all-American university town.
Davis isn't quite that bland a middle class. Her biography states that she is a lesbian. But, aren't homosexuals the most conventional of couples these days, where so many of their "rights" have been recognized, and they no longer need their exciting revolution?
Below is photo of a 68-year-old Davis taken this year. What happened to that strong, fearless face, with the bold features? And where did the fist go? So much for revolution.
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"Feminism and Activism" and "how far we have come
and how far we have not come" on February 7 2012.
The revolutionary fist thrust in the air to fight
the racist system is replaced with a gentle raise of a
hand to make a point within the safeguards of that system.
And going blonde helps?
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References:
Wikipedia biography on Davis
Review of The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-75