We live in a society of an imposed forgetfulness, a society that depends on public amnesia.
Angela DavisRead
It is both humiliating and humbling to discover that a single generation after the events that constructed me as a public personality, I am remembered as a hairdo.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the struggle of being reduced to superficial traits rather than one's true contributions or identity.
Angela Davis highlights the irony of how a public figure's legacy can be overshadowed by superficial perceptions, such as appearance or style, rather than the depth of their work and impact. This statement serves as a critique of society’s tendency to focus on the surface rather than the substance of an individual’s contributions.
Themes
IdentityLegacyPerceptionSuperficialityPublic Figure
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about how society often prioritizes appearance over substance.
More from Angela Davis
All quotes →Well, we see an increasingly weaker labor movement as a result of the overall assault on the labor movement and as a result of the globalization of capital.
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Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it's perhaps far more terrible than it's ever been.
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Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of our social problems.
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It's true that it's within the realm of cultural politics that young people tend to work through political issues, which I think is good, although it's not going to solve the problems
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Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root.'
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