Abolition Democracy

Summary, part 4

Other Observations from Davis

Global capitalism.

Public discourse gives the impression capital has only recently become global, but it has a "long and brutal history of moving across national borders—imperialism … is not a minor consort of capitalism, but rather a fundamental feature of its development." In the early 20th century, Davis points out that global capitalism existed with American imperialist ventures into Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in the wake of the Spanish-American War.

Today, this era of global capitalism is defined by the power of international financial organizations like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as well as the ability of capital to move across murders, restructure economies, and, in the process, “[wreak] havoc on social relations everywhere.”

Davis believes that there must be and that there is an alternative to capitalism. 

"We must be able to disentangle our notions of capitalism and democracy to pursue truly egalitarian models of democracy … Communism—or socialism—can still help us to generate new versions of democracy."

Black identity and community.

Throughout the book, Davis articulates her perception of Black political thought and the Black community. Traditionally, Black political thought was primarily concerned with the debate between Black nationalism versus Black assimilation or integration. Davis, however, identifies more with pan-Africanism described by DuBois, who argued the following:

"Black people in the West do have a special responsibility to Africa, Latina America, and Asia—not by virtue of a biological connection or a racial link, but by virtue of a political identification that is forged in struggle … We should be attentive to Africa not simply because this continent is populated by black people, not only because we trace our origins to Africa, but primarily because Africa has been a major target of colonialism and imperialism."

Davis also argues that identity has never been an adequate criterion around which communities of struggles can be organized. Communities are political projects; therefore they are never solely built on identity.

“What would be the purpose of uniting the black community?” she asks. “It would be futile to try to create a single black community today. But it does make sense to think about organizing communities, not simply around their blackness, but primarily around political goals.”

Going off of this logic, Davis states that she would prefer a white person in power who is more committed to ending the global war on terror than any Black leader who does not make the same commitment. 

Equal opportunity under the law.

Davis considers the law and legal system as having strategic significance in the struggle for progress and abolition democracy, but recognizes that it is not the ultimate authority of social problems because the law has its limitations.

The law, after all, cannot take into consideration the "social conditions that render certain communities much more susceptible to imprisonment than others." Davis goes on: 

“The law does not care whether this individual had access to good education or not, or whether he/she lives under impoverished conditions because companies in his/her communities have shut down and moved to a third world country, or whether previously available welfare payments have vanished. The law does not care about the conditions that lead some communities along a trajectory that makes prison inevitable. Even though each individual has the right to due process, what is called the blindness of justice enables underlying racism and class bias to resolve the question of who gets to go to prison and who does not.”

The law operates with a blindness of justice that is due to, in part, the Civil Rights Movement. The grand achievement of the Civil Rights Movement was to purge the law of its references to specific kinds of bodies, thus enabling racial equality before the law.

But, Davis argues, this process also enabled racial inequality in the sense that it prevented the law from acknowledging that people and communities are racialized.

Multiculturalism and diversity.

“The challenge of the twenty-first century is not to demand equal opportunity to participate in the machinery of oppression. Rather, it is to identify and dismantle those structures in which racism continues to be embedded. This is the only way the promise of freedom can be extended to masses of people.”

What she means here is that racism cannot simply be solved with diversification and multiculturalism.

We must get rid of the “persisting structures of racism, economic and political structures that do not openly display their discriminatory strategies, but nonetheless serve to keep communities of color in a state of inferiority and oppression.” Davis points to Black people in power like Condoleezza Rice, Alberto Gonzalez, and Colin Powell as leaders who got to where they are in part because of the Civil Rights Movement, but are nonetheless people who play major roles in sustaining contemporary racism.