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† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Kay Whitlock, co-author of Queer (In)Justice, is contributing editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm.

Translation

Editors’ note from nancy a heitzeg

The Personal is Political they say, and so, at root, it is. But this truth is not self-evident; the individual stories must always lead back to the structures that collectively oppress.

And this requires:

Exposition. Connection. Translation.

Angela Davis – How Does Change Happen?

Angela Davis speaks about the habits of thinking and imagination that have historically constituted social movements and social change. She encourages people to adopt a “critical posture” towards the tools, concepts, vocabularies and organizing practices that characterize landscapes of struggle – including the conditions under which leadership develops and victories are achieved; the erasure of community organizers, particularly women, from narratives of progressive social change; the dangers of heroic individualism; and weak notions of “diversity” that leave structures of injustice and inequality intact.

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