Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis

36 reviews

livreads16's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Xenophobia, Misogyny, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Rape

Minor: Islamophobia and Slavery

flamingtashhh's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

I mean, it’s a classic for a reason. Often cited and never replicated, Davis’ work just had me unraveling question after question. I feel like a lot of the material that she covered is material I’m familiar with at this point, but because her work has been cited so often. 

Some things I’d like to explore more following this book:
1. The colonization of the land by prisons. What effect on the environment and our connection to it does the logic and PHYSICAL fact of prisons have? 
2. Racial capitalism and borders. How does the global migration of labor impact prisons? What similarities does this share with the Atlantic Slave Trade? 
3. Gender-making and prisons. What does the logic of prison reform do to our notions of gender? How is this related to colonial notions of gender and citizenship? 
4. Punishment and violence, specifically an expansion of the idea that domestic and sexual violence is the basis of punishment in women’s prisons. 

There’s more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, Misogyny, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Homophobia, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Colonisation, Classism, Torture, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Sexism, and Forced institutionalization

nickshutter's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Police brutality, Racism, Sexism, Confinement, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Moderate: Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcoholism, Islamophobia, Drug abuse, Grief, and War

emily_pns's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Incredibly well written. Very heavy subject matter was handled with matter of fact language that helped the reader understand the authors points clearly, while still envoking empathy for those who have been used and abused by the prison system.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Slavery, and Sexual violence

mia7's review

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, and Torture

Minor: Slavery and Racism

goldenjunegem's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

This author highlighted some very concrete ways in which decarceration can become a reality and why it should become a reality.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Murder

henrygravesprince's review

informative tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Sexual violence, and Police brutality

jehansflowers's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

i dont really feel comfortable giving this book a star rating, but it was absolutely brilliant. its incredibly well written and very informative. she fits a lot of information into a small book with accessible writing. she makes a shit ton of brilliant points, with heaps of research, evidence, and experience, and both puts into words concepts that i could never accurately express, and shares multifaceted and very intelligent points that i never would have thought of myself. all in all, highly recommend for people who have been involved with abolition for decades, baby leftists, or for anyone you're trying to radicalize

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Xenophobia, Violence, Torture, Rape, and Murder

Minor: Mental illness, Islamophobia, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Alcoholism, and Addiction

laurenleigh's review against another edition

informative sad fast-paced

4.5

This was a very quick and important read. While I felt already pro prison abolition, this helped me explain why. Similar to defund police movements, there is so much pain, suffering, and violence that could be avoided if we funded things like welfare, education, and healthcare. Pouring money into police and prison systems is the wrong end of the equation, and we should be focusing our efforts and our dollars on preventing crimes in the first place. If people had decent housing, stable jobs, food to eat, reliable healthcare, and educational opportunities, think about how much better, safer, and happier our country would be. Also, decriminalize weed and psychedelics while we’re at it. I know to some, imagining the US without prisons seems impossible. But just a few hundred years ago, most Americans couldn’t imagine their world without slavery. It’s absolutely possible if we shifted our spending and our focus. Davis briefly touches on some history of our prison industrial complex, which was pretty fascinating, and I want to read more about that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Slavery

eimearz's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

I found it quite dense and hard to read, but it's vital to understanding prison abolition. If you can't stomach reading it like I couldn't, there are my audiobooks online.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality and Slavery

Very clinical discussion of racism and sexual assault