Carolina QuotesIt was my experience in the Angela Davis trial that propelled me into a study of Afro-American women's history and, ultimately, into women's studies.
Bettina Aptheker Carolinian
Source
No citation is recorded for this quotation.
- work
- Woman's Legacy: Essays on Race, Sex, and Class in American History (1982)
- year
- 1982
no citation recorded
Cite this record
“It was my experience in the Angela Davis trial that propelle…” Bettina Aptheker. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-50068660C1. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/50068660c1
More from Bettina Aptheker
History does not repeat itself, but our reading of history shapes our perception of the world and our vision of how to change it. With the collective rendering of woman's legacy still to come, we will reckon a course that transforms our reading of the human experience and allows us to navigate through hitherto unknown waters. (p 151)
(What do you wish you could tell yourself at the time? Girls your age now?) BA: I wish that I could have taken a class like what I teach. I wish feminist studies and women’s studies classes were offered [when I was in college]. [At my age,] You knew how you felt but you didn’t know what to do about it. I knew I was a lesbian [but] I didn’t have the language for it. There were lesbians in the Communist party, [but] the party was very homophobic. Some of [the lesbians] were living together openly but never talking about it. It was don’t ask, don’t tell.
The desert is a metaphor. For how long women have endured. Like creosote. Waiting for the rains. We are the rains. (p 254)