Christian Bailey: Hi, Mumia. My name is Christian Bailey. We’re a group of college students. We’re mostly in our 20s. Our generation missed a lot of the context of political imprisonments of the 70s and the 60s. And so for us, we’re very divorced from the issue of people being incarcerated for political reasons. So I’m curious what you think we can be thinking about, or doing, to sort of bridge the gap between our generation recognizing and interacting more with those who are behind bars.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: I understand that — that’s a very good question, Christian. Let me say two things, if I may, and with all due respect, I really do believe that my book, We Want Freedom, will answer a lot of questions, because it’s written about that period extensively, with a lot of, I think, honesty and insight into the failures of many of us of that generation, but also what we faced. But there’s also — thanks to new media — recently, a young sister in her 30s, I believe, did a documentary on Angela Davis called Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners. We were lucky enough to see it on BET, of all places. It shocked – it’s there, but it was there, at least once or twice. I would advise anybody who’s interested to spend an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and watch it, because there you’ll see real news footage of what was happening during that period. You wouldn’t have read this in your history lessons, but it’s there and it’s true and it’s real and it’s actual footage. And I think a lot of people can learn a lot from that. I think it should be passing, really, from mind to mind and eyeball to eyeball, because people will learn the repressive nature of the state firsthand. You know, people don’t know it today. Angela Davis is known as a scholar and an activist. Back in the late 60s, early 70s, they tried to give her three death penalties — and they lost. But yeah, that’s a lesson to learn. I have to go, my friends. I thank you for your question.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio
