JOEL ROSE, HOST:
When Gloria Steinem died this week, it offered an opportunity, as she put it herself, to remind us how far we've come and to remember the work of the trailblazing journalist and activist who devoted her life to fighting for women's rights. Integral to that work was that she intentionally linked arms - often literally - with women of color, and Steinem specifically credited Black women with inspiring her core view of equal rights. Steinem counted political activist and author Angela Davis as a friend and ally, so we called her up and have her on the line now. Welcome to the program.
ANGELA DAVIS: Thank you. Thank you very much.
ROSE: As we close out this week, and the tributes to Gloria Steinem have poured in, what have you been thinking about?
DAVIS: Well, I've been thinking about the fact that I'm so deeply appreciative of all that Gloria did to lift us all up. I suppose I would focus on the fact that I will remain eternally grateful to Gloria for the work she did for me while I was in jail. She was actually the national treasurer of the Angela Davis Defense Fund and did a great deal to help raise money for my case. It was significant that she took the step to become publicly associated with me at a time when I was being demonized.
Of course, at that time, I was a member of the Communist Party, and to be associated with someone who was a communist was anathema to so many people. There were other public figures who were asked to associate themselves with that campaign, and they refused. She helped to raise an enormous amount of money for my legal defense to pay the lawyers.
And, of course, at that time, I had absolutely nothing. I don't think I had $10 in the bank at that time. So without that fundraising effort, without that effort to publicize racism and the repression that were involved in my case, I don't know whether I would be talking to you today.
ROSE: Gloria Steinem remained active and, in particular, championed Tarana Burke and other leaders of the #MeToo movement in the last decade. What was the impact, do you think, of that solidarity?
DAVIS: Well, I think that Gloria's solidarity with what we used to call women of color feminism, particularly in the areas of campaigns against gender violence and campaigns for reproductive justice - reproductive justice is a term that, of course, emerged from the women of color feminist movement.
It has become increasingly acknowledged that feminism cannot pretend to represent all women without being staunchly antiracist. When I identify into the category feminist, I am explicitly thinking about a feminism that is antiracist, a feminism that is anticapitalist, a feminism that is not so much a label of identity, but rather a feminism that represents a methodology that allows us to think - and I'll use the term - intersectionally because that is, I think, at the very heart of the feminism that we embrace today.
ROSE: In this political moment when the Trump administration is attacking diversity and equity programs, can it be hard to remember what was important about Gloria Steinem and about her work?
DAVIS: Well, that is precisely why we have to continue to lift up Gloria and all of those who have been active in radical social justice movements over the last period because I think that it is precisely those movements - movements against racism, movements against gender inequality, you know, movements for climate justice, movements around LGBTQ issues, working-class movements - and I can go on and on talking about the enormous impact of social justice movements on the consciousness of people not only in this country, but, you know, throughout the Americas and the world.
I would say that we who identify into those movements represent the future. We are with the flow of history. And it is those like the current president and his right-wing cohort that want to reverse that flow. I am absolutely convinced that if it were a case of consciousness alone, we would not be in the predicament that we're in today. But of course, it is also a case of power. It's a case of economic power. And the millionaires and now trillionaires who pull the strings of power are attempting to prevent us from moving in a progressive direction.
But I'm pretty convinced that in the end, they will not succeed - that this fascism that we are experiencing today will be turned around and that, you know, we will move in a direction that allows us to talk about freedom and justice and equality for all people, for all genders, for trans people, you know, for people all over the world. And I think Gloria would have agreed with that analysis.
ROSE: I have been speaking with political activist and author Angela Davis about her friend Gloria Steinem who died this week. Thank you very much for joining us.
DAVIS: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
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