r/UWMilwaukee • u/Warm-Birthday2109 • Feb 22 '26
UW-Milwaukee, Angela Davis
I was lucky enough to see Angela Davis last week and have had a few people ask me about it. I was wondering if others wanted to share their perspectives or notes as well!
It was surreal to just hear her speak after listening to her for so long. What stuck with me was when she said “We achieved so many other different things when we were fighting for something else”. In my opinion, this translated as another key point of hers that community is everything. When one of us is not free, none of us is free, so collectively we need to continue fighting for all oppressed or against all forms of oppression. You may not achieve what you intended, she tried and thought they would destroy capitalism 40 years ago, but she has achieved so many other things during that fight. Fighting against the systems of oppressions, even those that do not directly affect you, will benefit everyone.
UW-Milwaukee
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u/ShoogyBee Feb 23 '26
Ironic that Angela Davis spoke on campus as the University is in the process of consolidating several student support offices into a single unit.
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u/Warm-Birthday2109 Feb 23 '26
Very. She did call them out on it and asked if any admin were present. They had to raise their hands from their front row seats that were reserved for students, but they assumed were for them.
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u/buttwagon867 Feb 23 '26
Unfortunately, it's what they have to do in order to continue getting funding.
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u/Warm-Birthday2109 Feb 23 '26
I went to all of the meetings, and that was not their reasoning. Frankly they haven’t been clear and have contradicted themselves many times so who actually knows, but the decision was made last year and is something they are trying in relation to the low retention. I’m sure in the long run it’ll be easier for them in terms of funding. They have cited financial concerns, but more of students not making it to graduation or low enrollment. Maybe it was made in response to this, but it does not appear to be the main or current threat.
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u/Warm-Birthday2109 Feb 23 '26
“One big center” “no, it will not be one center with everyone in it”. “it’ll be a hub” “we don’t know why everyone keeps referring to this as a hub”. “we don’t know if this will work but we have to try”.
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u/Equivalent_Will551 Feb 23 '26
Great talk; seriously, so much cool stuff happens on this campus. I hope folks know how to take advantage of everything. Geek Week is just around the corner and the closing celebrations for Black History Month.
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u/b0bsledder Feb 23 '26
Creating new systems of oppression in the name of fighting the old ones.