Book Club Q+A #1: Assata By Assata Shakur (Patreon)

Hey guys!

Unfortunately I didn't get enough questions on Assata to reach the five question quota, so I'll just be answering three questions in this post. For next month's read, Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, I hope I get more questions! <3

1) Why did Assata spend so much time in male prisons?

Law enforcement claimed that it was for security reasons. This was also the same reasoning used to explain why Assata spent so much time in solitary confinement (so that she couldn't orchestrate an escape with other prisoners). But because she was in solitary confinement so much, what was the point of housing her with men if she wouldn't be able to talk to women much anyways? My belief is that it was an isolation and fear tactic meant to break her.

2) What is your favorite quote from Assata?

“As much as I loved working with kids, I knew that I could never participate in the board of education kind of teaching. I wasn’t teaching no black children to say the pledge of allegiance or to think George Washington was great or any other such bullshit.” 

3) What do you think about Assata's belief that black women were hiding under wigs? (pg 174)

In Assata's time, the belief that black is beautiful was not mainstream. In the popular black magazines of the period, hair was straightened or covered with a wig. Black women were ashamed of their hair. For Assata, hair is an important statement about her blackness. By wearing it in "African-style hairdresses" she was signifying to others that she not only loved herself, but that she was conscious. I think in her day it was a major way to publicize one's allegiance to black liberation. The same cannot be said today, because there are plenty of natural haired women with no interest in black liberation or consciousness AND black women are represented in media in more ways today.