Ollie Harrington Why I Left America and Other Essays (1993)
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People, especially young white people, in America and in Europe are aware of what's happening in the ghetto even if their fathers maintain an obstinate ignorance. All over Europe I've seen young people who've studied the methods of the Black Liberation movement, applying those same methods to the job of forcing a bit of humanity into their profit-crazed and economically teetering countries. Of course it's got its amusing sides too and very often one is forced to rush somewhere for a drink after he's seen a group of the blond German youths with hair frizzled and worn in Afros. The parents of these kids have all picked the portrait of the President of the United States as a symbol of what was good in America...But I've been in no part of Europe where there wasn't the picture of a good American--and it was always Angela Davis!

— Ollie Harrington

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "People, especially young white people, in America and in Europe are aware of what's happening in the ghetto even if their fathers maintain an obstinate ignorance. All over Europe I've seen young people who've studied the methods of the Black Liberation movement, applying those same methods to the job of forcing a bit of humanity into their profit-crazed and economically teetering countries. Of course it's got its amusing sides too and very often one is forced to rush somewhere for a drink after he's seen a group of the blond German youths with hair frizzled and worn in Afros. The parents of these kids have all picked the portrait of the President of the United States as a symbol of what was good in America...But I've been in no part of Europe where there wasn't the picture of a good American--and it was always Angela Davis!" in the context of "Ollie Harrington Why I Left America and Other Essays (1993)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Angela Davis" (Quotes about Angela Davis) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Angela Davis

About Angela Davis

Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, Marxist feminist, author, professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz and a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS).