Prisons look like slave ships because they are slave ships. From 1619 to the present, we've made no progress. Slavery to segregation to mass incarceration is repetition, white-over-black to white-over-black to white-over-black, not progress. Another world is possible. The Attica prison uprising of 1971 showed us that another world is necessary. Afro-optimism, as demonstrated in this lecture, is proof that the world we want is the world we are already creating through our abolitionist movements.

The Afro-Optimism and Abolition lecture will be given by Anthony Farley, James Campbell Matthews Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at Albany Law School and the 2023-24 Gretchen Hoadley Burke '81 Endowed Chair in Regional Studies in the Department of Educational Studies.

This event is sponsored by The Upstate Institute in collaboration with the ALANA Cultural Center and Black Student Union.