Oppression

Oppression is a theme from the moment the story begins. Assata has just been shot and the police are undecided as to whether they should put her in an ambulance or kill her, because she is both black and a member of the Black Liberation Army and a former member of the Black Panther Party. This theme continues through the rest of the book and exists throughout Assata's entire life.

As a child, her first understanding of oppression is when she is only allowed into colored-only sections of the south and sees the stress her mother is under to be a good mother and an asset to society, while living in a world that is severely unjust. She often becomes angry, sad, and frustrated when she sees the freedom white people had in contrast to the oppressed life she lived. The media only made the oppression worse by...