44 pages 1 hour read

Assata Shakur

Assata: An Autobiography

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1987

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapters 10-12

Chapter 10 Summary

After high school, Assata decided she wanted to join the workforce immediately and moved out on her own. She was an office worker for a while and was grateful for the work until she came to the reality of her working conditions, which featured “low pay, indecent working conditions, no medical benefits, only one week vacation” (149). She would get into debates with her coworkers who wanted to talk about the riots taking place across the nation. While her coworkers passed judgement on “those people” (149), or Black people who rioted, Assata believed that the rioters had just cause for their actions. When she vocalized her dissenting opinion, she was eventually fired.

 

Assata also came to learn about the Vietnam War and became increasingly critical of US military efforts abroad. She was challenged in her nascent perspectives about the war by African college students she met who encouraged her to question US actions in Vietnam. Assata began to read about the Vietnam War and the history of French colonialism in Vietnam. She became more critical of the US government after that.

While Assata grew politically through her interactions with the African students, she also differed from them due to her working-class position.