Common Ground Through Unglamorous, Persistent Care
Build common ground through persistent, unglamorous acts of care. — Angela Davis
What “Common Ground” Really Requires
Angela Davis’s line reframes common ground as something made rather than found. Instead of waiting for perfect agreement, she implies that shared life is constructed through repeated choices that keep people connected even amid difference. In that sense, common ground is less a philosophical midpoint and more a lived practice—one that must withstand stress, misunderstanding, and unequal power. From there, the quote nudges us to see unity as an outcome of effort. If relationships and coalitions are built, then they can also be rebuilt, but only through a kind of work that is steady enough to outlast moments of conflict.
Why Care Must Be Persistent
The emphasis on persistence highlights time as a moral ingredient. A single generous gesture can inspire, yet it rarely changes conditions; repeated care, however, becomes reliable, and reliability is what makes people feel safe enough to collaborate. This echoes the practical logic of organizing: trust accumulates slowly, and it is often the accumulation—not any grand speech—that makes coordinated action possible. Consequently, persistence also functions as a test of sincerity. When care continues after attention fades, it signals that someone is committed to a shared future rather than a fleeting performance of concern.
The Power of the “Unglamorous”
By calling these acts unglamorous, Davis points to the kind of labor that typically goes unnoticed: checking in on a neighbor, making sure a meeting is accessible, cooking for someone who is exhausted, or doing the administrative work that keeps a community effort alive. These tasks rarely earn praise, yet they form the infrastructure of solidarity. In fact, the unglamorous is often where inequalities hide, because invisible labor is easy to offload onto the same people again and again. Recognizing the value of such work is therefore not only sentimental; it is political, because it asks who is carrying the burdens of togetherness.
Care as a Bridge Across Differences
Care can create connection even when viewpoints diverge, because it addresses immediate needs and shared vulnerabilities. Someone may disagree with your analysis, but still remember that you showed up at the hospital, helped with childcare, or stayed late to clean up; these moments can soften defensiveness and open room for future dialogue. Moreover, care shifts interaction from abstract debate to concrete responsibility. In that shift, people often discover overlapping values—dignity, safety, stability—that become the practical basis for cooperation even when ideology does not neatly align.
From Personal Practice to Collective Change
The quote also suggests a pathway from intimate ethics to social transformation: habits of care scale into institutions and movements. Mutual aid traditions, for instance, rely on ordinary routines—food distribution, transportation networks, shared funds—that sustain communities during crises and, over time, challenge the idea that survival should be individually managed. Finally, Davis’s framing implies that lasting change is maintained the same way it is born: through maintenance. Rights and reforms do not persist on inspiration alone; they endure when people keep tending to each other and to the structures they’ve built, especially when doing so is tiring, repetitive, and largely unseen.