by Angela Davis

About the author: Angela Davis is a longtime activist and author who teaches at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Editor’s Note: The following viewpoint was excerpted from the author’s keynote address at the Color of Violence Conference in Santa Cruz, California.

Ifeel extremely honored to have been invited to deliver this keynote address. This conference deserves to be called “historic” on many accounts. It is the first of its kind, and this is precisely the right intellectual season for such a gathering. The breadth and complexity of its concerns show the contradictions and possibilities of this historical moment. And just such a gathering can help us to imagine ways of attending to the ubiquitous violence in the lives...