“The search for love continues even in the face of great odds.”
—graffiti message shared by bell hooks (All About Love xv)
I’ve written previously about the roller coaster of emotions I’m currently riding—fired up one minute and laid low the next. My guess is this up-down, high-low rhythm will be my norm for some time to come.
At one point, I’m knocked down by the force of historic, mounting injustice; the next I’m connecting with and inspired by others truly committed to racial justice. One day I’m literally curled up from the HURT of this era of dehumanizing pain; the next I’m filled up with HOPE from seeing people show up in persistent and powerful ways.
This morning I’ve riding high and want to share why, as I hope these resources might help with finding love, fueling justice:
- I’m truly inspired after seeing activist Shaun King speak last night here in Milwaukee. I’m deeply grateful for his reporting and calls to action via social media.
- I’m learning so much from working with America’s Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM). I really appreciate their “Breaking News” and online collections.
- I’m feeling unbridled by reading Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/LaFrontera and planning an experiential gallery walk for class today. I’m committing (again) to working against all forms of injustice, including linguistic prejudice.
- I’m lit by sharing bell hooks’s All About Love: New Visions—the perfect book for Valentine’s Day—through “love notes” to students and colleagues.
Today is a day when so many of us celebrate love. May we search for love in the face of great odds. May we work to understand love better—to truly know and create it in our lives. May we build the emotional literacies, stamina, and resiliency needed for addressing our own complicity in injustice. May we seek to enact love, as we make actionable commitments to justice.
“To truly love we must learn to mix ingredients—care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication.”
—bell hooks (All About Love 5)
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This post is written by Beth Godbee for Heart-Head-Hands.com. Please consider liking this blog on FB and following the blog via email. Thanks!
![Since waking this morning, I've been trying to find a response to the terrorist attack -- the white supremacist terrorist attack -- in New Zealand: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/15/shootings-reported-mosques-christchurch-new-zealand/?utm_term=.8bbff8125c7c ... [Link and post shared through my Facebook page, Heart Head Hands: Everyday Living for Justice.]
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From the article:
"The 74-page manifesto left behind after the attack was littered with conspiracy theories about white birthrates and 'white genocide,' is the latest sign that a lethal vision of white nationalism has spread internationally. Its title, 'The Great Replacement,' echoes the rallying cry of, among others, the torch-bearing protesters who marched in Charlottesville in 2017."
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I'm already reading pieces about how this report credits Donald Trump and Dylann Roof (white man who murdered nine Black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015).
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What I can say is that my stomach is churning and my heart aches, even as my shoulders are back as though ready for a fight. My whole nervous system feels kicked up and worn thin.
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I read the news after talking with a friend this morning about the ethical imperative to recognize racism and dehumanization in transnationalism (that is, to see what's circulating and who's being hurt). So, I think of transnationalism: the wide circulation of white supremacy and the extreme restriction of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (whose movement is blocked through policy, imprisonment, walls, and death).
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As I share this post, I'm continuing to process, to feel, to write ... I'll linger with the experience of grieving, asking what grief has to teach me, because I know that acting as though everything is ok will just cut me off from myself, from humanity, and from the pain of injustice ...
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I ask and invite you to ask, too:
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Heart: What are you feeling today?
Head: What are you thinking today?
Hands: What are you doing (or planning to do) today?
.
.
.
#christchurchmosqueattack #newzealandmosqueshooting #antiracism #antioppression #racialjustice #socialjustice #grief #rage #committed #committedtojustice #everyday #everydaywork #longhaul #heartache](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/07e205c16ec32df5f60f68c3ec8e70cc/5D2FC31C/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/c0.37.655.655/s640x640/53518297_300283887315784_5991437917511412752_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com "Since waking this morning, I've been trying to find a response to the terrorist attack -- the white supremacist terrorist attack -- in New Zealand: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/15/shootings-reported-mosques-christchurch-new-zealand/?utm_term=.8bbff8125c7c ... [Link and post shared through my Facebook page, Heart Head Hands: Everyday Living for Justice.]
.
From the article:
\"The 74-page manifesto left behind after the attack was littered with conspiracy theories about white birthrates and 'white genocide,' is the latest sign that a lethal vision of white nationalism has spread internationally. Its title, 'The Great Replacement,' echoes the rallying cry of, among others, the torch-bearing protesters who marched in Charlottesville in 2017.\"
.
I'm already reading pieces about how this report credits Donald Trump and Dylann Roof (white man who murdered nine Black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015).
.
What I can say is that my stomach is churning and my heart aches, even as my shoulders are back as though ready for a fight. My whole nervous system feels kicked up and worn thin.
.
I read the news after talking with a friend this morning about the ethical imperative to recognize racism and dehumanization in transnationalism (that is, to see what's circulating and who's being hurt). So, I think of transnationalism: the wide circulation of white supremacy and the extreme restriction of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (whose movement is blocked through policy, imprisonment, walls, and death).
.
As I share this post, I'm continuing to process, to feel, to write ... I'll linger with the experience of grieving, asking what grief has to teach me, because I know that acting as though everything is ok will just cut me off from myself, from humanity, and from the pain of injustice ...
.
I ask and invite you to ask, too:
.
Heart: What are you feeling today?
Head: What are you thinking today?
Hands: What are you doing (or planning to do) today?
.
.
.
#christchurchmosqueattack #newzealandmosqueshooting #antiracism #antioppression #racialjustice #socialjustice #grief #rage #committed #committedtojustice #everyday #everydaywork #longhaul #heartache")
Love this. =) <3
Thanks, Sarah, and sending love! Thanks for your support, for reading, for standing beside me. Deep gratitude.