Standing in the Shadow of Hope, Austin Channing Brown

 
Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images, © All Rights Reserved.

Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images, © All Rights Reserved.

 

Essay by Austin Channing Brown, May 17, 2018, On Being Project

Christians talk about love a lot. It’s one of our fa­vorite words, especially when the topic is race.

If we could just learn to love one another . . .
Love trumps hate . . .
Love someone different from you today . . .

But I have found this love to be largely incon­sequential. More often than not, my experience has been that whiteness sees love as a prize it is owed, rather than a moral obligation it must demonstrate. Love, for whiteness, dissolves into a demand for grace, for niceness, for endless patience — to keep everyone feeling comfortable while hearts are being changed. In this way, so-called love dodges any responsibility for action and waits for the great catalytic moment that finally spurs accountability.

I am not interested in love that is aloof. In a love that qualifies the statement, “Black lives mat­ter,” because it is unconvinced this is true. I am not interested in a love that refuses to see systems and structures of injustice, preferring to ask itself only about personal intentions.