Standing in the Shadow of Hope, Austin Channing Brown
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.