I'm laying in my bed warm and wrapped up after a long day in DC. Tomorrow is the Inauguration of the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump and I wanted to see DC to close the circle of me going to the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.
This week has produced a lot of interesting conversation as many people come to terms that this is our President-To-Be. The Electoral College system has granted a reality-tv clown keys to the White House, Intelligence briefings, and access to much undeserved power. America's system that was supposed to protect democracy....failed.
But -back to the conversations - I've been discussing in my peer groups my rather violent and "radical" feelings about how we deal with hate. Being a student leader at an HBCU, my peer group consists of other student leaders, as well as many others. I often look around, enamored with space and time, thinking how we will be the ones to inherit the Earth and the importance of what we do in our time with it - at least until its time to pass it on to the next generation.
This passing of the torch can either be quite optimistic or, more recently for me, very pessimistic. As the 20th century seems to restart right before my eyes with our modern neofascist gilded age, the mainstream Black response to our looming troubles seems to be passive and uninspired. In the passing of the torch, who will each of us become and replace? Who will push us towards greatness, who will pull us away from it, and who will sit idle?
One of the sadder things things I've heard recently is "You can't fight hate with hate." and it's usually followed by the famous MLK quote. People often forget how other people/leaders/structures fought and organized against MLK, even as peaceful and respectable he was. Is his life and murder not a lesson on how we deal with hate? Even more so, this love that people talking about conquering hate with is often lacking of any type of passion. That love is only activated when convenient. Your "love" keeps you silent on issues of war in a time when we need every voice to speak out. Your "love" allows the slaughter of innocent children overseas, meanwhile allowing Nazis the space to taunt and tease the vulnerable over in the states.
Another, slightly more sickening, variant of the above that I've seen is the comparing of the two as if they are the same. I'll say this now: Hating the hateful is not the same as being hateful. In fact, even suggesting the two are the same is cognitive dissonance and naivete. Because saying "I hate this racist who wants Black kids to starve." is nowhere near close to saying "Gay people are abominations to the Earth and should burn in Hell.". Yet, because people often look at things without context, one would assume that these two are the same.
Looking at things without context is how we get caught up, and this is where a lot of us fail. If I wish violence and ill will towards Donald Trump and his deplorables, I am justified. Why? Because somewhere along my lineage, my enslaved ancestors toiled this land and lived their lives of inequity, continuing for generations up to and beyond me, and as I sit in my bed, typing this, I carry on the burden of worrying about life, death, and debt that I - on the basis of justice and everything America is supposed to stand for - shouldn't have to. I refuse to carry the same fear that my grandparents carried. I refuse to allow my experiences and the experiences of those before me to be washed away and wiped out. While his deplorables post pictures of dead Black bodies and white violence on the Internet and my mentions, stoking trauma and making a joke of our struggle - my wish for their demise is appropriate.
This compassion and concern for the hateful, deplorables and others, is so bewildering to me. Mostly because there are so many others much more deserving of this affection. Where were the cries for nonviolence and love when innocent children bombed overseas? And no, I'm not weaponizing the slaughter of children across the globe to make a point. I like to think I'm consistent about my disapproval of drones and war.
My ultimate goal is to make my piece of the world a better place, and it can't be as long as these people are allowed to exist and have functional power within it.
As for my peers, I'll always be following the journey of who we are and how did we get here. But, I hope we begin to think, especially in this crucial moment, about the bigger picture and begin to act. I hope we take our passion and commitment to servicing humanity from philanthropy and charity to working for justice and human rights.
I am waiting for us, collectively, to fight with this love we always talk about; otherwise, our silence and inaction is just a consequence of assimilation and the slight bit of privilege we get from it.