Not All Anger Turns To Hate, A Message For The Dark Side Of The Force
When you jump on social media for the day or turn the news on in the morning, do you find yourself surprised? It seems like every day there is a new appalling story, people using their freedom unjustly, heartbreak or tragedy. At what point does humanity lose their ability to have hope?
This week a story hit closer to home. Not just my country, not just my state, not even just my town. My lake, a lake where i’ve spent countless hours, running, hiking, swimming, dating my wife, helping friends on their boats, making new friends, loving people. To hear what happened to Vauhxx Booker on the 4th is despicable. First, I was angry. Then that anger slowly faded in my fatigue to overwhelming heartache. How can this keep happening? How can I see so many people refuse to acknowledge there is a problem. How long will it take people to realize that until we look at the brokenness in ourselves we will never truly see freedom for others.
It is our brokenness causing pain for others. The more we sit, point fingers and blame the other side the more we lose as humanity. Friends please please please realize there is a race issue in our country. This is not a political statement. Through mere observation one can see that. It is our political lens that causes us to divide or to ignore that reality. Please, put your left wing/right wing liberal/conservative lens away for just a moment and see these stories. They are tragic. Can we agree on this?
If you can get that far with me, thank you. We agree that hate we see demonstrated in the assault of Vauhxx Booker is inexcusable. If you’ve been paying attention to other stories happening around the country for the last 2 months you know that the hate doesn’t start or stop here. So what do we do then? I am not suggesting we live in perpetual anger, that isn’t sustainable mentally nor beneficial for justice.
In my experience, anger often breeds harmful tools of resolution. Let me explain. When I let anger be my motive for action I often use shaming, slandering, and violence to be heard. These actions will not bring the change anyone is looking for. If I am at a peaceful. protest banging on cars because I am angry, my point is lost. So what do we do? So many of us feel this anger, I feel it too. I am not saying to not feel it, we should be angry, but instead of letting anger be the motive action what if processing that anger lead to more healthy motive, LOVE.
I will admit this, Love is not angers natural pathway. It takes work, effort, thought, energy, grace not only for yourself but for the people who are different than you. What if you saw the brokenness of others as a reflection of the brokenness in yourself? Instead of saying, “well racism only exists in them” but being willing to see how some of those implicit thoughts are reflected in yourself. In that moment of empathy are we are able to recognize the peaceful, loving path towards justice. See the humanity in EVERYONE. Even the ones spewing hate, ignorance or even downright lies.
Earlier I mentioned the anger I felt this week at the situation on Lake Monroe fizzled in my fatigue to heartache. I must admit this is the easy path, a path my white privilege affords me. A path that does NOT lead to justice. I am sorry. My life, my culture are not being personally attacked. The Black Community is. Processing the initial anger, seeing the humanity in the brokenness, experiencing empathy, and acting in love will lead to change. This takes energy, this takes work, this takes time. I know we are all tired, and what I am saying sounds like a more work than we want to give. I understand that. I beg you to try and see our world through the lens of your Black neighbor and ask yourself, can I afford to do nothing?
Love fights for justice, love demands accountability, love calls out the crap in one another. Love does NOT use shame. Love does NOT victim blame. Love does NOT resort to violence. Love does NOT attack the character of others who disagree. Love is having grace for yourself and others. Love has empathy for everyone. When humanity chooses to love, true justice will come.