"[White people] are not recognizing how they're cut off from love and loving and how that cut-offness from love is not limited to how they are relating to dark brown and Black-skinned people."
– Reverend angel Kyodo williams
When I was in the bomb-throwing stage of my social justice revolution, my focus was all about politics.
It was all about this history and that incident and this law and that event.
I was learning more and more about all the things that I was not previously taught. And the more I learned, the more I became aware of how much I had not known for so long.
So mixed in with this new knowledge, these new perspectives, this burgeoning point of view, was a solid portion of bitterness and resentment.
That was my approach for many, many years. And I thought it was fine, I thought it was righteous, I thought it was working.
Until I realized that it wasn't.
Until I realized that I wasn't fully centering humanity. That I wasn't focusing on relationships. That I was continuing to cut myself off from connection and empathy and compassion.
I was continuing to cut myself off from love.
I was doing the work without love. I didn't realize that justice without love isn't really justice.
I realize that now. And I do my best to help others—especially White folks—realize it too.