A Suggestion from bell hooks
As we approach the annual holiday set aside to remember the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we can hear again his words thundering into history as he marched, and preached, and lived for justice.
One of those who came after Dr. King was the remarkable bell hooks whose voice was full of wisdom and whose life was a model of King’s message. She died a few weeks ago. An author, speaker, professor, leader – bell hooks refused to use capital letters in her name lest she, as an individual, seem too important. It was this humility and her stunning brilliance that I remember from a 2000 interview with NPR’s All Things Considered in which she spoke about the life-changing power of love.
In honor of Dr. King, here is a memory given us by bell hooks:
I'm talking about a love that is transformative, that challenges us in both our private and our civic lives. I'm so moved often when I think of the civil rights movement, because I see it as a great movement for social justice that was rooted in love and that politicized the notion of love, that said: Real love will change you.
Everywhere I go, people want to feel more connected. They want to feel more connected to their neighbors. They want to feel more connected to the world. And when we learn that through love we can have that connection, we can see the stranger as ourselves.
And I think that it would be absolutely fantastic to have that sense of 'Let's return to kind of a utopian focus on love, not unlike the sort of hippie focus on love.' Because I always say to people, you know, the '60s' focus on love had its stupid sentimental dimensions, but then it had these life-transforming dimensions.
When I think of the love of justice that led three young people, two Jews and one African American Christian, to go to the South and fight for justice and give their lives — Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner — I think that's a quality of love that's awesome. ... I tell this to young people, you know, that we can love in a deep and profound way that transforms the political world in which we live in.