Saying goodbye to greats at the end of 2021
Hearing the news of the deaths of bell hooks and Desmond Tutu at the end of 2021 has me focusing more on love in racial and social justice as I reflect on 2021 and think about the coming year.
bell hooks
When I heard the news that bell hooks died, I audibly gasped. She was not that old, and it came as a shock to me. Her death hit me especially hard as she is someone who I consider critical to the development of my worldview in my early 20s and continues to this day. She taught me through her writing, scholarship and life that I should be critical of the everyday white supremacist patriarchy, be loud about it, love myself freely and give zero fucks what anybody else thinks. bell hooks taught me about feminism from the perspective of a Black woman. bell hooks' radical Black feminism is intersectional, anti-racist, queer, and anti-capitalist. I often think of bell hooks' call to fight against the "cis-heteronormative-imperialist-white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy" when I engage in my own social justice actions. This feminism challenges me to simultaneously consider my privilege and oppression in everyday situations.
One of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others.
- bell hooks, “All About Love: New Visions”
If you’re not familiar with bell hooks, I would highly recommend one of her many books (she was a prolific writer):
All About Love is currently selling like crazy as we collectively remember how to love ourselves and each other
Ain't I a Woman?: Black women and feminism
Art on my mind: visual politics
Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies - this was the first book I read by bell hooks in college
Belonging: a culture of place
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu also passed away at the end of 2021 at 90 years old. His legacy as an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa and human rights advocate was solidified when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. Tutu’s unique take on Christianity complicated my early views of religion. As an ex-Catholic, I hold very critical views on the Catholic Church and other Christian churches like Tutu’s Anglican religion, but religious leaders like Tutu give me hope that religions across the world can do more to unify people rather than divide them.
Black theology has to do with whether it is possible to be black and continue to be Christian; it is to ask on whose side is God; it is to be concerned about the humanisation of man, because those who ravage our humanity dehumanise themselves in the process; [it says] that the liberation of the black man is the other side of the liberation of the white man—so it is concerned with human liberation.
— Desmond Tutu, in a conference paper presented at the Union Theological Seminary, 1973
Desmond Tutu was appointed by first democratically elected president of South Africa Nelson Mandela to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. At the time, it was a revolutionary attempt to bring together a deeply divided country through dialogue, truth-telling, and ultimately reconciliation. The process was not without its issues, but it remains a model for community healing following deep trauma. I have been thinking about Desmond Tutu this year because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been discussed during workshops of the Racial Justice Collaborative. We discussed options for reparations for American Descendants of African Slaves and ways for the United States to come to terms with its ugly history of trans-Atlantic slavery.
All about love
In 2022, I continue the fight against racial injustice by working with the Racial Justice Collaborative founded by Diane Wong. For anyone looking to gain basic skills in talking about race, identifying race, and working through racial conflict, the Racial Justice Collaborative hosts interactive online workshops on a donation basis (as of 2021) where people can learn how to work through the discomfort of talking about race particularly with people of different races. And if you are educating yourself on how to love and live with more compassion like bell hooks taught us, I would highly recommend doing some yoga or meditation with Diane Wong. You can find a great selection of Diane’s visualization and mindfulness meditations on Soundcloud or take a yoga class with Diane at Be in Union Yoga in Somerville, MA.
Have a happy 2022!