Anonymous asked: Can you elaborate on what the quote "Justice is what love looks like in public"? I think it's interesting, I was just curious as what it means to you and what your interpretation of it is.
The quote is from Cornel West, who is awesome and amazing in every way. He has said it over and over again in countless interviews and writings. To put the quote somewhat in context, I am going to start by giving you this:
Cornel West: Catastrophic Love
Some of my favorite excerpts from this particular interview include:
“The blues responds to the catastrophic with compassion, without drinking from the cup of bitterness — not with revenge but with justice. That’s the best of the blues, you see.”
“But unconditional love is always tied to justice. Justice is love on legs, spilling over into the public sphere.”
Quite simply, justice is love in action. It is a radical, catastrophic, unconditional love. It is about putting aside bitterness, anger, resentment, and revenge in order to embrace forgiveness, equality, peace, and love. It is about not just caring about the least of those among us, but caring enough and loving them enough to stand up and act. And it is “doing the best we can to love our crooked neighbors with our own crooked hearts,” aiming to be a reflection of the purest form of love while recognizing our faults and shortcomings and aiming to overcome them.
It requires courage, strength, but also rationality and measured action. Justice cannot be accomplished by vilifying those who oppose you, through violence of any kind, or through seeking to oppress, destroy, or harm another group. Justice can only be accomplished through radical love of all people—including the people doing the hurting and oppressing. Justice means having compassion for all people, recognizing the value of all people, and fighting for the rights of all.
I mean, talk about a radical form of love, right?
Justice is love. And love is ultimately justice—”Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
I could really go on about this forever…I love Cornel West. He is absolutely brilliant, and he so perfectly expresses so much of what I feel and believe.
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femmerun said:
i love this.
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