If our idea of love and unity is dependent upon my silence and my oppression, then our unity is built to protect your power not to make us more equal. And that’s not love, that’s hate.
Love is not code-word for minimal progress and unity is not performative gestures of charity. If love does not embrace my full humanity and unity not committed to my full equality, I don’t want it. It will make the powerful feel good but it will not change the world we live in.
Love means dismantling every harmful ideology, policy, practice, and belief that devalues, de-centers, disrespects, and destroy the humanity, liberation, and peace of another. Unity means protecting another’s humanity, not profiting off of it.
Love is repairing the harm that has been done to another and creating an environment where those who are harmed live in a place they feel seen, protected, and loved. Unity means committing to a collective story-telling that is honest and helpful in leading us to a just future.
Love is not denial, protection, evasion, or justification of toxic ideologies and unloving practices. Love means liberating us to listen, learn, and live in ways that tell our neighbors that we see them, love them, and stand with them. Unity comes after this, not before.