The introduction to
bell hooks’ 2001 national bestseller, Salvation – Black People and Love, contains a disturbing belief she uncovered
while lecturing in the public schools during her tour for a previous book, and
hearing a number of young black people proclaiming, “there is no such thing as
love.”
I was drawn to this
book in reading its introduction, powerfully entitled, Love is our Hope, and then
seized by the disheartening belief these young people have towards love.
What’s more disheartening
is that today, (twenty years later since hooks discovered this nihilistic
attitude) it’s easy to understand the cynicism, hearing the profane anger and
frustrations coming from young people who are growing up in hostile environments where
the absence of affection is replaced by verbal attacks on the state of the
family-dynamic.
The elegance of Salvation, is hooks’ solution and urgency to restore
the “love-ethic” where it may be absent. This nurturing custom, grounded in spiritual
guidance is what has built strong communities, families, and young who grew
into respectful adults – a nurturing custom that has been dismantled by broken
homes where childrearing is replaced with rage caused by hardships that turn
the focus on self, amidst emotional neglect that makes love invisible when not
modeled before the young or afforded the agency to be modeled, living in brokenness
that has no oxygen for the act.
The deculturalization
of the word, beaten down by shame, impoverishment, fear, vulnerabilities, and
the myth that it subverts strength in the face of weakness has paralyzed some
from moving into its embrace.
For love to be our hope,
regardless of race, it needs to be modeled through simple acts as brave
professions, healing language … and the “reculturalization” of affectionate
music, anthems, and conversations that soothe the soul.