I’ve been thinking a lot lately about joy, specifically about Black joy. I previously wrote that “It’s OK to Feel Good“, that if we lose hope then we’ve lost everything. I hesitated to write about joy, Black joy, because as a white man I wasn’t sure if I could accurately capture what it is. And yesterday I found a way to describe it here, to convey the message. I’m currently reading We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love. As a Black woman she has the life experience to describe what I’ve been thinking about. Here are her words:
“What is astonishing is that through all the suffering the dark body endures, there is joy, Black joy. I do not mean the type of fabricated joy found in a Pepsi commercial; I am talking about joy that originates in resistance, joy that is discovered in making a way out of no way, joy that is uncovered when you know how to love yourself and others, joy that comes from releasing pain, joy that is generated in music and art that puts words and/or images to your life’s greatest challenges and pleasures, and joy in teaching from a place of resistance, agitation, purpose, justice, love and mattering.”
Joy is resistance.
The Ugliness is the Hope.
Resist. Persist. Oppose. Propose. Be the opposition with a proposition.