Quote from James Baldwin on accepting people who want to harm us with love
Please try to be clear, dear James, through the storm which rages about your youthful head today, about the reality which lies behind the words "acceptance" and "integration." There is no reason for you to try to become like white men and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them, and I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love, for these innocent people have no other hope. They are in effect still trapped in a history which they do not understand and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe for many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men.
~ James Baldwin
https://progressive.org/magazine/letter-nephew/
My arising thoughts on 2026-02-28:
this quote, to me, seems to say at the core that we need to hold space for anyone else’s learning process. something big i realized last year: learning can only happen through free will.
it may be an illusion to think that using violence against them will ever change them. and people in power will always have the means of violence on their side sadly.
i think the difference between assertiveness of needs and violence as an alleged solution is really important and yet i think there is no objective way to say it’s one or the other. everyone needs to decide for themselves.
and while i might disagree in using my own body for violence, i need to lovingly hold space for those “on my side” who use violence because only they themselves know what their part in this all is.
but using violence to help others see the world differently is probably never very helpful. i think that’s where Baldwin comes in: only through loving people who have yet to see more (from my perspective), may I contribute toward a radical/deeply rooted transformation from a place of understanding and compassion for each other.