2020-07-02

As the 6th week of #BlackLivesMatter protests inches towards another week of protests, of demands for defunding the American system of policing that are yet to be discussed in most cities, of white people facing our shared history of white supremacy and systemic injustice, hope has become an emotion to reckon with. There is hope for the changes that are already happening. There is also plenty of hopelessness that change isn’t arriving fast enough. Or that it won’t last. Or that we are in uncharted territory with social justice an elusive goal somewhere too far ahead of us. And so today, during Week 6 of #BlackLivesMatter protests, which is also Week 16 of a global health pandemic now all too local and very personal, we offer you the words of Bryan Stevenson as spoken in a movie—Just Mercy—that we would all do well to see: “We need conviction in our hearts. This man taught me how to stay hopeful, because I now know that hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Hope allows us to push forward, even when the truth is distorted by the people in power. It allows us to stand up when they tell us to sit down, and to speak when they say be quiet.” Here is to choosing to hope and to not giving up on justice and on community.