As I attended the UD’s reflection event at the International Peace Museum, I was struck by the focus of UDI 115 Section 3: Educating the Whole Person mini-course and the idea of reframing love as justice. This event prompted this reflection piece on the meaning and relevance of this concept.
What does “Love as Justice” mean to you?
During the reflection event, Dr. Baker brought up an insightful quote from Dr. Cornel West: “Justice is what love looks like in public.” This quote highlights the connection between love and justice and encourages us to think about how love can be expressed within individuals and communities.
As an African, the reflection on love as justice brought to mind the communitarian ethic of ‘ubuntu,’ which emphasizes mutual respect, human dignity, and fairness. As South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu explained:
My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs. We belong in a bundle of life. We say, ‘a person is a person through other people’. it is not ‘I think therefore I am’. It says rather, ‘I am human because I belong’, I participate, I share. A person with ubuntu is open, and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good; for he or she has a proper self -assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.
Ubuntu recognizes that an individual’s identity and fulfillment are connected to their community, and it calls on us to live out our interconnectedness and work towards the betterment of all.
The South African Constitutional Court case of S v Makwanyane recognized ubuntu as a constitutional value emphasizing respect for human dignity and the corresponding duty to give the same. In his articulation of the ethos of ubuntu, Mohamed J notes:
[Ubuntu] expresses the ethos of an instinctive capacity for the enjoyment of love towards our fellow men and women; the joy and the fulfilment involved in recognizing their innate humanity; the reciprocity this generates in interaction within the collective community; the richness of the creative emotions which it engenders and the moral energies it releases both in the givers and the society which they serve and served by
Upon examining the word cloud further, the word ‘inequality’ stood out to me, bringing to mind the persisting issue of social and historical inequalities that have plagued societies for centuries. These inequalities are often perpetuated by structural oppression, resulting in disparities in wealth, access to basic services, and opportunities that have long-lasting effects on marginalized communities. In Soobramoney, the South African Constitutional Court describes this problem in the following terms:
We live in a society in which there are great disparities in wealth. Millions of people live in deplorable conditions and in great poverty. There is a high level of unemployment, inadequate social security, and many do not have access to clean water or to adequate health services. These conditions already existed when the Constitution was adopted and a commitment to address them and to transform our society into one in which there will be human dignity, freedom and equality lies at the heart of our new Constitutional order. For as long as these conditions continue to exist that aspiration will have a hollow ring.
In the face of persistent social and historical inequalities caused by structural oppression and in the struggle for racial justice, is it possible to truly achieve justice through love, or is a more radical approach necessary? In this context, love as justice means committing to transformative action that acknowledges the past and works towards a more just and equitable future. It means recognizing our interconnectedness and the need to work towards a society in which there is human dignity, freedom, and equality for all.
Love as a verb and a pathway to justice.
bell hooks proposes that love can be a powerful tool for transforming communities and resisting oppressive systems. She sees love as a form of transformative labor that can offer new ways of surviving and challenging systems of oppression such as imperialism, white supremacy, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy. So, the concept of love as justice is a powerful reminder of our responsibility to each other and to our communities. Ubuntu provides a valuable framework for understanding how we can live out this concept in our lives, and it is up to each of us to take action and work towards a world in which love, and justice are intertwined.
I welcome you to share your thoughts on the topic of whether love can truly be a path to justice. Do you believe that love, as a transformative force, has the power to address historical and systemic inequalities and create a more just and equitable society? How can love as justice be put into practice on both individual and systemic levels? As bell hooks asserts, “choosing love [means] we also choose to live in community, and that means that we do not have to change by ourselves. We can count on critical affirmation and dialogue with comrades walking a similar path.”
