Who is our neighbor?

In her book See No Stranger, Valerie Kaur declares revolutionary love as the call of our times and asks us to "see no stranger." This week in her online reflection for The Revolutionary Love Project, she wrote about the above image from Del Rio. “I focus on the face of the Black man running from the horse. I am numb. I want to look away. But I look into his eyes and say ‘Brother’ in my mind a few times. The word ‘refugee’ melts away and slowly his full humanity comes into view. I imagine his children, the home he left behind, why he has risked everything to seek asylum, the fear in his heart as he runs. I wonder if his children will eat tonight. I feel hot rage in my veins at what our nation is doing to him; my numbness melts and my rage is stirring me to act.

“I slowly turn to the sneering white officer on the horse. I say ‘Brother’ in my mind. My body immediately seizes with disdain and revulsion. Such a man could not be my brother. I take a breath. I choose to wonder about him as a human being. What makes him cruel? Then it happens: I see a frail white man driven by illusions of duty, power, and aggression that permeate the culture of the institution he serves. He is severed from his capacity to see another's humanity.”

 

Can you find your neighbor in both men? 

How can we use rage as a source of energy for what we want to do in the world?

 

Erica Jordan, OP

Kenosha, WI