Their Whole Personalities

In case you didn’t know, the new Beyonce album dropped on Friday. I’ve been listening to Cowboy Carter nonstop since then, and love so much about it. For those of us who like Beyonce’s music, the album represents another peek into who she is and how she has responded to the mistreatment she received at the Country Music Awards in 2016. It’s absolutely stunning.

However, as expected, some people have taken it upon themselves to comment negatively in a way that doesn’t just express their dislike for the album, but also shows their utter disdain for Black culture, Beyonce’s character and influence, and inclusion of any kind. Though sad, I am not at all surprised. This has become a trend across social media, and it’s time we push back.

There are too many people right now who have made anger, rudeness, and attacking others their entire personalities. From legislators to radio personalities to content creators, rage and fear have become their main focus because it appeals to the most base aspects of humanity. They motivate us to do a lot of things: protest, support, vote, donate, and more. However, in the process, they do so much more damage because in the process, they also divide, dehumanize, and demoralize. They breed disconnection in a time when we need connection to combat the serious problems facing us as people and communities.

That’s the hard part of my work. While I know that fear and anger are great motivators, I refuse to operate from that place. Can you imagine the moral compromise that some of these people have had to make in order to set themselves on their particular paths? How, when the anger runs out, they must create new issues for people to be angry about? How the power created by this anger requires people to not work toward true solutions but instead toward maintaining the anger and, therefore, maintaining the power? It must be exhausting.

I’d prefer not to work that way. Although love and acceptance don’t always spark an immediate flash of response, they are sustainable. There are endless ways we can find to love one another and to practice acceptance and care. Finding solutions to problems doesn’t diminish our power but increases it. So we are able to be solution-based and do what will really help people in the long run. For this simple reason, I am more interested in the slow motivation that comes from love over the quick motivation that comes from fear and anger.

I hope we all find a way to not only use love and acceptance as motivators, but to make them the primary things that motivates us personally.

Make love and acceptance your personality, not hate and fear. You won’t regret it.