[The following is a poem/spoken word piece written for The Body Is Not An Apology.]

I have struggled with the point of hatred
Even though I hate a lot of things myself
I hate sleeping in too late
I hate not driving over potholes
I hate when it rains
I hate when it’s hot outside
I hate when my dog pees in the house
But all in all I hate hateful people

It seems hypocritical, doesn’t it?
Perpetuating that thing I wish to eradicate
An overdevelopment of something so toxic
Yet so basic
So primal, so incredibly simple
So admittedly hindering to moving on
Yet it fuels that progress too
It gives it a purpose, it gives it a reason

What I mean is that I hate when you hate
I hate when you hate the people I love
I hate when my existence causes an issue
And it’s something you will never resolve
So I try to tread lightly
Walking on proverbial egg shells
Cutting my soles and breaking my soul
So I look for something better overall

It is amazing though, isn’t it?
We consider the opposite of hate to be love
As if they have never met each other
As if they don’t share similar flaws
They cause similar reactions in our bodies
Hearts racing, hands sweating
Eyes developing those dreaded old tears
So maybe they aren’t so different after all

Or maybe that’s not the best way of saying it
Of course they’re different, love and hate
But have you never seen in your life
A time when hate actually caused love, though?
Hear me out: I’m not making this up
Think really hard about your life
Think about your politics, your community
And what motivates them to persist and grow

What is one thing you hate?
Of course, you hate the patriarchy!
You hate the way gender dictates lives
You hate the way it makes people suffer
So you look at those around you
You see how it affects them too
You take their hands in yours
And you change the world together!

So, it’s not that simple I guess
But let’s just take a step back
Let’s see what really brings us together
In tearing down the damn system
We come from different places
We have different identities, different lives
But we love each other just the same
And we use that love as an emblem

I see my friends afraid every day
Just walking down the street is a chore
The store, the restaurant, nowhere is safe
Just because they aren’t “normal”
And hell I’m not “normal” either
And who really is, anyway?
But when your life is constantly threatened
You need to find a way to live on

Whether you’re a POC or you’re white
Whether you’re cis trans or neither
If you can find something to hate together
You can create spaces of safety and love
Reach across those imaginary lines in the sand
That separate us from each other
Because what we’re really separated from
Is a better version of ourselves

So maybe I don’t hate hateful people
Or maybe it’s not really hate at all
It’s anger, it’s rage, and it’s sadness
It’s everything that make you want to change things
Because there’s nothing I hate more than suffering
There’s nothing I hate more than pain
So maybe we should hate suffering more
And love those we would have never even seen

[Headline image: The photograph shows the earth in color being held by a pair of human hands in black and white].