Recognizing the Essential Nature of Justice

We are living in an essential moment. A worldwide pandemic. A nation in mourning for the loss of life wrought by COVID-19. Now with the loss of another Black American who died at the hands of the police, we mourn anew all our brothers and sisters who have died as a result of police violence.

Last year at this time, Texas Appleseed was launching our “Justice Is” campaign, focused on engaging Texans in a conversation about what justice means to them. I learned from so many during that conversation, ending the year at our Good Apple dinner quoting Dr. Cornel West who reminds us that while tenderness is what love feels like in private, that “justice is what love looks like in public.”

This year, Appleseed has a new answer to last year’s inquiry into the nature of justice. Justice is Essential. And as I consider the nature of Essential Justice and justice as an act of love, I am reminded of the images of hope and comfort that, despite our nation’s collective heartbreak, offer some salve and perhaps a path forward. Images of people showing support for essential workers, and of young people providing help to elderly neighbors more vulnerable to the pandemic. Images of Americans marching peacefully, side-by-side, demanding change. All of these images recognize and reinforce what we know to be true: the path forward is forged in empathy, compassion, and a celebration of and support for the diverse communities that make up our nation and state.

Supporting and celebrating our diversity means that, as a community, we have to reaffirm the essential nature of justice. The pandemic and George Floyd’s death have once again laid bare the stark inequities that play out across our communities, wrought by structural racism and culminating in violence. I am hopeful that the demands for change that we have seen in recent days will allow us to begin to reckon with a past and present that are so at odds with our fundamental values as a nation.

Recognizing the essential nature of justice means that it is essential that we address systemic inequity so that every Texan and every American has access to the opportunities they need to thrive and grow. Essential justice is the public act of showing love of neighbor, refusing to turn a blind eye not just to the atrocity of senseless violence but also to the atrocity of the broader and more pervasive acts of injustice and violence that communities of color bear every day. Meeting the challenge, and recognizing the promise and grace of this essential moment, requires us to affirm justice as an essential act of love. 

Justice is Essential. 
Justice is Love. 
Justice is essential love.