#john a powell

[aznboi44]

I think being human is a process. It's not something that we just are born with. We actually learn to celebrate our connection, learn to celebrate our love. And the thing about it — if you suffer, it does not imply love. But if you love, it does imply suffering. So part of the thing that I think what being human means to love and to suffer, to suffer with, though, compassion, not to suffer against. So to have a space big enough to suffer with. And if we can hold that space big enough, we also have joy and fun even as we suffer. And suffering will no longer divide us. And to me, that's sort of the human journey.

john a. powell “Opening the Question of Race to the Question of Belonging”

[notes-slowroots]

I think being human is a process. It's not something that we just are born with. We actually learn to celebrate our connection, learn to celebrate our love. And the thing about it—if you suffer, it does not imply love. But if you love, it does imply suffering. So part of the thing that I think what being human means to love and to suffer, to suffer with, though, compassion, not to suffer against. So to have a space big enough to suffer with. And if we can hold that space big enough, we also have joy and fun even as we suffer. And suffering will no longer divide us. And to me, that's sort of the human journey.

john a. powell, “Opening the Question of Race to the Question of Belonging” (On Being, 2015, 47:45)

[notes-slowroots]

I think, ultimately—a healthy world really requires, not just a restructuring of what people of color have, but a restructuring of white identity... We really need to come to terms with the white problem, not in a negative way, not in terms of white guilt, not in terms of beating up on whites, but really trying to help whites—because we are deeply related—give birth to a different identity.

john a. powell, “Opening the Question of Race to the Question of Belonging” (On Being, 2015, 30:17)