Yesterday, in the first part of Chris Crass’s Harry Potter series, we learned how to get free of Voldemort’s systems of oppression. In this second article in Chris Crass is concentrating on the connection between love and freedom.
The Power of Love as the Practice of Freedom
After Dumbledore and Voldemort duel in the Ministry of Magic, Voldemort possesses Harry’s mind, and tells Dumbledore and Harry that their defeat is imminent. Voldemort declares that Harry’s efforts will fail and then fills his mind with images of the horrors that will engulf the world.
As Harry struggles in anguish, lying on the floor, Dumbledore whispers to him, “Harry, it isn’t how you are alike [with Voldemort i.e., white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy], It is how you are not.” At that moment Harry sees Hermione, Ron, Ginny and others enter the room and his mind fills with images of loving embraces with his family and friends, of his beloved community.
At this juncture, Harry responds to Voldemort, “You’re the weak one, and you will never know love or friendship. And I feel sorry for you.” Through reconnecting with his values and his community, Harry accesses the power of love, repels Voldemort and finds his courage for the fight ahead.
Anti-racist, feminist, socialist scholar bell hooks speaks of love as the practice of freedom. What we are up against is daunting and, at times, voices in our heads tell us that we will be defeated or even that we already are. hooks asks us to take up work against injustice in the spirit of Dr. King who said, “Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”
Harry often struggled to see the power of love, as revenge and anger weighted his motivation. While anger helped bring him into the struggle, just as it brings many of us into social justice work, it couldn’t sustain him or ultimately help him achieve his larger goals.
One of the recurring images throughout Harry Potter is his mother, Lily, standing between her newborn son and Voldemort. Lily’s sacrifice was a powerful act of magic, which saves Harry. The love of Harry’s mother and father was a source of power that healed and emboldened Harry. The more he opened himself to their love, the more he was able to powerfully act from love.
In our social justice movement, when we are tired, weary and beaten down, we must let the love of our ancestors heal and embolden us. The greatest of our leaders and organizers spoke of working for a better world for the coming generations. We are the ones they fought for. The extent to which we are disconnected from their love and our own ability to love is the extent to which Voldemort influences us.
“Your mother died to save you,” explained Dumbledore. “If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love.” It is imperative that we ground ourselves in the visions we work for, the values we work from, and the love we have for our friends, families and communities with which we work.
While Voldemort might be in our heads, while there may be ways that we ourselves reproduce systems of oppression, while there will be many mistakes along our journey, how we are different from systems of oppression, how we love, is what is of utmost importance.
Come back to rabble.ca tomorrow for part three of Expecto Patronum: Lessons from Harry Potter for Social Justice Organizing.
THANKS: Thank you to my lovely team of fellow Order members for their editorial feedback, contributions and help: Rahula Janowski, Nisha Anand, Marc Mascarenhas-Swan, Caroline Picker, Morrigan Belle Phillips, Chris Dixon, April Caddell, Christina Aanestad, Liz Crockett Hixon and Aletha Fields.
Chris Crass is a longtime social justice organizer and educator and author of Towards Collective Liberation: anti-racist organizing, feminist praxis, and movement building strategy. He is a Unitarian Universalist and dreams of the day when his son, River, is old enough to go to a UU Hogwarts Camp. For more on his book and work go to www.chriscrass.org.
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