Dear Reader,
You are worthy.
You are inherently worthy because you are human. You are inherently worthy of dignity and respect because you are human. This is unquestionable and untouchable. It is an absolute fact.
Together, we as humanity have created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We have collectively decided that:
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of kin.”
Germany has enshrined this into the Verfassung, or Basic Law:
“Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar. Sie zu achten und zu schützen ist Verpflichtung aller staatlichen Gewalt.”
“Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.”
This means that we are all free, equal, worthy, and dignified. Including all of our intersecting identities. Simply because we are human.
You Are Worthy. Full Stop.
You are worthy of freedom, dignity, and respect if you are:
Queer, Palestinian, Jewish, Disabled, Trans, Non-Binary, a Woman, a Man, Young, Old, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Asian, a Refugee, Muslim, of any faith, Homeless, living with Mental Illness, Gay, Straight, Fat, or a human being with any identity or combination of identities.
Any act that attacks one’s human dignity, or places the value of one human above another, is a direct violation of worth and dignity.
How Did We Get Here?
The belief that one type of human is superior to another began with colonisation, when colonisers decided they were superior to others in order to steal their resources. To justify this, they had to find ways to frame another human as less than human, or as non-human entirely. This resulted in slavery and genocide. Hundreds of years later, even having collectively decided as a species that all of us hold inherent dignity and worth, genocide persists and is ongoing.
Genocide is state sponsored. I am looking at you: USA, Canada, Germany, Israel, China, Russia, UK.
Genocide is an absolute violation of human dignity.
Genocide is a tool of the master. The master being white patriarchal colonial supremacy, with its insidious tools that make us believe one human is worth more than another. It breaks my heart to see these systems and tools replicate themselves within marginalised communities. Our communities.
As Audre Lorde wrote:
“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They will only allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” (Sister Outsider, p.112)
If the master’s tool is the devaluing of human life, our tool must be the radical decision to see all humans as equal, inherently worthy of love, care, respect, and dignity simply because we are human.
Love Is a Verb
We must extend this to all living beings. To our forests, oceans, earth, plants, trees, and animals, for we are all interconnected. Humans cannot and will not exist without them.
To do this, we must choose to love. Love is a verb. It is an action.
As bell hooks writes, drawing on Erich Fromm:
“Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth… Love is an act of will, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.” (All About Love, p.4)
To love is to care for our own soul and the souls of others.
Our Rebellion
Our rebellion is to take care of our own souls, the souls around us, the souls we are connected too, and the souls we have not yet met. To take care of the souls of the ocean, the trees, and the animals, for they are all conscious beings.
Our rebellion is to centre love, care, dignity, respect, and joy.
We must dismantle and then rebuild the cultural and economic systems that centre human dignity and worth. Only then will we truly uphold that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Be radical when you notice the master’s tools shaping how you relate to each other. Rebel against them by acting courageously with dignity, love, respect, and care. Celebrate one another for all of our uniqueness and all of our commonalities.
And always remember: you are inherently worthy of dignity, respect, and love simply because you are uniquely yourself.
With love,Sadie