%% #🌱 #🟠 %% # How can the oppressed react with a gesture of love If the oppressed are the ones being attacked and held down, physically or otherwise, why and how should they be expected to respond with a [[gesture of love]]? Michelle Obama addressed this very point in her speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention when she said, "When they go low, we go high." ([as cited in Scipioni, 2020](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/12/michelle-obama-on-famous-catchphrase-when-they-go-low-we-go-high.html)) It's easy to understand the urge to hurt those who have hurt you. But those actions do not solve anything. As Freire points out, "if the goal of the oppressed is to become fully human, they will not achieve their goal by merely reversing the terms of the contradiction, by simply changing poles" (p. 56). But in seeking liberation and restoring their own humanity, the oppressed restore the humanity of their oppressors and that is the "gesture of love" Freire refers to. ## Sources [[Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Freire 2000]] ## Tags --- <small>*Created on:* 2022-11-04</small> <small>*Last modified on:* 2022-11-05</small>