"I love you enough to demand your life mean something in America. I love you enough to see you. I love you enough to fight for you. I love you enough to see myself in your struggle and you in mine." 

WATCH THE NEW VIDEO: We claim love. Happy Douglass Day.

Did you know Frederick Douglass claimed today, Valentine’s Day, as his birthday?

When he claimed his freedom from slavery, he claimed sovereignty over his own body — and he extended that sovereignty to claiming his own birthday.

The fascists in government right now are all about claiming. They claim the past, they claim the present, they claim the future. They claim things that aren’t true. They claim powers they don’t have. It’s hard to keep up with all their claims. That’s how they try to force change.

But we can claim too. We can claim back. Watch the new video: We can follow Douglass's example, claiming love to resist fascism.

Right now we’re celebrating Black Futures Month, a visionary celebration of Blackness in the month of February where we dream forward, claiming new Black stories in the world to come.

Celebrations of Black love and Black Americana — recently from artists like Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar — claim Black expression as a core part of America. They’re a way of fighting back against a dehumanizing past and present.

Love is a deeply human emotion. It means seeing yourself in someone else’s humanity and the humanity of all people. When the fascists are out here trying to dehumanize so many of us, love is a weapon we can use to fight back.

When Frederick Douglass claimed Valentine’s Day as his birthday, he claimed, for his own story, a day associated with love. So today, on his birthday, let’s honor Frederick Douglass.

Let’s turn to those around us — to those close to you, to your neighbors, to strangers, and especially to those whose safety is being threatened as we speak — and say:

I love you enough to demand that your life mean something in America. I love you enough to see you. I love you enough to fight for you. I love you enough to see myself in your struggle, and you in mine.

WATCH: We claim love. Happy Frederick Douglass Day.

Graie Hagans
Chief Vision Officer, Bend the Arc