The Standpoint of Hope and the Decolonial Ethno-Poetics of Radical Love

This article argues that love and care, and more specifically, the hope of a new world, were central to the ethos of the US Civil Rights movement of the late 1960s and the decolonial projects inspired by it. Starting from the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other central activists of the era, this article explores how hope guided their visionary work. This article examines what differentiates the forms of hope deployed by civil rights activists and those of more recent US nationalist movements. This piece also traces the work of US third-wave feminists in creating a theory around radical hope, and the creation of what I define as a standpoint of hope: a type of consciousness that rejects the consumption of hope for selfish purposes and promotes a style of life that looks after the most vulnerable beyond one’s own group. As the article explains, hope works multi-dimensionally, as it can help people navigate their everyday struggles, envision a different outcome, and critically analyze their own history and experiences of oppression.