Mickell Carter in Time Magazine:
Romantic love is not the only sort of love. There are alternative forms—including communal love, which is deeply rooted in collective care and well-being. These ideas of community-wide care and support receive far less attention in American society. They don’t have holidays and entire cultural genres built around them.
Yet, communal love has made a deep impact on history. Take, for instance, the story of a group popularly known for militancy, not love: the Black Panther Party (BPP). The Panthers, in addition to their bold ideas about Black revolution and self-defense, made a significant (but often under-appreciated) contribution to society’s conceptualization of caring for one another. For them, love was not just an emotion but an action. The BPP saw communal love as a revolutionary ideal—one that demanded the creation of programs and institutions to serve a Black community that had been neglected in the U.S. This vision emerged as a powerful agent for change and empowerment in the Black Freedom Struggle, even if the Panthers themselves didn’t always live up to their visionary goals.
More here. (Note: In honor of Black History Month, at least one post will be devoted to its 2025 theme of “African Americans and Labor” throughout the month of February)
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