"20. I'm Going to Love You--The Followers of Christ"
More brothas! She smiled. This was going to be fun.
I'm gonna love ya / In every way / I'm gonna love ya / I'm gonna love ya / Each and every day / I'm gonna love ya
Love your neighbor as yourself / Means that you won't harm nobody else / When you walk in love / There's just no way you can hold a grudge
...
Don' t look for fault in one another / That's not the way you treat your brother / Walking in love brings unity / So let's walk in love / So that all the world can see
Stop throwin' stones at one another / 'Cause that's not the way you treat your brother / We must learn to love one another / No matter what race, creed, or color
I'm gonna love you / (Love you) / (Love you) / I'm gonna love you / Just like He loved us...
Though she continued to smile, she also felt shame. This one was bittersweet. The song was clearly old, having doubtless been recorded by men who were alive when classic white-on-black racism was both common enough and obvious enough that one didn't need to fish for it with Critical Theory. Yet these men found it within themselves to say that you can't hold a grudge while walking in love and that loving your neighbor as yourself meant that you would not harm anyone else. No buts, no excuses, no soft-pedaling. It was effectively a solid rebuke of current racial doctrines, delivered by her own forebears. Only one year ago, she would have called this cooning. Now that knowledge embarrassed her.
Judging by the context, Lazarus had used this song the same way they did, having resolved to love deliberately and in the face of an ugly reality. Did he have a personal, pain-avoidant reason for singing things like "don't look for fault in one another" and "that's not the way you treat your brother"? Of course he did...but so did they. And honestly, was the simple benefit of the doubt too much to ask for? Conversely, was he sucking up to his equivalent of Massa by adopting this stance? Absolutely not. "Habit of Hate" had made that abundantly clear. If he wasn't "cooning", neither were they.