Hate is the Common enemy

My third bilingual poetry book, "The Summer I Found my Wings" is releasing this year. I wrote the poems from spring - summer - fall 2025. The words in this book implore you to love yourself.

May 10, 2026

I was reading Malcom X’s speech on The Ballot or the Bullet, “we have a fight that’s common to all of us against the enemy who is common to all of us.”

Malcolm X was a Afro American revolutionary. His biography is transformational. You can read the book or watch the movie. I watched the movie and then was inspired to read his speeches in particular. This particular speech got me thinking.

Who is our common enemy?

First, are we all in a fight?

Yes we are. We all have chosen sides. We all have our reason.

Some have reasons to justify the cruelty.

Others have reasons to stop the cruelty.

I dont think the fight is against a particular person or nation or faith. Atleast not my fight.

The fight is against cruelty.

Cruelty exists in every class, color, religion and gender.

So, who is the enemy?

When everyone is being fed propaganda of some sort then who is the enemy? And everyone IS being fed a propaganda.

What is propaganda?

Information communicated to influence a certain behaviour.

New Beginnings is also a propaganda. Of Love.

The movies we watch, the news we hear, the reels we scroll - every one of them has a propaganda. Everyone wants to influence a certain behaviour. Mostly, they want to influence consumption because that benefits the Capitalist society.

But we have stepped into a fascist society. So, now the propaganda has been - Hate.

Every community feels under attack.

There’s hate towards Muslims.

There’s hate towards Christians.

Hate towards Jews.

Towards Sikhs, Hindus, Indians, Arabs, White people, Indigenous people, queer people, people of color, poor people, rich people, men, women.

This makes me wonder, if hate is the common enemy.

It surely is the intention of propaganda.

And if you hate someone, anyone - you have fallen for the propaganda, my love. I too have.

So, now we know hate is the common enemy.

Hate is a problem to be solved.

How do we find it? We have to identify the root cause to solve a problem.

Remember, we are not changing others. We are changing ourselves. We are solving this problem to change ourselves.

There are different reasons that hate lives in us which is fueling the hierarchy. There are different levels of hate. Different forms of hate.

But I am not going to list these reasons because I have a problem of over analyzing. I am focusing on taking action.

These types of hate, they exist in us. They have been fed to us. Have you ever seen a child hating on someone? The natural state of a human does not know hate. It is taught by the society. We’ll have to unlearn this hate together.

Unlearn the hate.

Unlearn the feeling of being superior.

Unlearn the stereotype.

Unlearn the standards.

Unlearn the rules.

Your writer friend,

Arsh Kaur

Dear readers, this article is sponsored to you by my 9-5. I am an assistant to a lawyer. sometimes, i get to write at work. But as I am handling multiple full time jobs - a writer, a wife, and social media content creator - Yeah, gotta do that these days. People are glued to their phones. Everywhere where I go. No body looks at anybody. Except teenagers. Idk how, i end up having conversations with teenagers. I met a sweet girl at a car wash and then at gym. They seem shy, like I was. So, I talk to them like my big brother talked to me. What do you dream of?

OMG, seven side stories later, I have another Substack! It’s paid.

Check it out for yourself.

fool’s Journey.