Now that we’ve had a couple of
years of the Juneteenth holiday, I have some
observations to share. President Joe Biden
signed Juneteenth into law as a federal
holiday in 2021. If we don’t grab the reigns
of this run-away horse, descendants of
enslaved Africans risk losing the relevancy
and potency of this piece of our history. We
need to build a mass-based popular education
program around Juneteenth for Black people
firstly and for others, secondarily.
Similar
to the Emancipation Proclamation, many of our
people didn’t get the word about Juneteenth
becoming a holiday. I just ran into a friend
over the weekend and reminded him that the
post office branches and banks would be closed
on Monday. Although he knew about Juneteenth,
my friend missed the memo about it becoming a
U.S. holiday.
The
rapid proliferation of Juneteenth celebrations
is a legitimate cause for concern. I’m
overjoyed that my people are embracing the
holiday - and with such enthusiasm. We have to
be mindful of consumer capitalism and how it
monetizes any and everything that can be
profitable - just as the economic system did
with our Black bodies. Unless we’re
overprotective of this holiday, Black people
will see the encroaching commercialism reduce
the meaning of this powerful day. We don’t
need a Juneteenth sale to get 20% off a pair
of $500 Gucci sunglasses so that we can look
cool at a celebration.
Black
people and their allies must never let the
celebration get separated from the “why” of
the holiday. However as
we
choose to celebrate Juneteenth, it should
always lift up the time in this country’s
history when Black men, women and children
were chattel slavery and endured the most
savage form of captivity ever recorded in the
U.S. Their valiant and courageous struggle for
freedom and humanity must be at the core of
those celebrations. Doing so doesn’t ignore
the enduring trauma of this historical period
but puts the heroism and perseverance into
proper context. This is an opportunity to
project the institution of slavery accurately
in a mainstream way and connect it directly
with the demand for reparations.
Make
no mistake about it, Black people celebrating
Juneteenth is an act of self-determination.
Many of us embraced the holiday long before it
was sanctioned by the government. The people
in Galveston, Texas have been celebrating it
since 1865. In St. Louis, a group called
Sabayet has been the primary organizers of the
local Juneteenth for 17 years.
As
a member of the CAP, we were the first to
celebrate Kwanzaa in St. Louis back in 1971.
CAP chapters popularized the Black holiday
amidst the slings and arrows of pro-Christmas
Black folks who thought we were trying to
replace their Christian holiday. St. Louis
also celebrated the birthday of Dr. Martin
Luther King long before it became a federal
holiday. Black St. Louis may be backward about
a number of things, but we don’t play around
with our Black holidays.
This is the real-life practice
of kujichagulia, self-determination. As Black
people, we determine what is best for
us, we define our own reality and
future. Juneteenth is a time to talk about the
Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa
and how to operationalize the principles 24/7.
It will go a long way in how we treat one
another, how our neighborhoods look and how
the power structure responds to our very
existence.
Juneteenth,
Freedom Day Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day -
whatever we chose to call it on any given day
- must be connected to our struggle for Black
Liberation. No different from our other Black
holidays, MLK Day, African Liberation Day
(ALD), Kwanzaa week, it is a time of
reflection about our progress as a people. We
must recommit to our liberation especially at
a time when racist white people and their
colored lackies are erasing our histories,
dislocating us from our neighborhoods and
disproportionately poisoning the water, air
and soil where we live.
It
must be a time to educate the masses of our
people about the simple, yet important things
they can do to de-colonize our minds and
become liberated humans in our own struggle
for political power, economic justice and
cultural dignity. Acts like joining an
organization working for liberation, like
volunteering a couple of hours at a youth
center, like giving a helping hand to a
formerly incarcerated person, like signing
someone up to vote, like writing a letter to
encourage your elected officials to do right
by Black people, like participating in a
protest to stop or advance an issue impacting
us.
Yes,
let’s go all out for Juneteenth, wrapping
ourselves in the red, black and green. But
Black people should understand we must fight
like hell to preserve the sanctity of the day
by knowing the history and making sure others
respect the history. This is critical to
addressing the form-shaping racial inequities
that shape the lives of Black people in
America.
