Juneteenth: When will we be free?

Juneteenth is a solemn observation mixed with optimism, hope, and joy — symbolism with substance. Please, y’all: No Juneteenth sales!

Juneteenth honors the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas were finally told that they were free, or at least no longer property of whites, due to the Emancipation Proclamation President Lincoln had signed in 1863. What did freedom mean? Lincoln himself said that his actions were not to free the slaves, but to save the union. Then as now, black lives did not fully matter. Where will our country be on Juneteenth 2021 — over 150 years after the official end of slavery in the United States and over 400 years after African people were brought to these shores as slaves to build a country in which systemic racism has continued to mutate to prevent African descendants from being equal participants?

Most Americans are now aware of Juneteenth because of plans by Donald Trump to hold a political rally on Juneteenth of this year — in the city where hundreds of black men, women, and children were massacred in the so-called riots in Tulsa on June 1, 1921. Tulsa's black community — sometimes referred to as Black Wall Street because of its prosperity — needed to be kept in its place. How dare black people consider themselves equal, be successful against the odds — you know, “uppity”? Why couldn’t they be satisfied with the crumbs of trickle-down economics?

Some conservative commentators are whining and crying foul, charging that it is unfair to conflate the very things this article connects — white supremacist terrorism, the intentional distortion of history, the use of racist dog whistles, the frightening willingness of good white people to do nothing; therefore, to be complicit.

Some of us remember when Ronald Reagan launched his presidential bid in Neshoba County, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers — James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner — were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. Reagan’s was not an innocent accident of scheduling; his was an intentional dog whistle to galvanize white support, especially among poor whites, who are cynically exploited to be the foot soldiers in protecting a system that is unfair to them, too.

White terrorists infiltrate peaceful protests to foment mayhem and chaos by throwing the first brick, knowing that white people will not be held responsible for their actions. No matter the facts, the images that are projected as “perpetrators” will overwhelmingly be those of black people. The distorted and inaccurate presentations are frightening to many whites, justifying their embrace of false prophets and fascist leaders who promise to protect them against the fabricated hordes.

Blacks and whites look at the same pictures, but see different images. For blacks, the brutal history of American racism is being played out in real time — on television and, perhaps most importantly, on video. For many whites, the images confirm their worst fears and racist stereotypes about black people.

The murder of George Floyd — caught on camera by Darnella Frazier, even as she was in harm’s way, has galvanized protests here and abroad. The courage of this 17-year-old African American is in the spirit of Ida B. Wells, whose recent posthumous Pulitzer Prize gave long-overdue recognition of her journalistic excellence and bravery in covering lynchings and riots 100 years ago.

Racism affects us all. None of us is free until we are all free. The young people — of all races — protesting the death of George Floyd and so many others seem to know that their future is on the line. Young white people are confronting the lies that taught them to be complicit in the subjugation of others and in their own moral and ethical compromise. They are demanding change NOW!

“Name it to change it.” We Americans have acquiesced to sanitized terms used to dance around straight talk about racism — income inequality, housing discrimination, prejudice, bias. Americans of good will have sat silent, while the white supremacists have constructed a narrative and political/social network to marginalize and demonize people of color and poison the body politic. Ford Foundation President Darren Walker has said that the South may have lost the Civil War, but in many ways it won the narrative.

In building a new narrative, remember the true meaning of Juneteenth — a celebration kept alive by generations of black people. Remember the martyrs of the Tulsa massacre. Remember, too, this moment in time. We do not have the luxury of willful ignorance and silent observation.

The good news is that we the people have an unprecedented opportunity to break the chokehold of American racism so that we can at last breathe free. Juneteenth, in symbolism and substance, is motivation as we continue the fight for freedom, equality, and justice for all.