Take time to ponder meaning of Juneteenth

Monday’s day off, for those lucky enough to have one, likely takes many people by surprise. Juneteenth is the newest federal holiday, and it was only last month that Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation recognizing Juneteenth as a legal state holiday in Connecticut. But it’s a day that should be about much more than rest.

Juneteenth dates to the Civil War, and commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Its status as a national holiday is one of the few tangible results of the protests, marches and demonstrations that marked the summer of 2020 following the killing in Minneapolis of local resident George Floyd at the hands of the city’s police department.

That summer, coinciding with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, seemed to promise a new era of racial understanding and empathy. Because it wasn’t just Black people marching for justice — it was a widespread phenomenon, and it reached into some of the whitest enclaves in the nation, including into some of the toniest suburbs in Connecticut. Finally, after so many years, people seemed to be understanding each other.

Activists remarked at the time that something real had to come from such an outpouring, and in Connecticut, at least, that came to pass. The police accountability law passed that year doesn’t go as far as some would like, but this state was one of the few jurisdictions anywhere to make concrete changes in how it approaches racial justice. For the first time, an independent investigator would take on questions of policy brutality, with at least the promise of justice that had too often been brushed aside.

The wider picture, looking back two years later, is much grimmer. Rather than a deeper understanding of the realities Black people have faced for the hundreds of years in America, too many white people have instead supported a backlash to any hint of progress. This can be seen in the condemnation of so-called Critical Race Theory, which is used by critics as a catch-all for nearly any discussion of race that might make people uncomfortable.

Even as many companies set up diversity initiatives after 2020 aimed at increasing inclusiveness, such endeavors have come in for harsh criticism in the years since, with arguments that such efforts are biased against white people, or aimed merely at promoting feelings of guilt among the privileged class. Every step forward has been met with resounding force pushing the other way.

That’s how it’s been throughout American history. The result is a situation where nearly every factor that determines a person’s well-being — health, wealth, family support, education, likelihood of incarceration, average lifespan and more — is far more positive for white Americans than their Black counterparts. Slavery ended generations ago, but its aftereffects are felt to this day.

So if Juneteenth is the only tangible legacy so far of the convulsions of 2020, let it be a meaningful day. Everyone should take a few minutes and ponder why it is that such an occasion is worthy of commemoration some century and a half later. We can claim to be a colorblind society, but the results of our actions show something different.

It’s up to all of us to change that.

We can claim to be a colorblind society, but the results of our actions show something different.