Ignoring history shouldn’t cloud purpose of Juneteenth
I want to be excited that more Americans are aware of Juneteenth than in prior years. Instead, I roll my eyes out of frustration and concern.
Awareness, without comprehension and action, is virtually meaningless.
News that Juneteenth is a thing is relatively new to many, but the longstanding holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, the glorious day 21⁄2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed that news of freedom reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.
I want to be excited that there will be more celebrations through the United States in honor of the holiday also known as Freedom Day, Emancipation Day and Liberation Day.
Instead, I can’t stop rolling my eyes. Juneteenth is more than just a reason to eat BBQ, watch parades or, if you are among the very fortunate, get a paid day off from work.
Many – not all – Black people have held Juneteenth and other “emancipation day” celebrations for generations as political and cultural affairs that call out the need for actual freedom and to secure evasive justice.
It is decidedly unironic that recent history shined a national spotlight on Juneteenth.
It was the first “Black holiday” to come after the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Many people – the vast majority with good intentions – embraced Juneteenth.
That’s not a bad thing, but simply being aware of Juneteenth and chowing down on soul food is not the point and it is not enough. The true meaning of freedom and justice should remain front and center in Juneteenth celebrations.
Skimming the surface of the historically significant holiday is akin to recognizing Martin Luther King Day without working for a world in which people are judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.
It is as pointless as attending a Pride parade, then disregarding efforts that secure human rights for all people.
It is saying you stand against Asian hate, then doing or saying nothing when you hear hate speech.
“Checking the box” and doing Juneteenth is far easier than examining the past and addressing how it impacts the present. The latter is not an easy thing to do, but it is even more critical considering the racial divisiveness being stoked by players who twist theories and use fear of the “other” to motivate.
The very reality of Juneteenth is a reminder of the racist system America inflicted on itself through slavery. Gen. Gordon Granger would not have had to inform Galveston residents that slaves were free if slavery were not a thing.
It should come as no surprise that there are attempts in the Ohio Statehouse and others around our nation to bury the pain inflicted on slaves and their descendants. It is not creative, but it is an effective way of demonizing those calling attention to systemic racism.
Attacks against Critical Race Theory, such as House Bill 322, are smoke screens designed to hide truth by exploiting basic human insecurities.
There are outrageous and factually flawed efforts to mute the ugly truths that come with history the same year we mark the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riots that saw the murder of 300 Black people.
How unironic is that?
None of us were born during slavery, but we all deal with the real ramifications of it. Recognizing and addressing it is not about blame. It is key, however, to achieving freedom and justice, notions engrained in our national ethos, the American Dream.
This dream should not be for just some of us, because there is plenty of justice and freedom to go around.
To move past the pains of the past, we must not only see those pains as things.
We also must work to heal them.
I would like to be able to stop rolling my eyes now. Amelia Robinson is the Columbus Dispatch opinion editor.
@1Ameliarobinson