AfroerotiK

Erotic provocateur, racially-influenced humanist, relentless champion for the oppressed, and facilitator for social change, Scottie Lowe is the brain child, creative genius and the blood, sweat, and tears behind AfroerotiK. Intended to be part academic, part educational, and part sensual, she, yes SHE gave birth to the website to provide people of African descent a place to escape the narrow-mined, stereotypical, limiting and oft-times degrading beliefs that abound about our sexuality. No, not all Black men are driven by lust by white flesh or to create babies and walk away. No, not all Black women are promiscuous welfare queens. And as hard as it may be to believe, no, not all gay Black men are feminine, down low, or HIV positive. Scottie is putting everything on the table to discuss, debate, and dismantle stereotypes in a healthy exchange of ideas. She hopes to provide a more holistic, informed, and enlightened discussion of Black sexuality and dreams of helping couples be more open, honest, and adventurous in their relationships.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Celebrating our Enslavement

Another Juneteenth has come and gone. Every year, I'm horrified by the perpetuation of the day as a holiday Black people should celebrate. If there was ever a day that we should NOT celebrate, it's June 19th. For those how don't know the history of the day, Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863. Later attempts to explain this two and a half year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another, is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All or none of them could be true. For whatever the reason, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.

I'm not stupid enough to believe that there was no form of communication to Texas for two and a half years. I'm not stupid enough to celebrate a "holiday" just because slaves rejoiced in being freed. We should be fighting for legal restitution. If one white person were falsely imprisoned and then freed but no one told them about it for TWO AND A HALF YEARS, there would be a lawsuit the size of Texas on his behalf. Hell, he would own half of Texas after he got finished suing. Yes, I'm sure he would rejoice when he was freed but turning it into a holiday? Hell no. Rather than point out the injustice, we want to make it a national holiday. The insanity of it all is what confuses me.

I've spoken to Black people from Texas, who are the people who seem to celebrate it the most, and they insist that they celebrate it because that's what they were taught. Isn't this the same thing I hear every Thanksgiving when I bring up the fact that celebrating Thanksgiving is really celebrating the holocaust of 15 million Natives? Where's the common sense? The movement should be for reparations for every second of every day that Black people were enslaved past Jan 1st, 1963. The US government should be held accountable for its illegal actions. Texas landholders should be held accountable. The monies should go to education, housing, small business loans, and health care for Black Texans.

Can you imagine Jews celebrating the fact that people were left in concentration camps for two and a half years after they were freed? Can you imagine white people trying to deny Jews legal justice for anyone who was in that situation? Not only do we not want to hold the people who were responsible accountable, we want to have a party on top of it. It's so sinful it's a shame.

3 comments:

iaintlying said...

Thank-you for putting this out there. I never really knew what Juneteenth was about. I had heard various things but I didn't really know the heart of the matter. As for the Emancipation Procolomation, that's a whole nother story. I have some pretty strong views on it because it did not do necessarily what history says it did. Anyhoo, I just wanted to say thanks for enabling me to learn something new today.

changeseeker said...

Damn straight! (I always wondered about this, but thought maybe I was just missing the point somehow. I would totally support this movement for reparations.)

More vaguely related interesting knowledge: slaves in the slave states that did not secede were held in bondage until the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed because the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to those in the seceded South. The states that got to keep their slaves for an additional two years legally were Deleware, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and West Virginia.

Lincoln even told the Vice President of the Confederacy that the Proclamation was just a function of the war (primarily that the North couldn't win without Black soldiers). He assured his Confederate brother that, after it was all over, things would go back to business as ususal, which, of course, didn't happen, but could have been the intention (at least Lincoln said it was).

One Kentucky slave-holder suddenly divested of his "property" by the 13th Amendment has been quoted as saying, "If I'd known they were going to free the slaves, I'd have fought for the Confederacy!" In point of fact, Kentucky didn't even ratify the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments until 1976...!

Ergane said...

I don't think you get it -- and I know you knew someone would counter your arguments. Whether it was two years or 15, that they were FREE meant more than anything.

We haven't been subjugated like they were. Maybe we cannot identify with the joy they must have felt.

However, you do have very serious points and I would love for someone to find out the mysterious tale of why these B/black people didn't know they were even free for two years and whether it IS actionable as a human rights offense.