I have never been a proponent of
celebrating Juneteenth. I have long
since held that celebrating Juneteenth was entirely appropriate for those who
were enslaved and newly notified of their freedom. For Blacks born into a system where their
illiteracy was a mandate, and for those who could remember the sting of the
evil slave owner’s whip decades after they were liberated from bondage,
celebrating Juneteenth was more important than Christmas, worshipping a blond-haired,
blue-eyed savior who promised salvation after a life of pain. For them, June 19th symbolized the end of an
era where the enslaved were considered less than human, where they were finally
free.
It was my very strong opinion for
contemporary Africans born in AmeriKKKa to celebrate Juneteenth, with full
access to the knowledge that our ancestor’s freedom was intentionally and
deceptively kept from them for two and a half years, with the understanding
that white human traffickers profited and capitalized from the unlawful
captivity of enslaved Americans, is disrespectful to our ancestors. It remains my very strong belief that
descendants of those criminal human traffickers should be striped of their
wealth, every single cent, because it was all born of the original sin, the
enslavement of my ancestors.
I was today years old when I
found out that white human traffickers, slave owners in states where the
enslaved were to be liberated in a timely manner, consistent with the signing
of the Emancipation Proclamation, moved their farming operations to Texas to
deliberately to continue to profit from slave labor. That’s evil on a level that is beyond my
comprehension.
You see, when white people think
of slavery, when they see the images of the fatigued, down-trodden,
dark-skinned slaves with wide noses and full lips, the scars raised from their
skin, they don’t see human beings, they see ugly animals, things to be spat up
and abused. I see my family. I see my blood. I intimately feel the pain or rape, of
separation from your family, of torture and laboring from sun up to sun down
with no reward or compensation. I see my
heritage, my identity, my culture. I see
my great- great-grandparents and my great-great-grandchildren. I am the enslaved in the past, present, and
future.
Day after day, white men call me
a nigger. Sometimes the motivation is to
incite me to anger in a game of emotional manipulation. At times, when I challenge their arrogant
assertions that racism ended when Obama was elected, or when I call out their
offensive and racist core beliefs, they arrogantly call me a nigger without any
irony whatsoever. If I had a dime for
every time a white man called me a nigger when I tell them not to objectify
Black men by referring to them as BBC but to refer to them as MEN I would have
enough money to buy the freedom of several of my enslaved ancestors. Daily, white men call me racist nigger bitch
when I speak the truth about the inherent inferiority of a race of people who
committed the greatest crime against humanity ever committed. You see, for the
vast majority of white men who call me a nigger, they believe that the fact
that the blood of their ancestors flowing through their veins, ancestors who
bought, sold, traded, tortured, raped, branded, lynched, and murdered Black
people like it was entertainment to them, they believe that makes them
inherently superior to me. They not only
call me a nigger, they believe I’m a nigger because my ancestors built this
nation while their lazy, evil ancestors profited from it.
So today, when Republicans are
desperately manipulating and scheming to deprive me of my right to vote, my
Constitutional RIGHT, not a privilege that I have to earn like I’m a slave on
the plantation but rights already afforded me, I celebrate Juneteenth.
Today, when racist legislators
are terrified of AmeriKKKa’s true history of perilous racism coming to light,
making deals behind closed doors with Trillionaire donors to prevent schools
from teaching that slavery even existed, terrified that learning about the true
horrors of slavery will open the door to all their magical lies and deceptions
coming to light, I celebrate Juneteenth.
In 2021, when white people cheer
and celebrate the deaths of unarmed Blacks in the street, when they deny and
justify systemic racism and blame its victims for our oppression, indicating
their greatest desire is to go back to the days when they could own, buy, and
sell me, treating my life like a piece of property, I lift my voice and say
that, “We shall overcome, someday, but today, I celebrate Juneteenth.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1d5hUA8Jd4
