16/06/2024
Buckle up, here's another Debbie-Ann Paige harangue.
I heard something at a Juneteenth celebration that really took me aback and hurt my heart. I heard the descendants of Africans, in a room filled with predominantly white participants say, "Juneteenth is not just about Black people." At first, I thought okay, let's give them a little space and grace to explain. But, they went on to say, "It's about freedom for everyone." And that is where they lost me.
Whether or not you agree with celebrating the Juneteenth "holiday," I want to make it clear, is solely about Black people. That is to say, it is about the jubilation and praising of God Almighty for the promise of freedom that was finally bestowed on the sun-kissed children of the Creator.
If you celebrate, then it must be to honor the perseverance through a generational nightmare, and the resilience of those descendants of Africans to "bootstrap" against the full weight of the state and federal government seeking to keep them in bo***ge.
It is about perseverance through the nightmare of stolen labor, r**e, murder, abused children, and living through the grief of the dismantling of families sold to pay debts they had not incurred, heaped onto one group of people who were treated as chattel in the attempt to remove their humanity for financial gain.
It is about the magnitude of believing in the promise of deliverance, when the belief seemed almost hopeless. It is about the rising up from forced illiteracy, degradation, hunger, broken bodies, shame, and generational heartache to find joy in the promise of freedom.
So, to those who would "whitewash" the freedom celebration of the our ancestors to ease or lesson the pangs of fragility of others, I say shame on you.
In my humble opinion, the only way that the Juneteenth celebration includes anyone other than the sun-kissed descendants of Africans, is for everyone to recognize this is not about you and your freedom struggle. This is about the recognition and hallelujah praise in the realization of freedom in 1865, by those same sun-kissed descendants who endured, persevered and came out with hope on the other side.
Peace and blessings in our celebrations!
