Juneteenth
Conflicted happiness is still happiness
Happy Juneteenth. Happy Freedom Day. We know there are powers that be that still want us to remain enslaved in any capacity that upholds white supremacy. We know some people wish us to be lesser. Often are those two things the same for us.
When the bill passing was trending, I reacted as if it was only a tactical move. After reflecting on it a bit, that was surface-level thinking. I know not everyone has the equitable resources they need to learn why today and so many other days/people should be celebrated. But there are so many silver-crowned Black people who never thought today would be recognized this way.
We have ancestors who have returned to the soil. Many were put there forcibly. They may have celebrated Juneteenth and been celebrated, but I wasn’t taught about it in school. I didn’t learn about the myriad vital details of the nation they built. Right now, there is a political volleyball in the argument for or against schools teaching CRT. There will always be reasons for politicians to use our plight for their advances. Even “Honest Abe” believed that Black people didn’t deserve equal social and political rights as white people.
So, I remember our ancestors, and I teach my kids about them. I will fight to make sure your kids can learn about them. My oldest daughter was just singing the Sesame Street Juneteenth song, and I will make sure she knows that and everything I was never able to sing about. If we don’t do nothin’ else, we gone make gold outta scraps.
African cuisine changed the course of culinary exploration. Our ancestors created that with their souls and ingredients that were considered lesser. In this “melting pot” of a country, we’ve often been seen as lesser ingredients. So often are we revered for our flavor but not seen for our roots and how they are the foundation of this country as we know it today.
So I’m going to try to take this newly anointed federal holiday and hold it up so high that the ancestors and those who chose the Atlantic over enslavement can see it. We deserve more. They deserved more. So let’s celebrate and keep fighting for it. Often are these two exercises the same for us.
