America…You Ain’t Foolin’ Nobody, Girl.
So you mean to tell me that after 156 years, the American Congress just woke up and said, “You know what? Let’s make Juneteenth a federal holiday!” Randomly. Without Pause. The week of? GIRL, IF YOU DON’T GO ON.
America, you are not fooling anyone. Not a pot, not a kettle, not nary a living Black soul. WE SEE YOU.
The Black community has celebrated Juneteenth – a day that commemorates the delayed freedom of Galveston, TX slaves more than two years after legal Emancipation – without your interest, support, or damns given since 1865. In states like my home, Kentucky, Black communities in smaller towns celebrate Juneteenth and other Freedom days because our ancestors continued to be enslaved even longer than those informed of their freedom on June 19, 1865. We have advocated for the national recognition of Juneteenth for decades, with our pleas falling on deaf (or maybe just disinterested) ears. Even a summer full of national protests and racial turmoil, coupled with a pandemic that competed to take Black lives even faster than the police, did not move your feet. And now, today, June 16, 2021, you bring to my social feeds the “joyous” news that my community’s independence day will no longer require me to use PTO or Personal Holiday time to observe.
Well, I have news for you. It’s not serving what it’s supposed to serve, and certainly not giving what it was supposed to give. It serves “I’m up to something,” mixed with a splash of “What more do you people want?” and a twist of “Maybe this will make them shut up.” Newsflash, it won’t. Your pennies are meaningless in the bank of your sins against my people, and we will not rest until you have paid your debts in full plus interest. The loan of time you applied for with this attempted distraction is henceforth DENIED.
So go to your church of choice and pray to St. Try Again. In the meantime, here is a list of items you wished we’d forget about with your little announcement, but that we did not. Your to-do list, in no certain order, is as follows:
-Preventing the passage of voter suppression laws which specifically target Black/brown voters
-D.C. Statehood
-Anti-Lynching Legislation
-Reforming the education system to teach ACTUAL history instead of the whitewashed Disney version currently printed in American textbooks
-Stop penalizing teachers for telling the actual truth
-Gun Reform
-Dismantling & replacing current system of policing
-Social Justice Reforms
-Healthcare Reform
-Reparations for survivors of the Tulsa Race Riots and their descendants
AND
-Reparations for Descendants of Slavery BECAUSE WE BUILT THIS SH___.
In short, sweet America, born and bathed in Black labor and blood, those of us who know real history, and not the abridged version painted in your textbooks, we recognize what’s happening here. Now, instead of deferring our attention, you’ve just made us focus on you even more. Better luck next time. Now, get to work.
Share if you agree and #StayKultured, Beloved.
