I'm like most white Americans who learned little to nothing about slavery, the real roots of the Civil War, life for the enslaved, tortures at the hands of the enslavers, patrollers, and freedom, or Juneteenth.
We know a little about the Emancipation Proclamation, yet we do not know the limits of the decree. We do know of the death of President Lincoln, yet we do not know of his complexities in arriving at freeing enslaved people.
We do not know a whole lot. As I told a friend this morning via FB, our educational system let us down. Let us down badly.
So, here I sit on June 19, ponder a lot of things. Personally, it is the birthday of a good friend. I honor him this day. It is also the second anniversary of my cancer surgery. I honor God and good physicians for that successful treatment, especially the physician who performed robotic surgery on me at UT Southwestern.
As a curious aside, I've also spent time this morning attempting to inform a white guy that Black farmers faced insurmountable racial discrimination and that losing their land was not a function of mismanagement. You can follow those sound bites here. Just scroll down and you'll see several of them along with my replies.
Most of my mental meanderings this morning have been about Juneteenth, now a national holiday. For years I have personally celebrated this day more so than July 4 given my investment in the stories of African American farmers and their battle with the USDA. You can find the trailer of that film here.
For me the question is whether or not the designation of June 19 will become an opportunity to learn about the history of African Americans in America or will we simply take it as another day off, one in which to party and BBQ our favorite foods on the grill. I'm not a super outdoors cook, so I'll pass on that one.
I will, however, continue to learn and ponder things related to Black America. As you know if you've followed this blog, I've spent the better part of 30 years or so learning about people of color in our country, that there are at least two Americas, the one I live in and the one my African American friends live in, the things I attempted to teach my sons and the things they have to teach their sons.
There is much to be learned about those horrendous stories: from the shores of Africa, through the horrors of the middle passage, to the auction block, to the plantation and its unspeakable horrors, from ownership to owning land, through freedom to Reconstruction then Jim Crow and now. Yes, there is much to be learned by us white Americans, but, I think we are lazy. There is a summary of sorts in the first few pages of this publication
Yes, I said it. I think white America is lazy. Either we are lazy or we are disinterested or we are too occupied. I think we are lazy, or we would learn.
I think we are also steeped in our whiteness, the only skin color that matters. In fact, I'll go ahead and link up a poem that I wrote last year on this day. Maybe you'll find it offensive. Here is the link to that.
So, today I am filled wonder. Wonder at how far we've come in order to honor the narrative of those who fought so hard for freedom against insurmountable odds. And the narrative of those who learned on this day in 1865 that they were free, two and a half months after the end of the Civil War. Against those narratives, I cannot help but see the plethora of voting laws in so many states that harm people of color and their rights to vote.
So, today, I'll ponder freedom. I'll learn more about this day. I'll move beyond the myths to the realities. Yes, General Granger did come ashore, and he did announce that all enslaved were free. I'll also learn that the enslaved probably knew that it was coming. The general's decree was to the enslavers who had found their ways from other states into the state of Texas where slavery was held with impunity even after the war was over. Yes, I'll learn that through violence and intimidation, though the war was over and that these people were free, their enslavers kept them in bondage. One narrative is that the powers that be knew it and they knew that they knew it, but they let them have one last planting and harvest season.
Yes, today, I'll honor many people, names, faces, and places, for whom this day is sacred.
Yes, today, I'll honor those whose ancestors lived in bondage and eventually set free. I'll honor the stories of farmers who've traced for me their ancestries back to slave days.
I'll use this day to continue to learn and grow.
I'll use this day to encourage people who look like me to continue to learn and grow.
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