Juneteenth Substance or Performance? (author CBW)
Corey Bennett Williams, Durham, NC
I love Juneteenth. Normally, I would have already made my strawberry soda syrup. I’m having a tough time this year and I want to share my very complex feelings about it becoming a federal holiday. A lot of Black folks I know are having a tough time with it this year.
I am both happy that Juneteenth is being recognized as a federal holiday AND upset by it. Here’s why:
UPSET: How it passed and when it passed is feeling hella' performative. Unanimous? HUH? How on earth did some people vote to make Juneteenth a national holiday in one breath and then deliberately try to turn away from our history by mischaracterizing CRT and using it as a wedge issue for personal gain in the next? Because not teaching about systemic racist IS SYSTEMIC RACISM.
HAPPY: It's about damn time. Opal Lee doesn't need to be walking to Washington to bring awareness again this year. It's high time Juneteenth be recognized. She’s been fighting this fight, as have so many others and I’m excited that she has seen it to fruition.
UPSET: Oh lord, are people going to understand the significance and really reckon with the practical realities that Juneteenth brings up for Black folks? Like, this holiday is all about reconnecting with family for many of us because our families were sold away from one another and red drink has meaning both a celebratory bright beverage and as representative of shed blood. Are non-Blacks going to approach this holiday with the full complexity it warrants?
HAPPY: Perhaps this brings more awareness to how incredibly slow and unequal emancipation actually was. Perhaps it will give us insight into how we can hope for change in our time? Perhaps non-Black folks will seek out Black stories and Black businesses on this day?
UPSET - and unfortunately this is where I think I end up - Is this one of those things that's easy to do (hey, let's give them a holiday) instead of addressing systemic racism and structural inequality? Because that’s not a win for us - at all. We don’t need holiday or history months, we need reforms of the structures and systems and change among the people that enforce, gatekeep and build those systems.
So am I happy or sad? I think I’m both.
What can you do as an ally? Approach Juneteenth knowing that the holiday has meaning to Black folks and that Happy Juneteenth is not the right greeting. I am still thinking about what is the right word of solidarity from an ally, but it’s not Happy Juneteenth.
Know that many of us have our teeth are on edge worried that this is our "win" and it’s the only progress we’re doing to see. Meanwhile, Black and brown kids will still suffer, be unsafe and go hungry. Black people will still be targeted, harmed and incarcerated. I am worried that we will get a holiday instead of meaningful change because the holiday was easier.
I say that ALL to say, be gentle with your Black friends and family right now. They may be having similar feelings about a Black holiday suddenly becoming recognized (albeit not so suddenly) without less performative, more substantial changes being enacted.
Dear SisterScene Readers,
With this article we welcome our new contributor, Corey Bennett Williams. Her bio highlights a new membership group for white parents of Biracial children that she has founded, The LovingCollective. We lift up Corey’s brave work and invite you into conversation with her. Please welcome Corey Bennett Williams with your warm, brave questions! (founder Sisterscene, Emily Cox)
