Happy Juneteenth! The new/old holiday to celebrate the end of slavery in America! As a non-Black American, what is a good way for me to celebrate?
History is so complicated. There is no one nation/civilization/society on earth that has not committed horrible terrible things in its past. The only way to have a “clean” history is to pretend it starts fresh somewhere, that you are a new country that happens to be located in the same spot as an old country but they were other people and don’t count. And even there, give it time, and your own sins will appear.
If we look at India, and say it started clean and fresh in 1950 (with the establishment of the independent constitution and so on), and Partition was all due to the failures of the British. Which can be a valid argument. Okay, but what about the Emergency and forced sterilizations? 1984 and the anti-Sikh riots? New India has it’s own historical sins. And I think that is just inevitable. When a country is created, the leaders are going to make mistakes. And when you are leading a country, those are going to be Big Mistakes. But what is your responsibility for those mistakes as a person living in that country? Especially mistakes that happened before you were born.
My family has never been on the “wrong” side of American history. That makes me feel better. But why? All of this happened before I was born, I have no responsibility over my great great grandfather who fought in the Civil War. Why should that one man who happened to pass his genetics on to me be more of my history than the many other men who wrong and were also part of my country? Even if myself and my family didn’t benefit directly from the sins of America, we benefited in directly just by being American. And I am still benefitting.
So, how do I celebrate Juneteenth? For most of my life, I celebrated by knowing it was happening, being aware of the historical context, and not doing anything about it. It meant the city parks were full, there’s usually a parade or a street festival, but these were gatherings for a specific community that is not my community. So I would avoid the street closures and wave at the park groups and move on.
Since 2021, it has been a federal holiday. To me, the most meaningful part of that is that people are no longer punished by losing a vacation day. Taking a day of work is a big deal for American workers (because our work/life balance sucks). Now, having it recognized as a standard paid holiday, makes it soooooooooooo much easier for people to go to those parades and family reunions and events. That’s GREAT!
What should I do though? About Juneteenth, and about the greater American sin of slavery that has lead to so many other sins continuing to this day? I’m not gonna crash someone’s family reunion in the park, my company isn’t even closed for the day so I’m still working. I landed on this post as sort of the best thing I can do, take the time to sit with history and think about it. Maybe that’s all that’s required? As a non-Black American, that I spend the day sitting with our history?
It’s such a horrible history. Over a hundred years, and so many generations, of people living in torment. It went on far too long, that I think is where our collective guilt is greatest. Even if my ancestors, and plenty of other Americans, were “against” slavery, why did it take SO LONG??? Why were they not storming the capital, making this the one issue, fomenting rebellion??? Why was it so easy for us to say “well, that’s wrong, but it’s happening in another state/to other people/by other people, so I will look at what matters to me”?
There is no excuse for that. If you are a white American, you are complicit. And you are still benefitting. My relatives may not have owned slaves, may have even generally been against slavery, but they did not fight with every fiber of their being and every penny in the bank to end slavery. And because of that, I lead a more comfortable life to this day. They put in the time building solid businesses and rich farms and their children benefitted and their children’s children all the way down to me.
Can I say this? It’s understandable, even expected, for folks to get caught up in their own lives and not spend every minute of every day trying to solve huge monstrosities happening around them. But being understandable and expected doesn’t mean we get to avoid responsibility.
That’s how far I’ve gotten in my thoughts. There’s a whole other series of thoughts about if there is value to thinking about historic injustices when there are new present injustices to fight, what sort of reparations should/could be paid, how do you balance historic injustices with present day related injustices, lots and lots of things!
I’m curious what y’all think about all these Big Topics. What is our collective responsibility for national sins? How do we cope with it?