Happy Juneteenth

What? You didn't realize today was a holiday? Well, it's not officially, except in Texas. I'll be thinking today of how we can celebrate the end of slavery and the beginning of freedom for black people when we have such a long way to go until we are truly free. I'm taking a class called gender and ethnicity that is causing me to look at systems of oppression and the institutionalization of racism, classism, sexism, ableism, etc...

When I was a child, I remember wondering why black folks were still treated so badly when it was white folks that had done us so wrong. It made no sense to me why I had to worry about prejudice when I was clearly the innocent party. Then I grew up to understand that fairness and justness is subjective. That whites were still mentally enslaving whites with their doctrine of (covert) supremacy. It was just more subtle now, almost imperceptible.
Some folks will say that we should move on from the past, that what's done is done and we need to forgive and forget. But there is residue from that past which lives inside us. It is the legacy of slavery that people of color live with the mental side effects of the institution of slavery.

The writer Shelby Steele talks about the development of the "anti-self" in black people that has resulted from years of internalized oppression. This anti-self is "... an interal antagonist and saboteur that embraces the world's negative view of us, that believes our wounds are justified by our own unworthiness, and that entrenches itself as a lifelong voice of doubt." When I think about this concept of the anti-self, it is easy for me to see why so many of our black brothers and sisters end up in jail, on drugs, or both. Why many can't seem to lift ourselves up, but instead break ourselves and each other down. It is hard to be hopeful in the face of such devastating oppression. So, when someone tells me that racism is no longer a problem and they don't see color I just can't believe them. People of color live with the reality of racism every day. We are still fighting to have our voices heard and our experiences believed. We have a long way to go.

Check out more on juneteenth at:
http://www.juneteenth.com/