Juneteenth
The cusp of a new era does not announce itself elegantly. When it finally gives birth -- painful, bloody, beautiful birth -- the era has already been gestating for some time. The Emancipation of American Slaves -- from whom today’s African-Americans are directly descended -- did not happen overnight. Nor did the seemingly sudden recognition of what is quickly becoming America’s second Independence Day.
Today is Juneteenth.
There is a sadness to me that today wouldn’t have been so widely acknowledged without this year’s weighted racial crises. Disproportionate morbidity rates for Covid-19 among people of color, together with incendiary protests that have traveled worldwide after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, mark a painful reckoning for black Americans. We owe the June 19th commemoration of emancipation from slavery our solemn reflection. After all -- all of it -- we black Americans find rebirth in crisis. It’s in the music of the blues, it’s in the redemption of our renowned spirituality, it’s in the vigor of our cultural largesse. It’s in us. Today, we share it.
- Christina Lucas