Juneteenth--Go Celebrate
"...oppression ensnares the oppressor as well as the oppressed."
With caution, I want to write about Juneteenth. I say with caution, because I’m a white Mormon woman from Utah. What do I know about humanity’s, in particular our society’s oppression of slaves and our ignorant, offensive prejudices?
I grew up in an all white neighborhood, went to an all white elementary school, an all while junior high, and all white high school. Then, I went to BYU. At the time, there were a couple of athletes with different pigmentation1 than mine. Hardly an environment of understanding and celebrating our cultural differences.
I receive emails from NPR. Today, I received this article written By Michel Martin, Morning Edition and Up First host.
This statement of Martin’s went right to my heart:
”…it [Juneteenth] celebrates the beginning of true freedom because — as moral philosophers have long known — no one is free until everyone is because oppression ensnares the oppressor as well as the oppressed. Anyone who has ever been in a toxic relationship knows that.”
I understand oppression. I understand the dominate dynamics of abuse and toxicity. I don’t understand much of the black experience. However, I want to be better. I want to be aware. I want to be kind. I want to be loving and inclusive. Please forgive me for my upbringing and the ways I am offensive. I can and will learn.
Michel Martin’s writing and description is much better than I can write. Therefore, here is the article in it’s entirety:
June 19, 2024
Good morning. You're reading a special Juneteenth edition of the Up First newsletter. Our newsletter team will be back tomorrow with the news you need to start your day, plus a little wonder and joy.
Why Juneteenth is for all Americans
By Michel Martin, Morning Edition and Up First host
Confession: I had never heard of Juneteenth until I came to D.C., after college. A colleague and friend who was dating a guy from Texas told me about it. Even then, I thought it was a regional thing, like Mardi Gras — which is to say: not to be tampered with, watered down or interpreted by people not in the know, if you get my drift.
Amanda McCoy/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
You can see it. It commemorates the day federal troops arrived to enforce The Emancipation Proclamation in Texas some two years after it was issued. More broadly, though, it celebrates the end of chattel slavery. To my mind, it celebrates the beginning of true freedom because — as moral philosophers have long known — no one is free until everyone is because oppression ensnares the oppressor as well as the oppressed. Anyone who has ever been in a toxic relationship knows that.
That is one reason the magnificent Opal Lee, the Fort Worth native known as the grandmother of Juneteenth, worked so hard and so long to see Juneteenth become a federal holiday. A white mob burned down her family home in 1939. She became an educator and an activist and saw the day become a federal holiday last year. She told her local station KTVT, “It's not a Texas thing or a Black thing. It's an American thing."
Go celebrate.2
In informal speech and writing, black is often preferred and is rarely considered offensive.
https://grammarist.com/usage/african-american-black/