Snapshot: It’s June 2020, we are in the midst of a pandemic, and the U.S. is still reckoning with that reality. Some of us are focused on summer vacations while other businesses are just focused on going back to work. Our capitalist engine won’t stop. The #BlackLivesMatter Movement is a continual uprising. We are still facing police brutality, Black suicides, racialized terrorism... And then we come to a Black holiday, Juneteenth (learn more in The New York Times and The Atlantic) and White people are organizing a beloved, sacred Black holiday when most Black folks I know are just exhausted.
As a Black woman, I just cannot shake this portrait. This holiday is very different for Black people, White people, and other people of color. Along these lines, a White colleague of mine reached out this morning to acknowledge Juneteenth, saying it felt strange to say, “Happy Juneteenth.” But just the acknowledgment was important. I thanked him and let him know that I worry this holiday will go corporate rather than be respected for what it is… a day to mark liberation. What does freedom and liberation look like for Black people? What can you do to create that today and this weekend and beyond?
"We're in denial of the African holocaust. Most times, people don't want to talk about it. One is often restless or termed a racist just for having compassion for the African experience, for speaking truth to the trans-Atlantic and Arab slave trades, for speaking truth to the significant omission of our history. We don't want to sit down and listen to these things, or to discuss them. But we have to."
~ Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X
For Black people… Happy Juneteenth! We know what we need to uphold our LIBERATION. Do you well and embrace and appreciate each one of us for our gifts and talents in this struggle. Find a moment to restore, rejuvenate, and revel in our culture. No one gives us our freedom or allows us freedom. We take it and use it in all of the ways we want and need to in honor of the struggles behind us, the ones we are in, and the ones ahead of us!
Need a few ideas?
BREATHE
REST
Call your family
Spend time with your kids and elders with joyful story and meaningful gains.
BREATHE
REST
Celebrate the way you have always celebrated and in new ways that you have not.
Visit your neighbor with a call or a token that says you SEE them!
BREATHE
REST
Do a little journaling and self-check on where internalized racism has “taken hold in our bloodstream.” Let’s work to detoxicate!
Find a spot outside and connect with the earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars! Our ancestors are with us in this moment!
BREATHE
REST
Give yourself a gift of learning our history, reading a poem, or hearing a song!
Be Joyful
BREATHE
REST
A great reading from one of my soul guides: Audre Lorde on the Vulnerability of Visibility and Our Responsibility, to Ourselves and Others, to Break Our Silences.
How would I want a White person to hold my liberation on Juneteenth from trauma, worry, stress, and exhaustion as a Black woman, wife, sister, and mother? I would like every White person to find a beloved Black person and do some repair or restore a harm. A small or maybe even a great act of kindness, generosity, and care that only causes discomfort to the White person because it goes beyond what they have been moved to do before. And what would be the most beautiful would be the silence that accompanies said act. Remember White folks, on a personal level, you are asked to give up comfort (in forms like reassurance) for another Black person’s safety.
How would I want a White person/White-led institution to hold our liberation on Juneteenth from trauma, worry, stress, and exhaustion as a Black community caused by White people? First, remember that we are a jubilant, resilient, and wise people. Also, I keep counting the bodies organizing and standing at rallies and protests, and I keep imagining... What if each White person did one or two small, but courageous, acts to disrupt racism on the personal, relational, cultural, and systemic level? Just as a requirement to even attend?
Here’s my list. Have you considered (alongside the protest and rally, coupling each action with)...
Imagining a budget for your police department informed by the gaps they see in the service they can provide for the community?
Designing a budget informed by Black folks adversely impacted by criminalization of poverty, the school-to-prison pipeline, criminalization of marijuana use for Black folks, dangerousness holds, etc.?
Writing letters to your delegates about the inequities that you see and how they can amplify those issues and work on policies?
Learning and sharing about racial disparities in housing, health, and education?
Asking your organization to do an inclusion and diversity audit? And asking why they haven’t and insisting on a process for the next budget season to address it (or deepen work that may have already been started).
Educating your children about Juneteenth?
Thinking about a microinequity you witnessed or a microaggression you committed to a Black person and sending a text, writing a letter, giving a call, or making an invitation to that person for tea? Apologize and ask that person how they are doing.
Asking a beloved what they need and telling them all of the wonderful things/ways they have contributed to your life? Not to validate them, but to humanize you.
Asking tough questions at budget meetings.
Demanding a diverse supervisor, employee, and board.
Joining a campaign for a candidate who stands for Black Lives, helping to get out the vote, or helping to make sure people answer the census.
Thinking about how you can Acknowledge, Align, Amplify, Ask, Activate alongside our beloved Black community! Intentionally examine the ways you appropriate work and/or ideas and extract knowledge.
Don't wait for a Black person (or colleague or loved one) to rescue you from your Whiteness! Do it yourself! Educate yourself. Call yourself “in” and into the work! Hold yourself accountable. A Juneteenth holiday outside of Black culture should be a Justice Holiday just as MLK’s birthday is recognized as a Day of Service. This should be a Day of Action for non-Black folx (i.e. Disrupting and Dismantling White Supremacy so that true liberation is held!)
“We’re all feeling combinations of grief and anger, of powerlessness and resolve. And under it all, a deep, deep sadness. Maybe you are feeling this too?”
~ Teaching Tolerance staff (Read more)
How would I like us all to celebrate Juneteenth? Throughout your day:
Buy from a Black business.
Read a Black author.
Meditate with a Black leader’s wisdom. Choose a poem, quote, meditation, etc.
Teach your children about a Black artist, scholar, and scientist.
Explain race to someone that “doesn't see race” (i.e. your child, colleague, auntie or pappy?)
Give something up, give something meaningful back.
Pay it forward...
Do it all quietly with intention, attention, and care. Invite your family and friends to join you in doing so.
Meditate for 8 min 46 seconds daily.
AND, if any of these don’t fly, keep at it. We have been fighting for our liberation. These things should become a practice! Change has happened so quickly! How will you support Freedom today?
“You introduced me to Juneteenth last year at our Senior training. You taught me about Juneteenth. I will always think of you on June 19 every year for the rest of my life.”
~ a coaching client on June 19, 2020
In closing, thank you for reading and pausing, and I invite you to donate to my fundraiser for the Equal Justice Initiative.
ACTIONS AND RESOURCES:
More places to give on Juneteenth!
Read:
Moving as an Anti-Racist: Acknowledge, Align, Amplify, Ask, Activate
Watch BRIDGE’s New Pathways Talks featuring Black voices:
Tracy Gray on “Growing Intergenerational Wealth for Women and Communities of Color”
Andre Henry on “Understanding How White Supremacy Shows up in Systems, Policies, and Practices"
Shameeka Mattis-Pinard on “Staying Mentally Strong in Social Justice Work”
Malia Lazu on “Fighting for Black and Brown Business Owners and Caring for our Entire Communities”
Jennifer Williams on “Building an Equitable Future: Weaving HR and E&I During and Post COVID-19”
JV Hampton VanSant on “Finding Your Voice, Living Your Truth, and Advocating with Passion”
Stephanie Wright on “Why Knowing Our True History Emboldens Our Work in the Future”
Listen to BRIDGE’s New Pathways Labs:
“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”
~ Malcolm X (Speech, Prospects for Freedom)
Another great resource:
“Right now, one of the most powerful steps people can take is investing in active allyship, making the ongoing commitment to use one’s privilege to take actions that create more equitable and inclusive workplaces. In this moment, it means that others—particularly white people—need to show up for their Black colleagues by listening, learning, and amplifying Black voices.”
~ Kiva Wilson and Dr. Evelyn Carter,
from “How companies and individuals can use Juneteenth to practice active allyship”
© 2020 Gwendolyn VanSant