AfroCarolina Correspondence #19
Juneteenth Reflections
This Juneteenth season (which it has now become), my thoughts have been occupied with the ritual of consumption in this country. How nothing is sacred or safe from the vampiric workings of racist capitalism. How racism doesn’t just distract us as Morrison said; it seeks to consume us- our clothes, our rhythm, our food, our resistance & our very being if we’re not careful.
Consumption culture has been put on full display this summer as corporations, the government, and white people alike make “Happy Juneteenth” posts without nary mention of reparations or the ongoing systemic racism Black people face everyday. There’s Juneteenth T-shirts, cocktails, and more- all available for our consumption sans any reflection on the lasting impact of 200+ years of chattel slavery.
“Juneteenth is a reminder that White Americans do not voluntarily concede power over Black people, they must be forced to relinquish it. Let us never forget.” - @queenie4rmnola on Twitter
With the recent debasement and cooptation of Juneteenth, I honestly don’t have it in me to celebrate. I’m angry and full of grief at what this holiday, this world has become. I instead turned to ceremony, activating my ancestors, water christened with sea salt & the djembe drum to make space for my despair.1 I closed my grief ritual with coffee ceremony & sweetness to thank and honor each one of my ancestors who endured enslavement.
My ancestors knew the drum, knew about herbs and a spiritual before they knew anything about being “American”. May we continue to know and embody life & community outside of American consumption. May we identify sacred protection & freedom in the periphery where we once thought ourselves to be invisibilized. May we know true freedom. May we know true liberation. From Galveston, to Durham, to Haiti, to Congo, to Sudan. We will be free.
This grief ceremony is a resource curated by Ekua that was shared with me through Mattice Haynes.
Beautifully spoken, Kin.
I’ve been sitting with these shared sentiments the past few days. & How everything that was once sacred and sanctified to us (most times birthed out of survival), has now become secular and squandered.
Witnessing my white manager in a Teams meeting ask my all-white colleagues “what are your Juneteenth plans!?” made my stomach sink. As if it was Friday and we were yet entering another weekend. And not one plan involved the bare minimum of acknowledging the collective suffering of Black folks in this country and/or globally. There were plans for swimming, going out to eat, or spending time with family at the beach - all of life’s most simple luxuries that historically WE as a people have faced opposition.
As we both move forward in processing the “ick” of it all, my petition is that we are uplifted in the Holy work that we offer back to our Folks and that we may continue to keep all that is sacred, sacred.
"Sacred protection and freedom in the periphery..." This brings to mind the spirit of maroons. So powerful, timely, orienting, and appropriate. Thank you for sharing these reflections.