Juneteenth: Where we are today
I need to be completely honest with this… I am embarrassed
to say I have never heard of Juneteenth until early this morning when I jumped
on MSN.COM and saw an old drawing depicting slavery.
“Juneteenth is the oldest known
celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to
1865, it was on June 19ththat the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with
news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.” (http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm)
I love history, and
feel I am well read and versed on it. But even with my enthusiasm in history
and culture I haven’t heard of this day. So why in 2015 is Juneteenth being
brought to light all over the web? With all of the news recently about race, it
begs the question; is this still a topic in America that needs to be discussed
on a national level?
Being that I am bi-racial, I have been speaking about race
before I even knew what the social matters where. It was just always a simple question
of “hey what are you?”… And me
answering, not putting any thought behind it. I am what I am. We are who we
are. However, I feel I am up to date with current events, and have a unique
outlook on race as I truly see situations from both sides. So let’s take a brief
look through 2015’s current events of racial controversy…
Michael Brown :
Media: Teenager killed by polices
after a convent store robbery.
Black unarmed teen shot down by white cop.
Eric Garner :
Media: Man
resists arrest forced to the ground.
White police tackle and choke a man to
death.
Freddie Gray:
Media: Known drug criminal arrested and
thrown in back of police car.
A black man physically harmed to the point of death during arrest.
Demetrius Blackwell:
Media: Crazed man shoots in retaliation.
Black man shoots two NYC officers in retaliation for black victims.
Rachel Dolezal:
Media: I am transracial.
White women turns black to “identity” with the black community.
Dylann Roof:
Media: White serial killer gunned
9 down black church goers.
Crazy serial killer.
I am sure seeing these bring different emotions to different
people. EVERYONE has their own opinion based off of life experiences and their culture.
But if you peel the media’s spin off of these particular instances, I don’t feel
that it becomes a race thing. It becomes a “don’t be an asshole” thing. If you
strip off the title of what happened it was simply people acting like irresponsibly,
cruelly, and insanely. Discrimination
will be around as long as there are people of different races and
nationalities, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t come a very long way, since the
times of slavery, in respecting and appreciating each other.
Slavery is and has been around since the beginning of time
as well as the social class systems. How do I know this, we still see it every
day with every other species on earth. How could we think, at our most animalistic
nature, we are any different? Power equals survival, and that is all we are all
trying to do. The early people of America wanted power. We wanted to be better
than the Monarch rueld island that we had come from. But in treating people savagely
to be better, people realized it was not the right thing to do. America was able to overcome and think outside
of the historical box. We were able to overcome this horrible treatment of people
and become a prosperous nation like none other has been able to do.
So does the question of race need to be addressed in 2015? I
personally feel that no conversation should be off the table, BUT I do feel
that there more ways to view all situations, and as Americans were able to look
outside of box with the end of slavery, we should do that same today.
~ Megan Nikole
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