This Juneteenth as a 92-Percenter
Happy Juneteenth to all my Foundational Black Americans whose ancestors stood on the side of hope and resilience for the 246 years of human beings held in bondage to build a dream not meant for them. To my people, on my mother's side, who trace back to before 1764 when one of them was the co-founder of the City of St. Louis; to my husband's family who has been able to trace to 1820 to one of their ancestors they are able to name and place in a country that only wanted our labor but not our brilliance; to all these people whose African-ness was attempted to be erased and whose human-ness was challenged - I say thank you for surviving. This is decidedly an AFRICAN AMERICAN Holiday. It is not for all Black people, the same way the Haitians and Jamaicans and Caribbeans and Nigerians and Ghanaians like to remind Foundational Black Americans that their particular cultural holiday is not for FBAs to don our red-black-greeen attire and go celebrate in our Harlem-bought Ankara shirts. ...
