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. So, today, as a 92% who understood what was at stake and was ten toes down for this land where we made it home, we are celebrating us.

For the 160 years after Juneteenth in Galveston, Texas that Foundational Black Americans have fought for liberation that every other ethnic group was able to benefit from, we are celebrating our resilience. We stood the test of time and our deep spiritual connection is something the haters can't seem to understand.

In the middle of all that is happening in this country from the immigrant round ups by the KKK/J6/ProudBoys/WannabeMilitias, we are still the culture, we are still the reason, we are still the ones all the rest want to emulate and the haters really hate because they can't be like us. The can't sing like us, can't dance like us, can't make something of nothing like us and as their recent elimination of DEI has proven, they can't govern, teach, manage, or learn like us. They are bumbling and mediocre at best, but in spite of all that, we are still here and still holding onto joy.

In spite of what was done to us, we remain connected to our deep spirituality, our understanding of ourselves, and our sense of purpose. We know that there is a beyond this realm and that even with that knowledge, that the One who breathed this into existence, put it in our hands to enjoy. It is good and we still see the good in it.

That is why we are not in despair. 

That is why we are not afraid.

That is why we are not panicked.

We know the end.

And in the end, hate will not win, it hasn't for over 400 years of trying.

In the end, we win.

So on today, the day that my Soror, Dr. Opal Lee, walked to make this a holiday, I plan to enjoy myself. 

What are you doing?

©2025 by Antona B. Smith, President & CEO of Tayé Foster Bradshaw Group LLC. - enjoying a maple vanilla latte in a mug from the National African American Museum of History and Culture. Unapologetically Foundational Black American woman in the second third of life enjoying it all - anyway.