A Juneteenth Reflection
Whatever it is we are, we are more alike than not. The science of DNA has at least granted us that boon — human variation in DNA is 0.5% on average and it is not racialized. I know that for some the obviousness of differences in skin color and the fact that those traits are heritable, makes this statement read like “lies, damn lies, and statistics.” But it isn’t, it is more like distinguishing between paint color and construction technique — what color you’re painted may be heritable, but it simply isn’t correlated with how you’re built, or with differences in how you’re built compared to others. Sorry if you thought otherwise, it is always uncomfortable when beliefs come up false. But the work of growing up and waking up and cleaning up, the work of becoming the generation of elders that our children deserve — that work demands something of us. It demands that we leave those old beliefs, the ones that no longer serve us or serve life, we leave those behind.
So, here on Juneteenth there are a few more old beliefs lingering about that deserve, that have earned their fate, to be left behind. Another one is this: The white people who enslaved black people — they won, they got rich. The white people, and we their heirs, who enslaved blacks sold our own souls, abandoned our own humanity, and created a web of lies to hide this truth from ourselves. What we got in return was an insatiable greed for power and money fed by an insecurity so deep and bottomless that it must be the place in ourselves where that forfeited soul is supposed to live. But look at us, the money and the power we were promised — they are hollow and corrupt, they are a cancer that eats at our hearts and threatens to destroy life as we know it. And we call it civilization and we lie to ourselves every day and call it good. It isn’t good. Yachts and multiple houses and jet-setting and all the rest — it isn’t a good life, it is a sickness masquerading as health. It is true prosperity’s near-enemy: gluttony.
And for those who were enslaved and who are the descendants of those who were enslaved, your trauma is different, it is the trauma of being on the receiving end of genocide. The soul-less who bought your enslavement with our own humanity then, predictably, tried to strip you of yours. We stole you from your homes and your culture, we tried to steal your humanity by telling you stories of your inferiority. But, for the most part, this did not work. You kept your souls and created a soulful culture to replace the one that was stolen from you. And you still carry the trauma, the trauma of displacement, the trauma of theft, the haunting suspicion that you might be as soulless as those who enslaved you — because we worked very hard to convince you of that lie.
We are all damaged — badly. This is not a false-equivocation or an exercise in comparative suffering. This is an elucidation of the trap, how it functions — precursor to finding a way out. We can’t heal in isolation from each other. We’ve become accustomed to the lie that comfort is a good. Well, in my experience most comfort is anesthetic applied so we can go on pretending everything is alright. A balm to keep us from the grieving required to become, once again, one people. Now look, some will say, we weren’t one people! My reply, “What do you think common ancestor means?”
May this Freedom Day, this Juneteenth, bring you freedom from at least one of the illusions that still holds you in bondage. I look forward to the day when we are all truly free together and I commit, every day, to put each and every foot onto the next step of the path that leads there — and I invite you to join me.
