Galveston, where the holiday Juneteenth originated, sits on an island an hour south of Houston, in a state so big and American that it serves as an anchor on the map of the United States. Let the Lone Star state tell it, Texas is American as it gets—with its barbecue, cheaper gas, open roads, western terrain, cattle ranches and its racism—no one has ever America’d so damn hard. And what is more American than freedom, amirite, and what is more anti-freedom than slavery?!
On the surface, the Juneteenth flag and the United States flag have a lot in common; they are both symbols of defeating oppression and tyranny, and both are red, white and blue. Even so, none of the colors in the flag is the color that truly sets them apart. One represents freedom from the oppressive rule of the British aristocracy; the other represents freedom from the American aristocracy born of those who defeated the British less than 100 years earlier. It would seem that all the sons of America would openly celebrate freedom for all Americans, even the ones who only get to claim their American heritage via hyphenation—word to Toni Morrison—but alas, that is not the case. In fact, Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday in 2021, has been met with extreme backlash from some of the forefathers’ proudest boys.
America, not short on either, recharges its patriotism and nationalism every Fourth of July.
The holiday is a reminder of the looting, protesting and demolishing of institutions that sought to overpower America’s founding deadbeat forefathers just to create more. Dressing up as another racial group to commit crime throw tea into a harbor was an act of defiance that is celebrated and venerated in history books. Protesting against British soldiers being quartered in your home is American; protesting against police brutality is not. Black people are condemned for using the same tactics to push back against the tyranny derived from the same type of powdered wigs Thomas Jefferson spent all night cursing out in his burn book after he spent the night with Sally Hemings.
No matter the plight, Black people’s fight for justice is always viewed as a criminal act. The reason for this is that white Americans do not consider Black Americans just as American, or American at all, for that matter.
Even in their self-proclaimed innocuousness, a white person will innocently ask a Black person where they come from, as if their Black ancestors haven’t lived in the United States just as long, if not longer, than the white person’s, who is asking. (The last slave ship to import enslaved Africans was the Clotilda, even though the practice was made effectively illegal in 1808; Ellis Island opened in 1892. More than one-third of the population is considered to have at least one relative who passed through Ellis Island to receive their citizenship.) The celebration of freedom for Black people is still considered beneath the American spirit for alt-White America.
At the crust of it, many white people who hate Juneteenth, a national holiday that gives many people a paid day off, hate it because they believe Black people should still be enslaved. This is where the reader winces in offense or nods in agreement, because what a thing to say: notice how many of the same people who scoff at Juneteenth are unwavering fans of the confederacy. While using rhetoric that condemns “division,” these same people will gladly wave a flag that represents treason and a historic defeat. The Antebellum era, Latin for ‘before the war,’ is still viewed as idyllically nostalgic to many a white Southern Belle. There is still an entire subculture of reverence and cosplay for the time period; what is so damn sexy about slavery and no A/C? Racist white Americans quench their bloodthirst on the idea that Black people are naturally beneath them and should remain subservient to them. In a country tattooed in red ink by a history of white civilians policing uppity negroes, Juneteenth is a nationalized and codified middle finger to slavery and Black subjugation.
Even still, during conversations about the Civil War, there is always a racist dingbat in the comment section telling Black people that white people are responsible for ending slavery, as if they weren’t responsible for the enslavement, and as if Black lives were not lost in those same battlefields. Cities all over the country have a celebration for different heritages and independence that did not even occur on American soil and no one bats an eye, but the moment Black Americans mobilize to celebrate immobilization, it’s a problem.
All of a sudden, men drowning in American flag regalia, any day of the week but especially on July 4, find it hard to understand what the celebration of freedom looks like if the filter on the red, white and blue is too dark.
