Recognizing Juneteenth as a National Holiday is not a solution to ending racism. It's a bandaid, a temporary fix to a wound at which we have given only a cursory triage.
Gatekeeping humanity by only granting the privilege of it being recognized, is wrong. There lies the audacity of racism: to believe freedom can be taken and given at one's will and without recourse.
The Historical Context
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865—the day Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, announcing that the Civil War had ended and enslaved people were now free. This was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Two and a half years during which people who were legally free continued to be held in bondage because those in power chose not to tell them.
This delay was not an accident. It was a choice. A choice to extract as much labor as possible from people who had every right to their freedom. A choice that reveals the gap between what America says it values and what it actually does.
Beyond Symbolism
Establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday is an acknowledgement of slavery, which as an institution, has morphed appearances and changed tactics often in order to remain viable in today's society. Juneteenth recognizes the subjugation of people based on race, but it does not address the ongoing systems that continue that subjugation.
We cannot celebrate freedom while people are incarcerated at disproportionate rates. We cannot celebrate freedom while voter suppression laws target Black communities. We cannot celebrate freedom while the wealth gap continues to widen. We cannot celebrate freedom while Black bodies are killed with impunity.
True acknowledgement requires action. It requires dismantling the systems that perpetuate inequality. It requires reparations—not as charity, but as debt owed. It requires education that tells the truth about our history. It requires a fundamental reckoning with slavery's ongoing legacy.
The Work Continues
A holiday is a beginning, not an end. It's a marker that says 'this matters.' But the spirit of Juneteenth—the spirit of liberation, of recognition, of the long fight for freedom—demands more than a day off work. It demands sustained commitment to justice.
How will you honor that spirit? Not just on June 19th, but every day? What systems will you challenge? What labor will you do? What sacrifices will you make? The holiday asks us to remember. The spirit asks us to act.
Because the work of liberation is not complete. And until it is—until every person can live freely, fully, and with dignity—Juneteenth remains a reminder of how far we still have to go.