Juneteenth – Moving from awareness to action

Hope for change

My hope, today and throughout the year, is for sustainable positive change. We will only get there when enough people loudly and consistently say enough is enough. When enough people acknowledge the very real issues facing Black Americans and commit to action.?

We’re not there yet, not even close. Racism is real. Discrimination is real. Wage inequality is real. As is inequality in educational attainment and homeownership.?

But it doesn’t get any more real than this. Less than a month from now, Philando Castille should be celebrating his 40th birthday. Philando was killed nearly 7 years ago by police at a routine traffic stop outside St. Paul, Minnesota. His girlfriend and 4-year-old daughter were in the back seat.?

Less than 4 years after Castille’s death, George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. His crime – allegedly buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. His punishment, death by a knee to the throat while his hands were cuffed behind him, and he was lying face down on the pavement. Floyd should be turning 50 in October of this year.

Did we learn anything from these tragedies? Did we achieve any lasting change? Clearly there is more work to be done. Since Floyd, more than 500 Black Americans have been killed by police,[1] including 70 who were unarmed, in 25 different states.[2]?

The way things should be

The United States Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights should provide a place where all parents can be confident that their kids have a chance for a better tomorrow.?These ideals paint a picture of a land of freedom and opportunity. A place of fairness, justice and equality; a place that is safe and secure. A country where the government’s primary role is to protect the rights of its citizens.?All of its citizens. Yet today, I don’t find it to be an especially safe, fair or equitable place for my black son to grow up.?

Recent Pew Research[3] found:

·????????79 percent of black adults had personally experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly because of race or ethnicity.

·????????A majority characterized racism (63%), police brutality (60%), and economic inequality (54%) as extremely big problems for Black people living in this country.

·????????Nearly half (46%) characterized efforts to limit voting as an extremely big problem for Black people.??

·????????Nearly two-thirds (65%) said the increased focus on issues of racial inequality had not led to changes that would improve the lives of Black people.

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Finding something to celebrate

Today is Juneteenth and like last year, I am disheartened. Progress toward our ideals, toward a more equitable and inclusive society, remains slow. The racial wealth gap is getting worse.[4] And too many “leaders” are now embracing an anti-woke ideology to dismiss racial and other social issues that absolutely need to be addressed.

It doesn’t put me in the mood to celebrate. But I will. I’ll talk about and celebrate the end of slavery in the US, the end of a horrible institution and a shameful time in American history. I’ll celebrate Juneteenth to honor the past and the people, dating back to 1866, who found hope in the possibility of new beginnings.

Owning the past, committing to a more purposeful future

To get to a better future, we need to own this country’s past and its repercussions. Want to learn more??I recommend reading The Black Tax by Shawn D. Rochester. After 250 years of slavery, our second act was 100 years of systematic exclusion for Black Americans.?When you hold people back 350 years, they will clearly be disadvantaged.?

Today, we still have exclusion in the way we speak, the way we educate, the way we legislate, and the way businesses operate. We can be better than this. We need to get past the shame and do a much better job addressing today’s realities.?

On Juneteenth, let’s commit to being more purposeful about building a future of hopefulness through inclusion. Let’s commit to creating a country where each of us has a genuine opportunity to pursue and achieve our dreams. Where each of us feels safe and secure. Where fairness and justice and equality prevail.?Isn’t that a United States we can all be proud of?

[1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unarmed_African_Americans_killed_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States

[3] https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2022/08/30/black-americans-are-pessimistic-about-their-position-in-u-s-society/

[4] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/06/14/1104660659/why-the-racial-wealth-gap-is-so-hard-to-close