To honor Juneteenth, Dear Good People is coming to you early this month!
Dear Good People,
You know that saying, right ... "it's complicated." We've all had relationships like this, right?
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I feel that way about my relationship with my country. In fact, it's so complicated, I wrote a whole book on it. A MORE JUST FUTURE centers on my (and perhaps your) emotional relationship with our country's complicated past ... and how to deal with those emotions.
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I say all this because Juneteenth is on Monday and you may find yourself reflecting on the day. Many of us grapple with what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls "patriotism a la carte."
That's why this month's issue of Dear Good People is coming to you early. It's a greatest hits issue, bringing back the June 2021 Dear Good People issue on Juneteenth, which elicited a very positive and reflective response from readers.
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And, of course, if you love this newsletter or my first book (thank you for all the amazing notes you send in!), I know you will also appreciate A MORE JUST FUTURE.
Writing it helped me a great deal on this emotional journey and I am confident it will do the same for you.
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If you have not had the chance to check it out, I hope find it to be the inspiring read you did not know you were looking for.
Now, on to the Juneteenth issue!
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Dear Good People,
There are all kinds of holidays out there. Some are obscure. For example, this summer you can make breakfast on Sidewalk Egg Frying Day, make a funny face on Stick Out Your Tongue Day, and take your time on Be Late for Something Day. Other holidays are mostly Hallmark holidays, created to sell cards more than to capture sentiment or heritage. Some are blatantly commercial (I somehow missed National Doughnut Day earlier this month, which was a bummer because a free donut is completely calorie-free, right?).
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And, of course, there are fake tv holidays like Seinfeld’s Festivus for the rest of us, created by George Costanza’s father and featuring the traditional Airing of Grievances.
With so many obscure, commercial, or fake holidays, it is hard to know when and how to truly pause and commemorate a holiday of collective import. Which is why I want to talk about our newest federal holiday, Juneteenth (June 19). Here is the who, what, where, when, why, and most importantly, how (not to celebrate) you need to know.
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Not an Obscure, New, or Fake Holiday
If you are new to learning about Juneteenth, you might be tempted to think it is a new, obscure, Hallmark, or fake holiday. It is none of these things. While millions had never heard of the holiday until recently, millions of Americans have long celebrated this holiday with parades, fireworks, and more. If you honor July 4, you will want to know about June 19.
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The key fact is that July 4, 1776, symbolizes the day when white Americans became free. Only white Americans; non-white Americans did not. Many of us, myself included, forget this on Independence Day. In fact, on that very day of independence, we were continuing to kidnap, traffick, and enslave other human beings, often in our homes. I’m cringing as I type that sentence and maybe you are, as well, as you read it.
It forces me to ask: What, exactly, are we celebrating on July 4?
Massive Asterisk
It wasn’t until almost 100 years later that the Emancipation Proclamation began to eliminate slavery, and more than two years after that when change was actually communicated to all who were enslaved. For that reason, Independence Day has always been a poorly and ironically named holiday.
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Abolitionist (and formerly enslaved American) Frederick Douglass made this point on Independence Day, 1852: “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is constant victim.”
That is a pretty massive asterisk on a day we equate with liberty and freedom. Independence Day might be more accurately thought of as Independence Day*, in which the asterisk signals a “certain terms and conditions may apply” caveat to the celebration of independence.
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What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth started in Texas in 1865 when 250,000 enslaved people were liberated (note the two year delay - the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863). Historians debate which is the right date to commemorate the end of slavery; in fact, some African-Americans worship in Watch Night church services on New Year’s Eve.
Unpacking all of the historical details is complicated; it’s a bit of a long story. But culturally speaking, June 19 has taken on the symbolic meaning of the day when the bromide "the land of the free" became less of a false narrative.
Today, Juneteenth is a day of American patriotism, celebrated in a variety of ways, including barbecues and baseball games, parades and parties, rodeos and reunions, much like the Fourth of July.
This is why some refer to Juneteenth as the Black Fourth of July or America’s second Independence Day. Still, while Juneteenth is not obscure, you may have only recently learned of it.
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You are not the only one
I did not know about Juneteenth until a few years ago and I was curious if I was the only one who did not know about it. So, in May 2018, I did a nonscientific facebook poll of friends and acquaintances across the country, and learned that the answer was both yes and no. I found that people in my network knew about Juneteenth ...
- If they were of any race and had lived in Texas,
- If they were African-American living anywhere in the United States, or
- If they caught the Juneteenth episodes of the hit TV shows Black-ish in 2017 or Atlanta in 2018.
Some people told me they have attended annual Juneteenth celebrations since childhood. Others told me that they look forward to seeing joyous photos and jubilant videos from Juneteenth celebrations throughout the United States, even if they did not attend them in person.
Many reported that social media has made the day and its celebrations more visible.
In 2018, I ended up writing a Forbes piece about what I learned. That column went micro-viral.
We are Learning
Even before this week (note: this refers to this week in June 2021), I had started to feel like I was hearing about Juneteenth everywhere. Again, I wondered if I was just me, imagining this growing awareness.
So, I looked at Google searches of “Juneteenth” as of June 16, 2021. There is an increase in searches that begins in 2018, which I hypothesize was caused by Apple's first inclusion of the holiday in the built-in iPhone calendar. Then, there is an even bigger spike in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May and the backlash to Donald Trump’s scheduling of his first pandemic campaign rally in June.
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By 2020, Juneteenth was officially recognized or observed in most states. Yesterday (note: refers to June 2021), it was named a Federal holiday. It is a known and meaningful day to many Americans, which brings up the question of why it has not long been a known and meaningful day to all Americans.
Patriotism à la Carte
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The gap in knowledge and celebration strikes me as symbolic of the racial divide in the United States. Historiographer James Loewen—who studies how we study history—spent two years studying American history textbooks. He found that they tend to present slavery as if it was an external event, like a natural disaster. “Somehow we ended up with four million slaves in America but no owners,” he writes in Lies My Teacher Told Me.
Bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates writes of “patriotism à la carte” in which we celebrate the veteran and forget the slave owner. Writer Vann R. Newkirk II speaks of the “dizzying contradiction” that is America and the “belated liberation” Juneteenth celebrates. He says, “Juneteenth is the purest distillation of the evils that still plague America, and a celebration of the good people who fought those evils. It is tragedy and comedy, hope and setbacks.”
Juneteenth may be the very day which captures the essence of our nation.
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An Essential American Holiday
If we are going to symbolize our independence with a holiday, it is time to grapple with the uncomfortable idea that Juneteenth might be America’s real Independence Day - or at least one of two days. Some Americans may find this statement divisive or unpatriotic. I wonder, however, if the truly divisive and unpatriotic act is to only celebrate Independence Day on July 4, as if there was no asterisk.
Don’t let this holiday slide by without at least reflecting for a moment on the asterisk. Let’s count our blessings, learn our history, teach our children, gear up our grill, salute our flag, savor our democracy, and/or re-commit to liberty, justice, and freedom for all. And let’s not commit any of these five mistakes on Juneteenth.
What Not To Do
1. Confuse symbols with change: Symbols matter. That said, this is only a symbol. It does not make lynching a hate crime, guarantee voting rights, curtail police brutality, remove whitewashed curricula from classrooms, change the imagery of black people in media, debias implicit biases, remove structural racism in housing / healthcare / education / courts, make people aware of microaggressions, end mass incarceration, or begin the process of reparations. It is only a symbol.
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2. Forget what the day represents: I confess that I sometimes lose sight that Labor Day represents a victory for exploited workers and Memorial Day is a remembrance of lives lost. I noticed this more when I became a parent of curious children and I have tried to do better. Let's keep the meaning of Juneteenth front and center, in our minds and with the people in our lives.
3. Commercialize the day: We have a knack for turning holidays into shopping days. If you are thinking more about snagging a sale than stopping a stereotype, something is off. If your company is doing more to maximize revenue on Juneteenth than to minimize racism, something is off.
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4. Make it a drinking holiday: Visit any bar on May 5 and you will find people with fake sombreros drinking tequila and perpetuating stereotypes who have no idea what Cinqo de Mayo means. Cultural appropriation is not a good look on May 5, June 19, or any other days of the year.
5. Ask black people to educate (or reward) you: Few of us know as much as we should about American history, beyond the whitewashed narratives we were taught as children, or about how the aftermath of slavery is still very present today. Juneteenth (and every day) is a perfect day to pause and read The 1619 Project and The Case for Reparations, watch this episode of Black-ish, or select something from this list. Juneteenth (and every day) is not the perfect day to ask black people to do this work for you. In a similar vein, no need to tell the black people you know that you are doing this work; watch out for that natural tendency we all have for cookie-seeking.
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More to come
I know I have been pretty tight-lipped about my next book project. Here's the skinny, which I am sharing in writing for the first time, with newsletter readers only (author's note - wow! weird to look back on this now that A MORE JUST FUTURE is out in the world!): Since, 2019, I have been (slowly) writing the psychologist's guide to unlearning whitewashed history. I'm trying to finish it this year. In the meantime, Chapter 3 in my first book, The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias, touches on the topics of this month's newsletter, if you want to explore more. Please send good writing vibes!
And, thanks for subscribing to Dear Good People -- a bite-sized, evidence-based, action-oriented newsletter on how to be the inclusive person you mean to be. Feel free to share with others or drop me a note using the links at the bottom. And if someone forwarded this to you, sign up below to get your own free, monthly subscription. Happy Juneteenth, everyone.
Thanks for growing with me,
 
This month's artwork credits from top: Katie Sutton (logo), Cronin Photography(Dolly with books), Moronic Tuesday, Personal Canva images, Elizabeth Favara (A More Just Future Book) Jeana Marinelli (books), Anna Sullivan via unsplash (doughnuts); Seinfeld, NBC (Festivus); Ray Hennessy via unsplash (fireworks); iStirfry, Marcus via unsplash (flag); Rom Matibag via unsplash (BLM); Tippman98x via Shutterstock (woman); Google, Inc., Evelyn Parker (graph); James W. Loewen, Atria Books (Lies My Teacher Told Me), ABC (Black-ish), The Atlantic Monthly (The Case for Reparations), @jelani9 (tweet), New York Times (1619 Project), Brett Topel (Dolly by signature)
For this issue, I adapted a piece I published on Forbes.com titled “What’s Juneteenth?” on June 19, 2018.
I thank Evelyn Parker for such thoughtful text and visual editing. I thank Katie Sutton for technical and promotional expertise. And I thank Anna McMullen for bringing this piece back to life.
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