HonoringJUNETEENTH
As we reflect on what it means for us, a primarily white organization, to honor this day; we find ourselves delving deeper into not only the history of the excruciatingly slow roll out of the emancipation of slavery in this country, but also the present day iterations of Jim Crow and forced labor. Our economy relied on slave labor in order to grow and flourish. This is why following emancipation, new iterations of slavery were put in place in order to continue this mass exploitation of labor through systems like sharecropping and convict leasing.
Our thirteenth amendment states: "Neither slave nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” This convenient loophole paved the way for the disproportionate mass incarceration of black and brown people we see today. We have a whole “different” (yet not so different) system where housing/job discrimination and labor exploitation is perfectly legal for those labeled as felons. This can be seen through the loitering and vagrancy laws that criminalized black folks for simply existing without a home or a job, to the War on Drugs and subsequent policies designed to target, imprison and disenfranchise people and communities of color.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. writes, “For them (the freed people of Texas), Juneteenth was, from its earliest incarnations, as Hayes Turner and others have recorded, a past that was ‘usable’ as an occasion for gathering lost family members, measuring progress against freedom and inculcating rising generations with the values of self-improvement and racial uplift” (What is Juneteenth?). If we are to measure our current progress against freedom, we can’t ignore the fact that America has the highest incarceration rates in the world, and that black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly 5 times the rate of white Americans. With this data in mind, we must recognize that we still have so much more work to do in the fight towards freedom, equality and justice for ALL.
One thing we know for sure is that despite our overwhelm, there is always something that we can do to move us closer to a more just world. So, in addition to celebrating and honoring this day in ways that feel meaningful to you, we encourage you to check out (and consider donating to) one or more of these incredible organizations that are working towards addressing systemic injustices such as mass incarceration, police brutality, over policing, the school to prison pipeline, the detention of immigrants and asylum seekers, among many others.
Vera.org | Mission: To end the overcriminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty: https://www.vera.org/ending-mass-incarceration
Choose 180 | Mission: To transform oppressive systems that have caused harm and assist young people as they heal from hurt to wholeness: https://choose180.org/
The Seattle Clemency Project | Mission: To increase access to justice for reformed individuals serving sentences that no longer serve a purpose and to prevent deportations that fracture our communities: https://www.seattleclemencyproject.org/
La Resistencia | About: “La Resistencia is a grassroots organization led by undocumented immigrants and people of color that have been oppressed by the immigration enforcement system. We are based in Washington State working to end the detention of immigrants and stop deportations.”:https://www.google.com/url?q=https://laresistencianw.org/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1686940619867294&usg=AOvVaw05w7WCS6jijpFU3DxvaMtK
Additional Resources
Black Codes (loitering and vagrancy laws): https://www.history.com/.../black-codes-reconstruction...
Article “What is Juneteenth?” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: https://www.pbs.org/.../afric.../history/what-is-juneteenth/
Incarceration Rates by Country 2023: https://worldpopulationreview.com/.../incarceration-rates...
The Color of Justice on Racial Disparities in State Prisons: https://www.sentencingproject.org/.../the-color-of.../
A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/
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