The Spectacle of Juneteenth
Recently, the legislature voted to make Juneteenth holiday that would be recognized on the federal level. In the City of Austin, Juneteenth will also be recognized as a citywide holiday, for which everyone has off and will get paid. So many people expect that Black people be so grateful for this slight concession to Blackness in the United States. I have two questions. First and foremost, did anybody asked for this at this time as a priority? Second: why are Black people expected to be so grateful for having a day off when we fail to receive a day off from discrimination? The truth is that because the dominant narrative lacks complete self awareness, Black people generally have to exercise constant hypervigilance; this is just another example of how Black people are expected to be grateful for the small crumbs of decency that we are allowed. In short, the dominant narrative has said, “In honor of Black people being exploited, we gave ourselves a day off.”
For over 150 years, Black people have tried to emulate what so many other people take for granted. During what began as Emancipation Day celebrations in the State of Texas, we were given meat to roast and barbecue, and we were “given” Emancipation Day to rest. Regardless, we were slaughtered in the press and we had constant violence to deal with, because that is how Texas views us: Black people are trash who deserve to be enslaved and exploited. Every single time that people want to dance around saying, “Aren’t you proud of Juneteenth?” we are confused. That was supposed to be a day we celebrated having freedom, not a day that we were required to put on a spectacle to thank the people who in voluntarily enslaved us for over 100 years before that date.
There is no recognition of what we actually want and we are constantly denigrated if we truly need anything. So many politicians were trying to persuade us to vote for them last year because of college loan forgiveness, the legalization of marijuana, and police defunding — things that actually affect us on a regular basis. We have been the most affected by the pandemic, homelessness, and the economic recession, but none of that actually matters enough. People seem to think that we will take what we get and be grateful — not grateful, but demonstrably grateful, so that they feel placated. “We’re not going to do we said we’d do, but here’s some shit you n****ers like.” This is disgusting, and truly not a gift.
One of the most disturbing things about making Juneteenth a holiday at this point in time is that this becomes about posturing to make abusive monsters look good, instead of acknowledging any wrongdoing. Is anybody going to acknowledge that the Black community has suffered during this climate crisis? No, they want recognition that they generously freed us after enslaving us. Is anybody going to acknowledge that Black people are in debt and the cost of housing is rising because of people feel entitled to infinite growth? No, they want us to put on parades and parties, and market to us for consumption. There is no actual recognition that the premise of Juneteenth was supposed to be the end of being exploited, nor is there understanding that we needed to be relieved of that exploitation. Instead, it now stands for making people who lack self-awareness look good. The only thing that Juneteenth is ultimately going to mean to the majority of the country is that they can extract more resources from Black people through marketing and exploitation.
This holiday now lacks recognition of Black autonomy, which was the whole point that we thought that we would enjoy. This move is even grosser because it was a pitiful response to protests about racial justice that happened all over the world. This is literally the least any legislature could have done. Black people said, “We want racial justice, economic reparations, and an end to harassment for living our lives.” The dominant narrative said, “Eh, we can give you ‘representation’ and the day off. You’re welcome.” This is not what people who actually listen to Black people believe is reasonable.
Of course, we understand that we are expected to show extreme gratitude, because if we do not, there will be violent retribution such as this century has not even seen yet. If Black people in this country do not show enough gratitude, enough prostration, and enough love and blind loyalty to the politicians who gave us this day off, we can expect a rise in police violence, rises in all costs, and even fewer job opportunities, donations, and less emotional accommodation for anything — ever. We know that we have to perform because we have never been allowed to stand back like others and simply live in this country. We have to show constant gratitude for an untenable situation that most people would not accept.
This also proves that people are unwilling to fix real problems unless the supposed repair helps those who already benefit from power or resources. Giving people what you think they should want is like seeing a person in need, and saying, “Well, I know you think you need that other thing, but I’m going to give you this. I expect you to be grateful, and I will not accept any criticism whatsoever against the gift I gave you.” A gift with expectations is not a gift, and authentic people know that. Inauthentic people whine, stomp their feet, and have rages when people are not grateful enough for what was supposedly given. Nobody seems to have been able to gather over the last year — when people had nothing but time to learn this if enjoying a privileged position — that Black people have been placed in a barely tenable position.
Society is always looking to exploit us, and expects us to be grateful for that exploitation. There is no recognition that we deserve time off to self-actualize, and that we deserve the resources which we have more than earned. There is no recognition that we have worked too hard for too little for too long, and instead were chastised by the people who exploited us for not working or wanting it badly enough. We are constantly expected to smile and strive, and then have everybody offer us fake flattery at how strong we are. That is not a tenable position to sustain.
Offering Juneteenth as a day off is not really a gift. All of those politicians are looking for an excuse to exploit us for their own validation while offering us very little. Nationalized health care? Free housing? Real stimulus? “No, have a day off because you better be willing to knock on doors for free, call people late into the night, and constantly praise us, and force people to go to the ballot box to validate our egos. If we’re not in power, then it’s going to be bad for you!” Constant threats along with a supposed gift, and we should be grateful for this.
To be fair, this is just a continuation of the conditional emancipation that was offered on Juneteenth. “Yes, you can be free from working on this plantation, but we won’t always pay your wages. We’ll pay you the least we can get away with paying. We also feel free to lynch you if we dislike you.” Because there was no minimum wage back then, that was a lot less. Moreover, just because the lynching and defamation look a little different these days does not change that premise. “Giving” Juneteenth off with the expectation of electoral exploitation is not actually emancipation.
The most insulting elements of making Juneteenth a federal holiday now is that it takes the day of conditional emancipation and makes it all about White politicians and their magnanimity. All the publicity generated will feature all of these obnoxious, evil politicians after failing to raise the minimum wage, offer equal pay, and giving tax breaks to equally evil private entities. They took our celebration day of emancipation after forced enslavement, and made it about White men who lack compassion and made legislation against us on multiple occasions. “It’s a small step!” Why on earth are we prostrating ourselves for that kind of behavior? All this is going to mean is that the day that we were supposed to have off to process the fact that we were no longer enslaved will be the day we have to perform gratitude for people looking to harm us.
This move is proof that people will never stop demanding that Black people be grateful for treatment they would never accept. The dominant narrative does all of this because it is incapable of grasping this one concept: leave. Black. people. alone. Stop stalking and expecting of us, stop demanding that we worship you, and stop sucking all of our resources away and asking us to thank you for it. Leave. us. alone. We are not required to make you money, validate your abusive terms as politicians “for our own good,” or sympathize with your need to denigrate us. Leave. us. alone. Also, stop using our desire for autonomy as a weapon to then say, “Well, if you fail to earn enough money on our terms to compete with our egos, you do not deserve autonomy.” Our lives should not be about everyone but us.
To hear more about race and the built environment, visit deciphercity.org.
