Happy Juneteenth!
The 2020 observation of Juneteenth may well be the most significant since 1865.
From the abundance of media coverage this year more white Americans (myself included) are learning that Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the US. It is rightly a celebration of freedom, of Jubilee, of emancipation, and more. It seems to me — as a newcomer to observing this day — that Juneteenth is simultaneously a reminder of what is possible, and a dare to keep working for freedom for all.
2020 is shaping up to be a year for the history books. The year began with a significant housing crisis in most American cities, growing class disparity between the mega rich and everyone else, rapid increase of government and corporate data collection and surveillance, gun violence, mounting personal and national debt, families torn apart at the US border & children in cages, a trade war between the US and China, then a near military war between the US and Iran.
And as if that weren’t more than enough, the entire globe is cloaked in a pandemic.
With COVID-19 came not only fear and isolation. It brought sickness, suffering, and death. In its wake came shelter in place orders for non-essential workers, while essential workers risked exposure to the virus due to a shortage of personal protective equipment. Our schools moved online, we saw depression-era unemployment numbers, small businesses shuttered their doors, we mediated our lives through Zoom, and witnessed a rise in domestic violence. All of which exposed the lack of national leadership in this country.
Fear of death is in the air. But you can’t see the virus. And most people infected with COVID19 don’t go around intentionally sneezing on people. It is far more insidious. Viruses are unwitty spread through our natural social relations. We often will not even know we’re infected until we’ve spread it to others. Therefore, we limited our interactions.
We washed our hands, quit touching our faces, and wiped and cleaned. We kept our distance. We coughed into our elbows. We learned COVID19 was pneumonia-like; asphyxiating its victims. So we adapted. We donned N95 masks. We avoided tight spaces with recycled air. Our manufacturers retooled their assembly lines to produce the much-needed ventilators to keep our loved ones breathing. We all want to breathe, and in the middle this unprecedented struggle for breath, Police murdered George Floyd.
His murder has been dubbed a lynching. A police officer knelt on George’s neck while other officers “protected” the scene. Some of George Floyd’s last words were, “I can’t breathe!”
A virus older and more deadly than COVID19 asphyxiated George Floyd. The virus of personal and systemic racist and white-body supremacy killed him, (don’t get me wrong Mr. Floyd was cruelly killed by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin and his partners and they must be held to account). But the virus of racism has been circumnavigating the globe since before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. A couple of counties in Washington state have declared Racism a Public Health Crisis.
George Floyd breathed his last breath on May 25, 2020. In the wake of his murder the weight of this nation’s oppressive laws and governance seems to have snapped something. The preponderance of Americans simply can’t bear the injustice of our systems any longer. We have taken to the streets. With signs declaring:
“Black Live Matter”
“Racism is the Pandemic”
“White Silence = White Violence”
“We Simply Want Justice”
“If not now, When?”
“I Can’t Breathe”
“George Floyd Should be Alive Now”
“Am I Next?”
As a nation we are in a profound space of cultural liminality. Liminal space is fragile, and it can feel dangerous. Liminal space is like that moment when a trapeze artist has let go of one trapeze bar but not yet caught the next… it’s the in-between. In liminal space we are no longer able to stay where we were, yet we don’t fully know where we’re going.
We stand on threshold unknowing.
St. John of the Cross described this kind of liminality as the “dark night of the soul.” He suggests that it is a season of profound transformation. While this might be an oversimplification, there are three movements to such transformational season: 1) leaving, 2) unknowing, and 3) awakening.
It feels to me as though our nation is in that second moment… unknowing, letting go, risking, opening up, being present to suffering, wondering…
Which is why Juneteenth is so vital this year. We need to feel the beauty of freedom. Freedom from oppression. Freedom to breathe. Freedom to move. Freedom to dream. God’s shalom frees captives. Heals the broken. Reconciles the divided.
The first Juneteenth was observed on June 19, 1866. It was the first anniversary the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation. People of faith gathered with their church community remember and imagine, and here we are, in 2020. We need to wonder again about the God’s dream of freedom for all.
We need Juneteenth because it reminds us what is possible when people – like you and me – open up to God’s shalom. And we need Juneteenth because it is a glorious dare to keep working for freedom for all.
Happy Juneteenth everybody!
Peace, dwight
