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“Juneteenth is a made up holiday!” Or, “there’s only one independence day in the U.S.” This idiocy goes on and on, but one thing is clear. In the U.S., disrespect for the African masses is as fundamental as the sun rising each day. Meanwhile, this backward capitalist system fully expects us to respond to it by showing unquestionable allegiance to the U.S. empire.
Confusion is everywhere. First, there are the strange people of African descent within the U.S. who are chasing clout, a potential pay day, or just prestige, by insisting that we have no connection to Africa. These people have some responsibility in this problem because in their uncompromising desire to tether themselves to the U.S. capitalist system, they wittingly or unwittingly provide an assist to the empire in discrediting our culture and dignity.
The colonizer empire is strengthened by our weakened unity. It uses this to dismiss all of us (whether we realize it or not). They do this by proclaiming the demand to respect their institutions – the fourth of July – while dismissing and discrediting our institutions – Juneteenth.
Even when they acknowledge Juneteenth with some legitimacy, this is only done in a way that misrepresents what Juneteenth really is (and there are plenty of Africans, mislead by this dysfunctional desire to mesh with the slave master, who contribute to this confusion). They claim that the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln and the European (white) soldiers who fought on the side of the Union (the U.S. government) are responsible for ending chattel slavery. Therefore, we should be thankful to them, thus reinforcing the white supremacist narrative that everything we have, we owe to the master. The truth is, as Lincoln himself acknowledged, there were over 300 slave revolts carried out by the African masses in the Western Hemisphere within a hundred-year period. As C.L.R. James indicates in his classic work “A History of Pan-African Revolt”, from uprisings led by identified leaders like Sam Sharpe from Jamaica, Dessalines from Haiti, Carlota Lucumi from Cuba, or Gabriel Prosser from the U.S., or collectively led revolts like the Maroon communities of the Caribbean and South America, all of this made the institution of chattel slavery untenable from a political, economic, and social perspective. Lincoln and all the colonial leaders knew this. Also, the emerging Northern capitalist class within the U.S., enriched by the chattel slave system, had the vision of increased capital which they knew would require the Southern U.S. to be industrialized. So, the end of chattel slavery had absolutely nothing to do with the altruistic contributions of anyone white.
What all of this should mean for us today is that Juneteenth should be viewed, not as just some U.S. institution defined by the limited borders imposed upon us by our colonial masters, but the U.S. manifestation of our worldwide struggle to be free and united. What July 4th should mean for us is a rudimentary understanding of basic math. The overwhelming majority of Africans in the U.S. in 1860 were enslaved property on July 4th, 1776. (and those who had somehow gotten away from chattel slavery were certainly not safe and/or free). The Emancipation of Proclamation, which ended chattel slavery wasn’t signed until January 1, 1863, eighty-seven years after the Declaration of Independence. So, only a complete fool, house slave, grifter, fascist, or some combination of all of the above, would realistically expect us as African people to do anything on July 4th except enjoy a much-earned day off from wage slavery while burning a U.S. flag and/or their toilet paper constitution, just to keep things true and fresh.
Anyone who claims we should commemorate both is grifting for payday and/or suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. You cannot serve freedom and the master at the same time and any embrace of any type of American identity within the U.S. is nothing more than an overt or subtle embrace of white supremacy.
Ideally, the best result for all of this is our complete rejection of July 4th. We should treat that day with the same level of disdain that these people demonstrate for Juneteenth. We should continue focusing on building up the institutionalization of Juneteenth as the U.S. manifestation of African Liberation Day, our international day of unity and forward progress centered around the upliftment and liberation of Africa. Or, as the person who was most identified with our understanding of the Black Power concept in the 1960s, Kwame Ture, would say – “Pan-Africanism is the highest expression of Black power!” Frederick Douglas was 100% correct when he said “power concedes nothing without a demand. Never has and never will!” If we want respect, we must demand it. The best way to do that is to uplift our institutions for self-determination and liberation and to stop supporting the institutions of this empire that openly mock us with their very existence.
Confusion is everywhere. First, there are the strange people of African descent within the U.S. who are chasing clout, a potential pay day, or just prestige, by insisting that we have no connection to Africa. These people have some responsibility in this problem because in their uncompromising desire to tether themselves to the U.S. capitalist system, they wittingly or unwittingly provide an assist to the empire in discrediting our culture and dignity.
The colonizer empire is strengthened by our weakened unity. It uses this to dismiss all of us (whether we realize it or not). They do this by proclaiming the demand to respect their institutions – the fourth of July – while dismissing and discrediting our institutions – Juneteenth.
Even when they acknowledge Juneteenth with some legitimacy, this is only done in a way that misrepresents what Juneteenth really is (and there are plenty of Africans, mislead by this dysfunctional desire to mesh with the slave master, who contribute to this confusion). They claim that the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln and the European (white) soldiers who fought on the side of the Union (the U.S. government) are responsible for ending chattel slavery. Therefore, we should be thankful to them, thus reinforcing the white supremacist narrative that everything we have, we owe to the master. The truth is, as Lincoln himself acknowledged, there were over 300 slave revolts carried out by the African masses in the Western Hemisphere within a hundred-year period. As C.L.R. James indicates in his classic work “A History of Pan-African Revolt”, from uprisings led by identified leaders like Sam Sharpe from Jamaica, Dessalines from Haiti, Carlota Lucumi from Cuba, or Gabriel Prosser from the U.S., or collectively led revolts like the Maroon communities of the Caribbean and South America, all of this made the institution of chattel slavery untenable from a political, economic, and social perspective. Lincoln and all the colonial leaders knew this. Also, the emerging Northern capitalist class within the U.S., enriched by the chattel slave system, had the vision of increased capital which they knew would require the Southern U.S. to be industrialized. So, the end of chattel slavery had absolutely nothing to do with the altruistic contributions of anyone white.
What all of this should mean for us today is that Juneteenth should be viewed, not as just some U.S. institution defined by the limited borders imposed upon us by our colonial masters, but the U.S. manifestation of our worldwide struggle to be free and united. What July 4th should mean for us is a rudimentary understanding of basic math. The overwhelming majority of Africans in the U.S. in 1860 were enslaved property on July 4th, 1776. (and those who had somehow gotten away from chattel slavery were certainly not safe and/or free). The Emancipation of Proclamation, which ended chattel slavery wasn’t signed until January 1, 1863, eighty-seven years after the Declaration of Independence. So, only a complete fool, house slave, grifter, fascist, or some combination of all of the above, would realistically expect us as African people to do anything on July 4th except enjoy a much-earned day off from wage slavery while burning a U.S. flag and/or their toilet paper constitution, just to keep things true and fresh.
Anyone who claims we should commemorate both is grifting for payday and/or suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. You cannot serve freedom and the master at the same time and any embrace of any type of American identity within the U.S. is nothing more than an overt or subtle embrace of white supremacy.
Ideally, the best result for all of this is our complete rejection of July 4th. We should treat that day with the same level of disdain that these people demonstrate for Juneteenth. We should continue focusing on building up the institutionalization of Juneteenth as the U.S. manifestation of African Liberation Day, our international day of unity and forward progress centered around the upliftment and liberation of Africa. Or, as the person who was most identified with our understanding of the Black Power concept in the 1960s, Kwame Ture, would say – “Pan-Africanism is the highest expression of Black power!” Frederick Douglas was 100% correct when he said “power concedes nothing without a demand. Never has and never will!” If we want respect, we must demand it. The best way to do that is to uplift our institutions for self-determination and liberation and to stop supporting the institutions of this empire that openly mock us with their very existence.
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