Freedom Day!!!

Happy Juneteenth!

Love,

Tanner

P.S. I think it’s ok if you don’t know that much about Juneteenth because I personally had never even heard of it until just a few years ago when one of my favorite TV shows, ATLANTA, made a whole episode making fun of white people who know too much about Juneteenth.

Thanks to that episode and the creative team behind it (shout-out to Stefani Robinson, Janicza Bravo, and Donald Glover), I found out that Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom.

But to be honest, I still didn’t completely understand Juneteenth until a few days ago when my lovely friend, Lara, shared an infographic on her Instagram that described in more detail what exactly this day stands for and now I’m thankful to her for helping me learn a little more.

But but to be a little more honest, part of me is scared to say I didn't totally understand Juneteenth before while another part of me is just as scared to say I completely understand Juneteenth now. I feel that either I’ll be admitting to being a bad person who doesn’t know enough, or I’ll be a just-as-bad person who thinks they already know plenty enough.

But but but because we’re all being honest here, I also don’t think I’m alone in feeling these confusing feelings so I’m sharing all of this in the hopes that me being uncomfortably transparent about my uncertainty helps you feel more comfortably uncomfortable in your own uncertainty.

Because at this point in history, we can’t control what we knew before, but we can control what we know going forward.

And as I’ve said before and I’ll say again and again and again, the only thing I know for sure right now is that I for sure don’t know enough right now, so in the spirit of knowledge, the pursuit of it, and the lack thereof it, I’ve decided the first thing I have to do is to just start learning.

So if you wanna learn a little more with me about our country's history on a historical day like today, I will now fail at trying to paraphrase the politically, racially, and traumatically complicated subject that is Juneteenth and why it commemorates African American freedom:

Juneteenth is NOT the day that all enslaved people were freed NOR is it the day that slavery ended.

Instead, it marks the day in 1865 when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to officially announce the end of slavery even though Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

In other words, it took OVER TWO YEARS for enslaved Texans to find out that they were free men and women.

So THIS is why Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom.

And THAT is why Juneteenth needs to be a national holiday.

P.P.S. You don’t have to take my word for all of this because you can check my sources by checking out the much more informative infographic that the lovely Lara shared:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBnRiw9DpCL/

P.P.S. Do you have any fun TV shows, infographics, and/or anything else that can help me learn a little more about Black Wall Street?