Yesterday was Juneteenth, a day that is properly celebrated as the true day of liberation for black peoples in North America from the scourge of chattel slavery. Originating in Galveston, Texas, on June 19th, 1865, the holiday commemorates the emancipation of black peoples held in bondage across Texas, years after the Emancipation Proclamation was actually ordered. Though chattel slavery would persist in two union states for several more months, the people of Texas were liberated from those slave owners who sought to preserve their property and profits—taking advantage of their remote location to withhold information from enslaved people about their legal emancipation. Along with this day comes the tried and true profiles of the Black Wall Street massacre, Maroon rebellion in the Caribbean, white supremacy’s permanence, and Nat Turner—as he and his comrades barnstormed from one plantation to another, liberating those in bondage with a bloody vengeance. That sense of vengeance has given new fire and breath to certain corners of the black population, and I’d beg to state that that sense of racial vengeance—being reminded of the cruelties and inequities overcome by our forebears—is the dominant way in which we as a nation consume and internalize this newly official national holiday. From this comes flarings of cultural nationalism and entreaties to buy black to support black businesses, regardless of whether that business empowers their workers or even provides a living wage.
Continue reading “Juneteenth And the Capitalist Origins of Slavery”