Freedom Delayed Ripples as U.S. Marks Juneteenth

The Emancipation Proclamation of Jan 1, 1863 didn’t free everyone immediately. Juneteenth is on some American’s minds. In Minnesota it’s a state holiday. The Emancipation Proclamation (Jan 1, 1863) didn’t free everyone immediately. Slaves in Texas learned of freedom on June 19, 1865—two years later, after the Civil War ended. This wasn’t logistical—it was active withholding of freedom

In the 1860s Minnesota had too few Blacks for this delay in the Emancipation news to register. From what I’ve seen, we were .2% of the population either the state or the Twin Cities. According to Perplexity’s grasp of the 1860 U.S. Census, Minnesota had 265 Blacks. The 2020 Census showed Blacks are 10% of the Seven-Country metro area. The Black share of Minneapolis is almost 19%. In the 2020s Blacks and their cultural allies held more influence and power than circa 1860s. Obviously.

Delayed freedom created delayed justice that persists. Juneteenth represents the “actual timing” when freedom became real. That gap between legal promise and lived reality set a pattern: freedom arrives late, unevenly, incompletely. Those who held power, and fear of those whom they insisted on being beneath them, will drag their fee on freedom and quality until the last possible moment to grant those.

Freedom “is not finished” acknowledges that work for race inclusion continues. I’m sure that Barack Obama having been U.S. president, twice, and Kamala Harris’ having been Biden’s Vice President upset and still upsets some Americans. They won’t say it beyond small and friendly rooms, but believe that for non-whites, Blacks in particular, equality is conditional, limited, or both.

In wondering about a disparity, looking at Perplexity, racial resentment by whites according to Vox , the “racial triggering” of Obama’s presence, and White Americans fear that Blacks and others advancements threatened them are noted as leading voters to choose Don Trump.

When a Black American aspires to acceptance in a niche field or community I suspect that few whites’ are open. So freedom is unfinished.

The National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey in 2008 discerned that 42% of whites believed that they worked harder than Black Americans, and that 234% of whites rated themselves as more intelligent than Blacks. Goodness know what rationale or rubric they chose. https://jointcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Obama_0.pdf

Many whites are most comfortable with Blacks, and others having and knowing more, ever more equality, freedom and self-confidence. An iconic, and long-forgotten boxing champion Jack Johnson comes to mind. In “Unforgivable Blackness” episode of PBS’ American Experience,” his circa 1910s stance on equality was far too early for Industrial-Age United States.

Among the stubborn regressive whites, a nagging, oft-minimized crisis persists with “uppity” Blacks who act with strong self-confidence. It reminds me of a bit from “The Measure of a Man,“ by Sidney Poitier. He described the surprise and stir he cause in mainland U.S. when he came there from his native Bahamas. Having a delivery job, he went to the front door of a white client’s front door. If my memory serves, upon returning home, his loose family host had turned out their lights because someone had threatened that Nightriders were in-bound.

After Obama earned two terms as president, It’s like whites and their ideological allies flocked like antsy magnets to put Trump into the White House. Instead of invoking his name, I prefer to call him The Combover. No respectable man acts as he does.

Whites or conservatives were so put off by the U.S.’, to their minds, impending lean toward “radicalism” (what else explains in their myopic minds, Obama having won. Twice?) Anything or ideas that veer central are probably seen as worrisome.

For complex at times confusing reasons, white, no matter how “progressive” they are so used to the habit of occupying the cultural top shelf. When Trump became available, those who fretted for keeping their status atop, chose him. And, so, Juneteenth must be acknowledged.