Juneteenth: Celebrate the Moral Moment

I keep reading that most African American families have been celebrating Juneteenth all of their lives. I don’t know if that’s true. Dating back to 1866, Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Although I don’t know if it’s true that most African Americans have always celebrated, I’m ready for ALL American families to celebrate it now.

I had never heard of Juneteenth as a child. Sometime in the 1990s, Dad wrote a letter to all of his offspring when we were adults to tell us that he had been reflecting on our childhood. He had decided that the primary “race” we had grown up with was “Army brat,” not “African American.” It was a thought worth considering. Carl, Marcia, Keith, and I had all been born into the Army, and we lived that life almost until adulthood; I was 17 when Dad retired from the Army. And the Army absolutely has its culture, customs, institutions, expectations, and relationships, which are probably not quite what you would imagine unless you lived them. We were shaped by Army life. And because we lived our late childhood and teen lives in Hawaii, we gained other powerful influences that affect us to this day.

But I think Dad overstated. Because despite the potter’s wheel of the Army and the influence of Hawaii, we were always Black. And especially as Army brat teens in Hawaii, we celebrated our Blackness. We were active at Trinity Missionary Baptist Church,  the only predominantly Black  church on the island at the time. We had our house parties and our Young, Gifted, and Black variety shows. We planned with the Soul Society at Leilehua High School.

But I had never heard of Juneteenth. In my teen years the holiday was over 100 years old and had not reached my African American family. Black history was not absent from my schooling. Nearly every biographical report I ever wrote for school was about a Black man. But I only knew a few. I was aware of Crispus Attucks, who, as the precursor to too many 20^th century movies and television shows, was the first American to die in the nation’s fight for independence. I was fascinated by the Civil War and its immediate aftermath, but I only knew a few names and dates. I was enamored with Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, because I was taught about them. They were the safe Blacks. I eventually learned who Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass were. They were slightly more radical.

I learned erroneously that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves. In truth it was more symbolic than effective. And although Abraham Lincoln remains a (flawed) hero for me, I didn’t know until college that his stated aim was not to free slaves, but to preserve the Union. And I knew about General Lee’s surrender to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. But I never learned of General Gordon Granger’s visit to Galveston, Texas, 2 ½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation. By then the war was over, and the general had the honor of announcing the news to the farthest reaches of the nation in Galveston.

A year later, June 19^th 1866, Juneteenth was celebrated, and it has been continually celebrated in the nation since then. This year I learned that Franklin, Tennessee, has an annual Juneteenth celebration. Franklin, Tennessee, y’all! The Franklin mayor has issued the proclamation, and the town has released relevant videos all week. Because of the quarantine, the videos replace the usual gatherings with stories, histories, games, food, music, and door prizes organized by the African American Heritage Society. I have written in the past about my own experiences as a Black man visiting Franklin, so these events and actions encourage me.

The end of slavery is not a solely African American event. It’s an ALL American event. As my friend wrote on this occasion a year ago, Dr. Timothy Padgett, a white Evangelical historian, 

“That [slavery,]  this repulsive institution, was overthrown when all the financial and philosophical pressures of the day, not to mention a literal army, pushed in the other direction is a testament to the efforts of all those, famous and unknown, who prayed and hoped and wrote and spoke and bled and died for that day. If this liberation of 3.5 million human beings from inhuman degradation isn’t worth celebrating in the Land of Liberty and the church of Christ, then I don’t know what is.”

Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, Liberation Day, Juneteenth is truly a celebration of African Americans’ freedom from slavery. But it is also freedom of white Americans from slavery. This day commemorates the pivotal moral moment in United States history. On that day we did not arrive as a moral nation. We still have not. But that day signified for all “who prayed and hoped and wrote and spoke and bled and died” a repentance, a turning point, which has been—and can continue to be—a seedbed for justice for an ethical society. Apathy continues. Active opposition continues. In newer and newer forms. But that day gives us hope. It’s time for us all to celebrate.

He “Did Not Comply with Simple Commands,” So…

Note: If you are interested in a simple action step, it's at the end.

Maybe you’ve seen the video or read the story. Travis Miller and his work partner, Kevin, didn’t die. They were the two black furniture delivery workers who were driving out of a gated community after making a delivery. They were in a delivery truck marked with the company name. They were wearing company uniforms. Did I mention that they were LEAVING the gated community? As they were about to exit through the gate, a car pulled up to prevent their exit. The white driver of the car later identified himself as David Stewart. He got out of his car and began asking questions, which Travis did not feel compelled to answer. “What are you doing here? Why are you in here? Where are you coming from?  All you have to do is just tell me where you’re going.”

In short time, another white man arrived to reinforce the interrogation. The second white man walked up to the truck and initiated this exchange:

Second White Man: Hey man, what’s going on?

Travis Miller: I’m trying to leave.

SM: Why?

TM: What do you mean?

SM: What were you in here for?

TM: None of your business

SM: Yeah it is. Of course it is. I live in here.

TM: Did I deliver to your house?

SM: You didn’t deliver anything… that I know of.

TM: Cause it’s none of your business, that’s why.

SM: I’m just asking why you’re in here.

TM: You’re asking questions. You don’t need to ask questions. All you need to do is have your buddy move his car so I can leave and go about my business.

SM: So did you make a wrong turn into the neighborhood?

TM: How do I make a wrong turn into a gated neighborhood? I have to have a gate code in order to get in, right? That’s common sense, right. So if I’m in here, I had a gate code, right?

SM: How did you get a gate code?

TM: That’s none of your business, yet again.

SM: It sure as hell is!

TM: It sure as hell isn’t.

SM: You’re in the wrong, dude.

TM: I’m not in the wrong. I don’t know who… What’s your name?

David Stewart: This is our street. This is a private street.

TM: Uh huh. Just so you know, more than you two guys live on this street. And you’re not the only ones with gate codes.

…

SM: You’re in the wrong, dude

TM: I’m in the wrong? Show me your badge, then.

And, of course these men in white skin believed they had already shown that badge. After about an hour, the man who received the delivery arrived. And wearing that same white skin badge, he had Travis and Kevin released.

Travis and Kevin were unnecessarily inconvenienced for an hour. They didn’t die, like Ahmaud Arbery. I am relieved that no one has invaded my social digital space with justification for the February killing of Arbery—the killing that most of us didn’t hear about until May. Regardless of political ideology, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity , those who have spoken within my hearing have spoken of disgust, sadness, and anger. And sympathy.

I have seen and heard the other responses out there. And I have given reaction. One white man prefaced his remarks with “Having served with Blacks, having Black friends, and living years rehabbing a house in an all-Black neighborhood,” before telling other commenters which Black YouTubers they should be watching to get a “balanced perspective” of the hunting and killing of a black man out jogging. But no-one in my actual circle has dared to say anything close to those sentiments.

Still my relief comes with not a small dose of surprise because this unanimity of perspective is far from what I’ve experienced in other incidents like this. Of note, this incident reminds me eerily of the killing of Trayvon Martin back in 2014. At that time all of my usual suspect friends felt a similar disgust, sadness, and anger when the story broke and again when the killer was acquitted. In addition, a number of usually quiet friends joined the usual suspects. But a disturbingly loud other contingent opted to give the benefit of doubt to the living adult killer rather than the dead teenaged victim. These were bright, kind people whom I respect.

While they might sympathize with Trayvon Martin’s family, they empathized with George Zimmerman. With the initial information we all had, they seemed to ask, “What would I do if I were George?” or “What must have been his circumstances that he would take a life?” At least with the killing of Ahmaud, we have seen some video. Eventually. And we can make out what happened in the blank spaces. We could do the same with the earlier case. But there is no video, and of the two people who know what happened, only the instigator is alive. Only the instigator ignored police instruction. All we know afterwards is a black boy who had committed no crime was killed by a man on a mission. And each of us can interpret that blank time as if we were looking at a Rorschach ink blot. We fill in with our assumptions.

But not this time. This time the killers reveal themselves as clichés. We can caricature the killers, Gregory and Travis McMichael, and call them Big Man and Bubba. With a shotgun and a pickup truck. Hunting down prey who allegedly “matched the description” and "did not comply with simple commands." No-one in my actual circle of friends, including virtual “friends” has tried to justify their actions or sympathize with their plight. In fact, many of my white friends are baffled that this could happen in the 21^st century.

I am not baffled. I am not surprised. And it’s not just Big Man and Bubba. It’s also not just rural Georgia and suburban Florida. And it’s not just some guy whose claim to authority is that he had been in proximity of Black folks. The assurance is so strong that in both of these fatal incidents the killers ignored the questioning or direct instructions of experienced dispatchers. The killers "knew" they had standing. It's in the air, and it’s in our systems. It is the hunch of white superiority, and you don’t have to openly profess it to somehow believe it. You don’t need a shotgun, a pickup truck, or a tiki torch to sense it.  I am trying out the term “unconscious whiteness.” I don’t think I stole that from anyone. But people more learned than me help explain it.

Dr. Jennifer Eberhard, author of Biased, and Dr. Jonathan Kahn, author of Race on the Brain, don’t seem to agree about which is more important, implicit bias or systemic racism. Dr. Eberhard insists that all of us are subject to biases that we aren’t even conscious of, although she admits the additional existence of systemic racism. Dr. Kahn thinks that too much attention to unconscious bias obscures the reality of systemic racism. Which of them is right? The killing of Ahmaud Arbery shouts the answer: It’s both! And add explicit bias to the contenders.

Big Man and Bubba saw a black man running and either believed he was up to no good or decided they could make a good case that he was up to no good. They and their erstwhile videographer, William “Roddie” Bryan, who has now also been arrested for felony murder, are so deluded in their thinking that the they believed releasing the video would exonerate them. That’s some entitled thinking. And it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. They were confident. They knew the system. They knew the people. And the system backed them for more than two months. And we all know that their confidence may still be rewarded down the road.

But there is a particular mindset revealed in Georgia and in Florida. And Travis and Kevin were subject to it in Oklahoma. It is the implicit or explicit belief that the neighborhoods where white people live are theirs to police. It doesn’t even matter if other people also live there. Trayvon Martin’s black daddy lived in the neighborhood where the boy was killed. To these white citizens, the right to defend does not end at their front porch or their property. In fact their rights don’t end with defense. They believe their whiteness deputizes them to follow a hunch and begin a hunt. And Georgia, Florida, and Oklahoma have encoded those extended rights with Stand Your Ground, Make My Day and “citizen’s arrest.” The laws might be written with limits; that doesn’t mean those limits will be enforced. The laws give license to any citizen to use lethal force in following a hunch. Did I say “any citizen”? We can pretend that these laws are meant to protect ANY citizen. But we know it’s not true. The incident that includes the murder of Breonna Taylor and the arrest of Kenneth Walker is just one example of the inequities. But that incident deserves its own discussion at another time.

My suspicion and my fear today  is that, although none of my white friends would go grab the shotgun to pursue Running Black Man or Walking Black Boy, many of them relate to the impulse.  Many of them understand the fear and the “right” and “obligation” to defend themselves and their families from a possible threat. Many would “understand” why two black men driving a marked delivery truck out of a gated community look threatening and should be questioned. I don’t know how many of my white friends feel deputized by their whiteness. But I am not surprised by the actions in these cases.

In neither of the fatal  cases was there a threat of violence until the killers instigated it. In fact, in neither of these incidents was there a witness to a crime—because in neither case was a crime committed by the victims. In both of these cases, the killers were the only ones armed. Neither victim was a threat in any way. They were simply perceived as such. Running. Walking. While Black.

So what can you do? I’ve walked around the answer to that question for years of talking about race. And I’ve hinted at one first step. For Dr. Taharee A. Jackson, it’s one step out of several. She’s right. But let’s start with at least this one. Jackson says,

One of the single greatest acts of racial justice that you, as a White person, could commit is to name your White identity and to claim your racialized experiences.

She explains:

One of the most pernicious aspects of racism and white identity is that they are meant to be invisible. As a White person, your White identity and the structures that maintain White racial dominance are not meant to be discussed, uncovered, identified, or questioned.

This is why you are not even named as White in books. You are so often the main characters that we just assume you are unless otherwise indicated.

I hint at this in my TEDx Talk, What I Am Learning from My White Grandchildren. The point is:  Whiteness has substance. And all of these perpetrators know it. And they use that substance as a badge of authority. But the substance of whiteness is not legitimately authoritative. It’s worth pondering why so many think it is.

The River...on Fire

Spotify prepared a playlist for me that marries acapella pop songs from Pentatonix with Christian rock from The 77s. In the mostly Christian music mix are indie songs from Tonio K, 90s Christian pop from Cindy Morgan and 80s Christian blue-eyed soul from Mylon Lefevre. And there’s Leslie Phillips and Nichole Nordeman, and then more Pentatonix. I don’t listen to as much commercial Christian music as I used to, and I’m not sure about Spotify’s algorithmic rationale, but I’m not mad. I only skipped a few songs.

I listened this morning as each of those artists sang. And then out of the blue, I hear this piano and strings intro, and the tear ducts well up. No words yet. No conscious association, just a feeling and automatic physical reaction. Something in my subconscious and in my body remembers. It’s “The River” by Rich Mullins. I am barely listening to the lyrics, but the reaction is uncontrollable. 

Maybe because I had already read in the morning that today, March 20, 2020, is the 20th anniversary of Gene Eugene’s death. Gene and his inimitable band, Adam Again, could have been in this unusual mix.

I know that associating “The River” with an entirely different musical entity seems like a non sequitur, but tell that to my body, which knows certain things. It knows that next month marks 20 years for my dad. So Gene’s passing is forever attached to Dad’s. And to Rich’s.

Favorite memories of my childhood include hours of sitting in the family room with Dad and my brothers listening to music. With music there was little generation gap in our household. We listened to entire album after entire album. Mostly soul and jazz, but occasionally rock or country or classical made the playlist. And gospel. Dad was a non-church-goer, who maintained a residual affection for gospel music from his childhood. He was completely unschooled in Contemporary Christian Music. On a drive from Denver to his home in Colorado Springs in the 1990s, I played "The River" and its album companions for Dad. I explained that I had actually sung on the collection, The World as Best as I Remember It, Vol. 1. Maybe my body is remembering that road trip with Dad.

Twenty years ago, when I learned of Gene’s passing, I immediately thought of Rich’s death three years earlier. It was a traffic accident on the open road. Another road trip. In my mind’s 2020 retrospective, the song “The River” foreshadowed Rich’s death. 

“Maybe she can come to Wichita. And maybe we can borrow Beaker’s bike. Let the road wind tie our hair in knots. Let the speed and the freedom untangle the lines. Maybe fear can vanish before love. O God, don’t let this love be denied.” 

Rich sang those words through Spotify this morning. And I wept, remembering that I haven’t listened to much Rich Mullins in years. 

Spotify could not have known that the first song in my brain this morning was “River on Fire,” from Gene Eugene from his band's release Dig. A Facebook friend had posted video for the song in honor of Gene’s anniversary. The words came straight to my mind:

“I could be happy, and you could be miserable. I’ll pull a metaphor out of the air: the Cuyahoga River on fire.” 

He refers to the infamous oil slick fire near Cleveland, Ohio in 1969. While Rich’s Wichita river longs for anticipated love, Gene’s Cleveland river laments a burned out love.

I am happy in love, but I am not above Rich’s longing or Gene’s lament, even if prompted by Spotify’s algorithms. Somehow my body still knows.