Social commentary

What is Juneteenth to a White Person?

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Juneteenth is a perfect opportunity for white people to reflect on how our ancestral damage continues to show up today.

If this gives you a reaction, please sit with it:

3 out of 5 white men and 1 out of 2 white women voted for open, overt, violent white supremacy in their support of the Trump administration.

ICE is racial profiling and kidnapping immigrant families as we speak.

White cops continue to murder Black men, women, and children.

The government is deleting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color from historical data bases.

There is a violent push to eliminate anything related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Violence against Black trans women continues to be high.

Black people in governmental positions have literally lost their jobs due to white men not being put in those positions.

White male domestic terrorism is off the charts and we have political assassinations by white men that are not even labeled terrorism.

Elon Musk threw up a Nazi salute at the presidential inauguration.

We have white supremacist organizations traveling around in U-Hauls and terrorizing communities.

We have white men driving their cars into protests in attempts to kill protestors standing against white supremacy.

We are entertaining starting another war where plenty of non-white people would be murdered.

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When I look into the mirror as a white man, I have to see myself in all of this. I cannot other myself from the group. I cannot pretend I’m safe for everyone just because I’m an individual. I, in my white body, represent violence both historical and current.

I choose to sit with that. I choose to see how that informs the way I navigate everyone around me. I choose to sit with the fact that most people won’t see me as safe and I own it.

I have to own what whiteness means while simultaneously pushing against it daily.

I have to recognize my patterns and my foundations and constantly question from which lens am I operating out of…a lens of humanity or whiteness (which is inherently dehumanizing).

I have to see how my whiteness may inform my emotions and emotional responses.

I have to do this so I can push closer to my humanity and take accountability for where we are right now.

Juneteenth is not mine to celebrate.

It is a time for me to look at myself in the mirror and see how it reflects our current situation.