I Can’t Breathe 2

A Bit of History

When I first started this blog last year, part of my intent was to start a dialog about social issues. I have done very little writing on social issues, sticking mainly to telling stories about my younger self. I did do a series on gun control but probably got the least amount of feedback from readers from those posts. So, I’m thinking that this new series on racism, isn’t going to be appreciated very much by most of you. It certainly won’t be humorous or entertaining. Many of you may not even read any my posts on the subject.

But I hope you will. Because I think we can all benefit from learning as much as we can about the history of racism in America and how it still exists in many aspects of American life. I’ll be the first to admit that I have a lot to learn. I believe, though, that just as alcoholics have to first acknowledge they have a drinking problem before they can begin their journey to sobriety, Americans, White Americans in particular, have to acknowledge that there is a problem with racism in this country.

I’ve titled this series of articles “I Can’t Breathe.” It is such a powerful, agonizingly clear declaration. In naming this series “I Can’t Breathe,” I hope to pay homage to my Black brothers and sisters and their literal and metaphoric struggle to breathe freely in America. Even today.

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Emancipation Day. I am 57 years old and I admit that I have forgotten many things in my life. I can’t remember names, dates, faces, conversations, even past vacations. And I can’t remember one year in which I celebrated this extremely important day in American history. In fact, when I heard on the news about the significance of the date of President Trump’s planned campaign rally on June 19, I thought, What’s June 19? And it wasn’t until later that same afternoon when my mom mentioned “Juneteenth” that I had ever even heard that term. Why is that? Is my memory really that bad?

Shouldn’t all Americans be proud on Emancipation Day? The day that our ancestors finally set things right and freed the slaves? You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Today, 47 states and the District of Columbia designate June 19 as a state holiday, but it has never risen in the ranks to become a federal holiday. Again, why?

I admit that I’m a cynic, but I suspect there are two significant reasons why this date is almost exclusively celebrated only by Black Americans. The first reason is easier for me to accept: that over the many decades since the Civil War, White Americans have become more and more ashamed of our past and to celebrate the freeing of slaves reminds us that slavery actually existed in this country. Best to lay low. Keep quiet and the dirty little secret will be forgotten.

The second reason is much more disturbing. And again, these are just my thoughts. The second reason is that there are people out there – some in important roles of leadership, some not, but they’re all White – who either wish slavery still existed, believe that Black people are inferior to Whites, or believe Blacks don’t belong in the United States of America. You know these people still exist. Oh, they might say to you, “Oh, no, Black people belong; that’s fine.” But you know in their heads they’re continuing, “Just not in my neighborhood.” And, of course, if people are feeling this way, why would they want to celebrate the emancipation of slaves? By the same token, why would any of us want to party with them?

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I did some research to find out why June 19 is celebrated as Emancipation Day when it was on January 1, 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. As it turns out, the proclamation did not actually free any slaves. Instead, it offered freedom to all the slaves in the Confederate states. Of course, Proclamation held no power over the Confederate states because they had already seceded from the Union. Instead of actually freeing slaves, the Proclamation actually served as a military maneuver. Lincoln knew that the south needed its slaves to bolster their number of troops. Why not entice the slaves with the offer of freedom and frighten the Confederacy at the same time?

The Proclamation did play a very important and pivotal role in both the course of history and in President Lincoln’s wartime objectives. No longer was the sole purpose of the Civil war to save the Union and keep the states together as one country. President Lincoln and the Union wanted to abolish slavery. They also recognized that if and when they won the war, they had to pass an Amendment to the Constitution that would free all slaves. So, almost immediately after signing the Proclamation, work began on crafting the language that would become our Thirteenth Amendment.

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Okay, so why is June 19, 1865 considered Emancipation Day when it followed the Emancipation Proclamation by a year and a half? Let me tell you. It was on June 19, 1965 – known today as Emancipation Day, and about two months after most of the Confederate troops had surrendered — that Union Army General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and proclaimed that all slaves were free. (Wouldn’t you have loved being General Granger and making that announcement? That must have warmed his heart and put a smile on his face for the rest of his life.)

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While I agree that Emancipation Day should be celebrated, I don’t think this country has gone far enough in rectifying its wrongs. For the way we kidnapped, bought, sold, used and abused Black people. How we enslaved, killed, relocated, cheated and mistreated Native Americans. How we forced the relocation and imprisonment of Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II. Oh, and let’s not forget the dark secret of Franciscan friars enslaving California’s Indians to build “Christian” missions and then forbidding them to leave. Heck, we’re currently separating and imprisoning Mexican and other Latino families when they try to seek refuge in our country. It’s like we haven’t learned a damn thing.

This country has a lot of reconciling to do. And like any good Catholic will tell you, once you confess your sins, you must do penance. As a start, and by no means is this remotely enough, it is merely a start, our country needs to establish a federal Day of Atonement. Not to absolve us of this country’s sins, but to acknowledge that we were wrong and that we, as a nation, are sorry. Have we ever actually formally and officially apologized for any of our past misdeeds? I don’t know. What I do know, and what we’ve all heard before, is If we don’t acknowledge the mistakes of our past and learn from them, we are destined to keep repeating them.