New holiday
Jun. 19th, 2025 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
artemisdartToday is the newest federal holiday in the US: Juneteenth, or June 19, the day in 1865 when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War.
1865 wasn't long ago at all. I'm currently on vacation in a major East Coast city with many buildings older than that. And then there's the art I've been looking at in the museums. Yesterday I read a poem from the 12th century, looked at illuminated manuscripts from the 13th, and saw an exhibit of Jane Austen ephemera; she died in 1817.
Yesterday, an irate black man, who was angry that my girlfriend wasn't paying attention to him, started yelling at us. He accused us of racism; he expostulated that we must be thinking the N-word about him, and yelled at us to just say it out loud.
We weren't thinking about the fact that he was black; we just wanted to be left in peace to navigate to the next tourist attraction without being interrupted by angry, entitled men of *any* skin color! It's a little known fact that women actually don't owe men our attention!
Although my own family didn't intersect with the institution of slavery as far as I know, I know my white ancestors benefitted from it in a million difficult to describe ways. Slavery is often mentioned as America's "original sin," but I found this passage from "'Original Sin,' Slavery, and American Innocence" by John Patrick Leary to be illuminating:
Ouch.
I am not be able to do much about undoing the legacy of chattel slavery at my micro level. If I had tried to argue with yesterday's angry yelling man and explain to him that we're not racist against him, we just don't know who he is and don't care to learn since he is a stranger to us and we are there for tourism, that wouldn't have improved the situation at all. So we left as quickly as possible, no doubt leaving in his mind the impression that he ran into two racist white bitches who were thinking the N-word about him.
The effects of chattel slavery in this country still linger. Although in some ways it's remarkable that America was able to end it in just 2 generations from the foundation of the country, in other ways it's remarkable how much its legacy still shapes people today. I can 100% guarantee that both my girlfriend and I have benefitted immensely from white privilege, while yesterday's angry yelling man has been harmed all throughout his life, most likely starting even before he was born.
If we could all sit down and talk it out I'm sure we could be friendly, but that wasn't going to happen while he was yelling slurs at us.
Anyway, today is Juneteenth. I hope angry yelling man has a community where he can be among people where he feels safe, and that he can get some good food today (the holiday is primarily celebrated with food).
1865 wasn't long ago at all. I'm currently on vacation in a major East Coast city with many buildings older than that. And then there's the art I've been looking at in the museums. Yesterday I read a poem from the 12th century, looked at illuminated manuscripts from the 13th, and saw an exhibit of Jane Austen ephemera; she died in 1817.
Yesterday, an irate black man, who was angry that my girlfriend wasn't paying attention to him, started yelling at us. He accused us of racism; he expostulated that we must be thinking the N-word about him, and yelled at us to just say it out loud.
We weren't thinking about the fact that he was black; we just wanted to be left in peace to navigate to the next tourist attraction without being interrupted by angry, entitled men of *any* skin color! It's a little known fact that women actually don't owe men our attention!
Although my own family didn't intersect with the institution of slavery as far as I know, I know my white ancestors benefitted from it in a million difficult to describe ways. Slavery is often mentioned as America's "original sin," but I found this passage from "'Original Sin,' Slavery, and American Innocence" by John Patrick Leary to be illuminating:
"And this distancing effect was precisely why the phrase first gained favor — among antebellum slavery apologists. One of these, the philosopher Thomas R. Dew of William & Mary, conceded cleverly in 1831 that slavery was a sin, but it was an original sin — in other words, not a sin you can do anything about. Because ending slavery would bring ruination upon slaveowners and (Professor Dew thought) slaves alike, the greater sin would be emancipation."
Ouch.
I am not be able to do much about undoing the legacy of chattel slavery at my micro level. If I had tried to argue with yesterday's angry yelling man and explain to him that we're not racist against him, we just don't know who he is and don't care to learn since he is a stranger to us and we are there for tourism, that wouldn't have improved the situation at all. So we left as quickly as possible, no doubt leaving in his mind the impression that he ran into two racist white bitches who were thinking the N-word about him.
The effects of chattel slavery in this country still linger. Although in some ways it's remarkable that America was able to end it in just 2 generations from the foundation of the country, in other ways it's remarkable how much its legacy still shapes people today. I can 100% guarantee that both my girlfriend and I have benefitted immensely from white privilege, while yesterday's angry yelling man has been harmed all throughout his life, most likely starting even before he was born.
If we could all sit down and talk it out I'm sure we could be friendly, but that wasn't going to happen while he was yelling slurs at us.
Anyway, today is Juneteenth. I hope angry yelling man has a community where he can be among people where he feels safe, and that he can get some good food today (the holiday is primarily celebrated with food).
