Don't whitewash Juneteenth: Black people shouldn't have to lose identity to promote holiday

Juneteenth is my favorite holiday. It’s the oldest known commemoration of the end of slavery in America and often brings people together who have not seen each other in years.

Blacks celebrate Juneteenth because it symbolizes the end of African Americans being treated as property while being physically and mentally abused by whites for free labor. The first slave ships docked in Jamestown, Virginia, in August of 1619. The last known slave ship arrived in Alabama in 1860. Slavery on U.S. soil spanned more than 240 years.

While Juneteenth is a celebration, it is also a day of paying homage to the ancestors who lost their lives while shackled, chained and stacked on top of one another in slave ships that crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Those who did not survive the crossing were discarded into the sea.

As Juneteenth approaches on Monday, a recent controversy in Greenville, South Carolina, shows we're still learning how to fully honor an event that was only made a federal holiday two years ago. Event organizers apologized in May after featuring a white couple on an advertising banner promoting "Juneteenth, An Upstate Celebration of Freedom, Unity, & Love.”

Thousands saw the ill-conceived ad, and some Blacks even called for a boycott. While the ad was surprising, I was more shocked to learn that some African Americans gave the ad the thumbs up.

The white couple never should have been the face of an African American event. Whites, and people of all races and backgrounds, can and should attend Juneteenth Day events. I want them to sample the delicious food created by people of African descent, take in our culture, socialize, but, more important, learn our history.

Many people do not understand what internalized racial oppression looks like. While cultivating diversity is good, Black leaders in Milwaukee said it should not be done at the expense of our own experiences. Juneteenth is a holiday and celebration whose images should only be that of descendants of enslaved people.

“People of color have spent so much energy trying to make people of white feel comfortable that we lose our own identity and value,” said Venice Williams, co-founder/producer at Kujichagulia Producers Cooperative in Milwaukee.

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Apology by Greenville Juneteenth organizers felt whitewashed

Juneteenth GVL founder and Executive Director Rueben Hays, who is Black, apologized – but only after some members of the board defended the banner, saying it was one of 50 ads aimed at reflecting diversity. In the apology, Hays said:

"Juneteenth GVL would like to apologize to the community for the presence of non-black faces on two flags representing Juneteenth. We acknowledge this mistake having been made and will correct the error quickly. This error was an attempt at uniting all of Greenville and, thereby, a slight oversight on one individual’s part that prevented us from fully embracing the rich potential and celebrating the depth of the black culture through the message and meaning of Juneteenth and for that, we apologize to you the entire community."

Hays whitewashed African American culture. It’s still mindboggling how he didn’t understand why placing white people on a banner representing Juneteenth was a problem from the beginning.

The decision is equivalent to hosting a “women’s march” but placing men on the flyers. While men should support women’s rights and causes, we should not be the face of any women’s event and vice versa.

'You should never be the image promoting what is ours'

While it’s always OK for other races and cultures to be lifted, nobody must explain anything to make people feel comfortable. Everyone should do their work to learn about cultures. Williams said African Americans have always had to explain why we are honoring our history and culture, while other races don’t have to.

Milwaukee has celebrated Juneteenth since 1971, and the event has grown over the past five decades. Today it features a vast street festival along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Food vendors offer everything from BBQ and mac and cheese to fried catfish and red velvet cake. You will also find strawberry soda, a staple because red in food represents the blood spilled by those lost during the multiple generations of slavery.

President Joe Biden signed a bill declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday on June 17, 2021. Slavery was abolished in January 1863 in states that had seceded, but many enslaved people in the South – Texas particularly – didn’t know they were free until June 19, 1865, two and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

How should we celebrate Juneteenth? More than any other holiday, Juneteenth must be a day of service and remembrance

People still struggle with how to celebrate this day. If you are in this position, here are a few things you can do: Attend the Juneteenth Day celebrations; read books on African American history; learn more about slavery; spend your dollars with Black-owned businesses; have a meal with a Black person; and learn about the horrible truths of slavery.

Avoid cashing in or doing something cringe-worthy. For example, Walmart offered a “Celebration Edition Juneteenth Ice Cream" last year and several other Juneteenth-themed items. The big box chain was criticized for trying to profit from the most important holiday of the year for Black Americans. The backlash from African Americans on social media was swift, forcing the retailer to pull the ice cream.

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They were not alone. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis also caught the fury of Black people when it sold Juneteenth watermelon salad. Like Walmart, the museum pulled the prepackaged salads and apologized.

White people play a role in Black history. Some played the role of antagonists, while others played positive roles by challenging the racist systems that discriminated against African Americans – like Father James Groppi, who helped fight against housing and racial discrimination in Milwaukee.

Williams offered these words of advice for white people interested in celebrating Juneteenth: “You are more than welcome to celebrate with us and learn our history, but you should never be the image promoting what is ours.”

James E. Causey has been covering his hometown ever since a high school internship through the Milwaukee Sentinel. This column first published at the Journal Sentinel, where he now writes and edits news stories. Causey was a health fellow at the University of Southern California in 2018 and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2007. Follow him on Twitter: @jecausey

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How do you celebrate Juneteenth? Don't center white people