June 19, 2024 - “Juneteenth(!)?”
It’s a great weight, an elephant in the room; an honest question without a clear answer: what to make of our newest Federal Holiday, “Juneteenth”? By now, three years after June 19th was added to the cannon of the United States’ Federal Holidays, most are at least vaguely familiar with what it stands for: a day in which African-Americans . . . or more accurately, Africans, who were carried over on slave ships and brought to America, would no longer have to suffer the horrors of enslavement.
Of course, a deeper dive would reveal that the June 19th that gave rise to the holiday occurred in 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted. What caused the two-year delay? Mostly, due to the absence of the internets, folks in Texas did not receive word that the Federal Government had already freed the slaves, so it took some time . . . like two years, before Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas —- on June 19th — to deliver the news.
Still, when I write out Juneteenth, I think of adding an exclamation point at the end, a-la, Juneteenth! But that doesn’t look right, it doesn’t feel right. Yes, there’s a celebration that the name invites —- a celebration of freedom from enslavement for my ancestors, but is that celebration a jubilation . . . or is it a private, heartfelt, and solemn reflection . . . a quiet moment to sink deeply into the sadness and anger at the hurt that building a country —- this country, on enslaved people has caused.
Forgive me for the leap, but I think Derrick Rose —- yes, that Derrick Rose: the point guard from Memphis who was drafted by the Chicago Bulls and was the rookie of the year in 2008, then youngest Most Valuable Player in the history of the NBA, in 2011. That Derrick Rose who showed so much promise early in his career, only to suffer a torn ACL one spring day in April of 2012, sit out for the full 2012-2013, and then suffer an MCL tear again the following season —- in November of 2013. If you’re a basketball fan, serious, casual, or otherwise: you know his story, at least part of it.
But a few months before his first knee injury, there was this: “That time when Derrick Rose Wasn’t Feeling the Dancing.”
I’ve never met Derrick Rose, or the other all-star east starters from that year: Lebron James (MIA), Dwayne Wade (MIA), Carmelo Anthony (NYK), and Dwight Howard (ORL). But in that moment, on that literal stage, if I found myself up there . . . I just don’t think I’d be dancing either. Sure, Rose had made the All-Star game, a remarkable achievement for any athlete, but maybe rather than feeling celebratory and wanting to dance, he felt glad to be there and just wanted to chill, and take it all in.
The day after the game, Rose was asked about why he decided to forego the dancing in that moment and on that stage: “"I can dance," Rose said. "But there's a time and place for that, and I don't think it was right then and there." So that’s what Rose was feeling, but looking back, still I’d send all the same respect to James, Wade, Anthony, and Howard. They earned the right to be there, so if they were feeling the dancing, then by all means, go for it.
Is it insensitive to compare an All-Star game celebration to Juneteenth(!)? In my mind, the answer is yes and no.
Yes, because sports cannot and should not be compared to the sacrifices that Black men, women, and children made on account of slavery. Lives were lost and the impact of generational trauma and wounding still impacts Black and African-American communities to this day.
And no, because whether it’s Juneteenth(!)? or pre-game introductions before a professional exhibition basketball game, we should all have a choice about how we wish to express ourselves, and lean into whatever surfaces in those moments.
It’s the earliest of the morning hours of June 21, 2024 as as I write this, so I’m two days (at least not two years!) late. So I can’t say whether this will be helpful for you, reader, this time next year, but I know that it will help me, so I’ll write it out: whether I’ll feel like dancing like Lebron and Co next Juneteenth(!)? or standing still and quietly reflecting like D-Rose, either way, I will have celebrated the holiday the right way, whatever that may or may not mean to you.
- J.M.
