Juneteenth
Today, Juneteenth, commemorates the official emancipation from slavery of African Americans throughout the United States. Yet as recent weeks have shown us, there is still a very long way to go in our country to truly free us from the structures and systems of racial oppression and white supremacy that perpetuate inequality.
I wrote this meditation 28 years ago in Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King verdict and the rebellion that ensued in LA and across the nation. As I reflect on the uprising and protests of recent weeks—what has sparked them and what they are seeking to change—I am brought back to this short piece. It hurts me to say that those same words from 1992 still seem relevant today.