I was asked to make a speech for a Juneteenth celebration we were to have at the shelter I work at. On this day of freedoms jubilee, I wanted to examine in this speech the idea of “freedom”. Here it is.
We are gathered here to celebrate today, our emancipation from the retched bonds of chattel slavery. A dark history that is intertwined with the building of this great nation on the backs of enslaved Africans. We are told to rejoice in the glory of freedoms final ring, a sound that must’ve had a glorious reverberation of joy to all in it’s path in Galveston, TX on that June 19th in 1865. We headed down freedoms path with the promise of economic equality in the form of 40 acres and mules to farm our own land. We would now be the controllers of our own fate, prosperity was on the immediate horizon for a people that had spent the entirety of their time in this country, not as naturalized citizens, but merely as capital. As captives in a system that normalized brutality. That rewarded vicious inhumanity with generational riches. But shackled no more, we were to be truly free.
That reality was short lived as the lie of financial, and in turn legal recompense, became a sort of hellish déjà vu. There was no land to till, there were no mules, only the promise of a bondage renamed called convict leasing. The name changed, but another brutal system of economic inequality stayed in tact for the newly freed. New laws and amendments were put in place to easily incarcerate these now freed people. The system that created our chains and removed our humanity was still in place. This system, which we still exist in today is NOT the foundation of an equitable society, but the forefather of hate and a racist tyranny that we are still trying to reckon with today. The “Freedom” bestowed upon our people was in name only for many. So while we are congregated here to celebrate, I ask all in attendance, what is it that we are actually celebrating? To a people denied it for so long, What does Freedom actually look like?
I’m told that here in America, this is in fact, the land of the truly free. Freedom is presented as the opportunity to choose between 100 different toothpastes that are manufactured by a monopoly of greedy capitalists, that use that greed to avoid taxation thus creating a wealth gap unimaginable to most other countries in the West. I see on the news many Americans, armed to the teeth, telling me that the lock down that we face in the midst of a deadly pandemic is a repression of their freedom to consume. On Tucker Carlson’s show we saw the Lt. Governor of Texas call on the sacrifice of their elderly, for the reopening of the Applebees. We have the freedom to vote for president. And that freedom is co-opted by a two party duopoly, where both presidential choices, share the bipartisan interests of upholding the exact same system that kept my family in bondage, and keeps the boot of oppression pressed upon necks of so many. Regardless the color of the foot in the boot, it’s weight is still suffocating.
I’m free to have “access” to healthcare and free to chose between rationing precious insulin or paying rent. In this “Land of the Free” we are seeing so many people die from having to make that choice a daily reality. Here, in America, I’m free to not to be able to afford healthcare because of the ridiculously priced premiums and deductibles. One thing I’m not free to do, is actually become ill, because the bill I may be hit with can, like so many tens of thousands of Americans, bankrupt me or cause me to loose my housing. Is this what freedom looks like? Is this a just society?
I’m free to not be able to afford to live in the neighborhood I grew up in due to the astronomical cost of housing. Redlining, before gentrification, created a racial divide in this country that still casts a shadow of economic despair to this day. The creation of the modern day ghetto is not organic, it was created by this legal injustice. The same people that granted me my freedom in 1865, are the same ones that created my hood in 1977.
How free are our brothers and sisters in Flint, Michigan? Where the water STILL remains so contaminated that a generation of children grow up with the damning affects of lead poisoning. We’re free enough to have this public resource privately owned and now destroyed by corporations running roughshod over public good. It’s been 4 years, and still, after Obama, and now Trump, the water is still not clean in Flint.
As we see on social media and television, our streets are exploding like never before with people, of all races and religion, creeds, and sexual orientations that are no longer asking, but demanding freedom. Basic inalienable human rights are a commodity. We are finally becoming aware of the fact that Law Enforcement is not created to protect and serve the people. Since their early inception as a unit of people designed to hunt runaway slaves and crush labor rebellions, Law Enforcement is there to protect needs of capital. And yet, understanding all of this, I’m told I’m free. Politicians and political pundits tell me, “The system isn’t the problem, it’s individualistic, a few bad apples.”
I’ve seen, on TV, on at least 3 separate occasions, black men, cuffed and subdued, beg police officers for air gasping that they can’t breathe. On every occasion, I see those men parish at the ends of the “boys in blue”. And in the aftermath of these extra judicial killings, I see the media justify the death of these black boys, men and women because they might have had “checkered pasts”. They were “thugs”, and “criminals.” The streets erupt in rage for justice for the dead, but what does justice even look like for the fallen? For the families that have their loved ones taken from them so prematurely?
I am the father of 3 beautiful little black boys. Each one has grown up under the myth of American exceptionalism, and when they get of a certain age, I have to teach them the lesson of the two Americas that they exist in. I have to tell them that no matter what they do, they must straighten their backs up. Because as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “When you straighten your back up you’re going somewhere, and a man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent”. I tell them to respect yourself, walk tall, be proud of who you are, there is no shame in your surname and your color. And as I give this motivational speech, I must follow it with the contradiction of another reality. The other America. The one that says the color, and your youth make you a perpetual threat and a target. All the back straightening pride you have as you navigate throughout your day, you must sacrifice that for the frail ego of law enforcement that’s trained to see your pride as a danger. A righteous fear that can keep them from “coming home at night.” Keep your head down, obey their commands, no matter how demeaning. Will anyone demand justice for little black boys that have to endure the dehumanizing treatment that they face on so many routine and more often than not, unwarranted traffic stops, if they aren’t part of a dark “murder by police” fetish that gets perpetuated by mainstream media? Is justice the firing of rogue officers and the ouster of police chiefs? Is justice the empty promises of politicians to #defundpolice, yet keep in place the systems, and the structure that creates and criminalizes poverty? Race?
We are watching the world be radicalized in real time. In the midst of a global pandemic, people are risking their lives to unite in a global solidarity against the loss of life at the hands of overzealous law enforcement. As Arundhati Roy says, “Let the Pandemic be a portal” Let it show us that a system that denies it’s citizens the basic human rights of shelter, healthcare, clean drinking water, and education is, in it of itself unjust and inhumane. Let it show us that a nation that spends $686 Billion on it’s national defense budget, and $7.5 Billion on public health (Centers for Disease Control) shows a bipartisan need to protect a failing empire at the cost of the lives of the demos.
In 155 years, we’re still a people asking for our freedom. While we may be free from the physical chains of slavery, they have been replaced by a series of laws, and racial codes that keep us in a different kind of bondage. The bondage of poverty, that, sometimes leads us to the binds of drug and alcohol abuse, that can lead us down the road to homelessness and incarceration.
As we attempt to move forward from the injustice that we are constantly witnessing on television and social media, we have to think about what the world we want looks like. Not the one we except from a government that does not reflect the will if it’s citizens. A true democratic vision that gives a voice to the voiceless. We need more than non-profits and philanthropy that we have no democratic say so in. We need real parties that speak for the many and not the economically elite few. I look to the Freedom Charter of the African National Congress as a prime example of this fundamental change. We can’t have real systemic change unless we collectively share a vision and stay steadfast on a mission to see it through. It will not happen overnight, it won’t come from a few tepid reforms, and it we won’t build it in one election cycle. We need a fundamental restructuring and a redistribution of power and capital. Let us allow this dark cloud of COVID to lead us to the light of a better, more free, more just society. Let us rise up from the smoldering ashes of rebellion into the promise land of prosperity.
Thank you.
The People Shall Govern!
Every man and woman shall have the right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all bodies which make laws;
All people shall be entitled to take part in the administration of the country;
The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, colour or sex;
All bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils and authorities shall be replaced by democratic organs of self-government.
All National Groups Shall Have Equal Rights!
There shall be equal status in the bodies of state, in the courts and in the schools for all national groups and races;
All people shall have equal right to use their own languages, and to develop their own folk culture and customs;
All national groups shall be protected by law against insults to their race and national pride;
The preaching and practice of national, race or colour discrimination and contempt shall be a punishable crime;
All apartheid laws and practices shall be set aside.
The People Shall Share In The Country’s Wealth!
The national wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans, shall be restored to the people;
The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;
All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the people;
All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.
The Land Shall Be Shared Among Those Who Work It!
Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land redivided amongst those who work it, to banish famine and land hunger;
The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;
Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land;
All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;
People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished.
All Shall Be Equal Before The Law!
No one shall be imprisoned, deported or restricted without a fair trial;
No one shall be condemned by the order of any Government official;
The courts shall be representative of all the people;
Imprisonment shall be only for serious crimes against the people, and shall aim at re-education, not vengeance;
The police force and army shall be open to all on an equal basis and shall be the helpers and protectors of the people;
All laws which discriminate on grounds of race, colour or belief shall be repealed.
All Shall Enjoy Equal Human Rights!
The law shall guarantee to all their right to speak, to organise, to meet together, to publish, to preach, to worship and to educate their children;
The privacy of the house from police raids shall be protected by law;
All shall be free to travel without restriction from countryside to town, from province to province, and from South Africa abroad;
Pass Laws, permits and all other laws restricting these freedoms shall be abolished.
There Shall Be Work And Security!
All who work shall be free to form trade unions, to elect their officers and to make wage agreements with their employers;
The state shall recognise the right and duty of all to work, and to draw full unemployment benefits;
Men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for equal work;
There shall be a forty-hour working week, a national minimum wage, paid annual leave, and sick leave for all workers, and maternity leave on full pay for all working mothers;
Miners, domestic workers, farm workers and civil servants shall have the same rights as all others who work;
Child labour, compound labour, the tot system and contract labour shall be abolished.
The Doors Of Learning And Of Culture Shall Be Opened!
The government shall discover, develop and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our cultural life;
All the cultural treasures of mankind shall be open to all, by free exchange of books, ideas and contact with other lands;
The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace;
Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children;
Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit;
Adult illiteracy shall be ended by a mass state education plan;
Teachers shall have all the rights of other citizens;
The colour bar in cultural life, in sport and in education shall be abolished.
There Shall Be Houses, Security And Comfort!
All people shall have the right to live where they choose, to be decently housed, and to bring up their families in comfort and security;
Unused housing space to be made available to the people;
Rent and prices shall be lowered, food plentiful and no one shall go hungry;
A preventive health scheme shall be run by the state;
Free medical care and hospitalisation shall be provided for all, with special care for mothers and young children;
Slums shall be demolished, and new suburbs built where all have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, creches and social centres;
The aged, the orphans, the disabled and the sick shall be cared for by the state;
Rest, leisure and recreation shall be the right of all;
Fenced locations and ghettoes shall be abolished, and laws which break up families shall be repealed.
There Shall Be Peace And Friendship!
South Africa shall be a fully independent state, which respects the rights and sovereignty of all nations;
South Africa shall strive to maintain world peace and the settlement of all international disputes by negotiation-not war;
Peace and friendship amongst all our people shall be secured by upholding the equal rights, opportunities and status of all;
The people of the protectorates-Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland-shall be free to decide for themselves their own future;
The right of all the peoples of Africa to independence and self-government shall be recognized and shall be the basis of close co-operation.
Let all who love their people and their country now say, as we say here:
‘THESE FREEDOMS WE WILL FIGHT FOR, SIDE BY SIDE, THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES, UNTIL WE HAVE WON OUR LIBERTY.’
Adopted at the Congress of the People, Kliptown, South Africa, on 26 June 1955.
