Guest Column: A scarlet red recipe for change

Published 12:30 am Thursday, June 17, 2021

Red velvet beet cake, hibiscus lemonade, strawberry cornbread cobbler. Each of these Juneteenth delights showcases an auspicious vibrancy symbolic of our nation’s history.

Juneteenth is a festival day unfamiliar to many white Americans, and one deserving of pensive commemoration.

Also referred to as Jubilee Day, Juneteenth has been a holiday celebrated by many Black Americans on June 19 to commemorate the emancipation of all enslaved people in the United States. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, after the Civil War ended, slaves were declared free.

It may be easy to fall out of touch with the fact that although most of us celebrate July 4 as our Independence Day, many Black people remained enslaved long after 1776. It wasn’t until 90 years later, when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in January of 1863, that slavery was ended by law. Importantly, it took another two years for that law to be communicated with purposeful enforcement to Confederate slave owners further south.

There are numerous ways to pay homage to this remarkable event in American history. My own ritual induction has seen a series of fits and starts. After all, like most white folks, I’m no expert here and my learning is never complete. But once I was able to set aside my white fragility goggles, I got down to brass tacks.

Following extensive historical research, including a number of earnest focus group dialogues among obliging friends, I decided upon an event that invokes the traditional Texan one. It will feature a modest gathering and a tasting of wondrous red fare! We shall dazzle our loved ones with a flight of my wife’s homemade summer berry wines — crimson, coral and all ruddy shades between.

We will muddle our way through a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, as tradition dictates. With chagrin, we will lament Astoria’s rather memorable tango with the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and reflect on how it must have felt for townspeople to see the cross burning on Coxcomb Hill one chilling night. And, finally, we will marinate over what a historical “civil rights walking tour” of Astoria might look like in anticipation of Juneteenths to come.

But all of these intellectual ruminations must be paired with a purposeful offering too — one of action, one of service.

In honor of Juneteenth, I donate my time to an agency that shares my values. United Way of Clatsop County is my chosen beneficiary — it’s where I concentrate my local attention to help understand and correct inequities that lead to racial injustice, oppression and violence against people of color in my community.

Locally, nationally and worldwide, United Ways are taking steps to forge more equitable communities. We affirm that power lies within individuals. Individuals must act in order for structures to change, and once the structures change, culture may begin to recognize every human for exactly that: their humanity.

Wondering how to learn more about Juneteenth? Democracy advocacy group NextGen America has an excellent short video, “History of Juneteenth,” available free online that can start you on your journey and bring modern relevance to your engagement with equity. Another brief video, Vox’s “Why all Americans should celebrate Juneteenth” is similarly edifying.

Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill into law this month making Juneteenth a state holiday.

This year, armed with both curiosity and humility, join me in founding your own Juneteenth ritual.

For buried in these rituals, these offerings, is a scarlet red recipe for change.