BeCause We Can
  • Blog
  • Where It All Began
  • About the Author
  • Contact

A Mind Unfettered: My Juneteenth Memories

6/19/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
by Susan Parlato Revels

I know there's controversy about it. Making Juneteenth a federal holiday. I've read the pros and cons all day today. So here's my "skin in the game"......

I remember the first Juneteenth celebration I went to 42 years ago. Barbara, Inez and Robin, my girlfriends (who were Black) said, "Come on, Susan, lets go to the Juneteenth celebration!" I didn't know what it was, but I said, "Okay!"

It was hot and the humidity index was sky high. We girls, young and beautiful, got all dressed up in our summer finery and walked down Fillmore Avenue in Buffalo, New York, laughing and dancing, music blasting from everywhere, and joining a whole community of people who were celebrating, having fun...joyous. And I learned what Juneteenth was about. There were hardly any other White people there, but I was HAPPY to be invited to join that observance . And I was HAPPY to celebrate - not that my fellow merrymakers themselves had been freed from slavery, but to commemorate the time in history where we as a nation took a step in the right direction away from oppression and toward something that could build inter-racial solidarity. There's that proverb that says, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I was grateful we could all just "be" with each other and acknowledge that we were now many steps away from a very brutal period of our history. We "girls" could not have walked down the street together like that a century or so earlier. What would my innocent and winsome companions have been subjected to if we lived at another time? But there we were, we twenty-something dream girls, reveling in that freedom of youth and affection, afforded to us because of the time in which we were fortunate enough to be born.

I celebrate it for both Black and White people.....for us to recognize that we can overcome the phobias of the past and learn to appreciate each other as fellow humans and FRIENDS in this short stint of time where we happen to populate this earth and breathe the same air.

I celebrate it for others, AND I celebrate it for MYSELF.....that I don't have to live during that time in America where having my fellow humans in bondage was the law of the land, where my ability to do anything about it was dictated by the demands of others, where my own mind could have been seared, and I can now have completely free, intimate and loyal relationships with people who do not happen to share my skin color. I SHUDDER at the thought of what my husband, son and daughter would be experiencing right now if we lived 150 years ago. I know what racist components of my childhood used to influence my thinking, and what I had to do to overcome them. I know what it took to free my heart and mind from the influences of my past. I don't commemorate this day out of ANY sense of White guilt. I commemorate it, because I escaped, and just happened to enter this world at a time where my choices of friends and loved ones are influenced by.......knowing each other.

I....am free....TOO. So.....HAPPY JUNETEENTH. EVERYBODY.

2 Comments
WritePaperforme link
11/16/2022 04:39:27 am

Need an academic text? Find the order page on the WritePaperforme website page and provide all paper details. Experienced writers create assignments at an affordable price.

Reply
https://plumberswestauckland.co.nz/ link
12/20/2022 12:49:11 am

My Juneteenth Memories is a memoir that spans across the span of my life. It started as a memory of growing up in a small town in Texas. An area where there was just two main roads and a lot of dirt roads. We were surrounded by small towns and farms, which meant we spent our days outside playing with our friends and cousins – who lived nearby.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Susan Parlato Revels

    Archives

    March 2023
    July 2022
    June 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Other blog posts

    Picture
    A Mind Unfettered: My Memories of Juneteenth
    Picture
    Be Less White
    Picture
    Look Up!
    Picture
    Getting Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
    Picture
    "That Higher Good"
    Picture
    On the Defensive: School Shootings
    Picture
    Negotiating the Media Landscape: My Beef
    Picture
    "Gurl, You Got That Mustache Goin' On" And Why I Won't Be Colorblind
    Picture
    The Departure of a Soul
    Picture
    A Eulogy For My Father
    Picture
    Old Dog, New Tricks-Walking Towards Anti-Racism
    Picture
    Graduation - Lord, Let Me Know How Transient I Am
    Picture
    Her Big Chop - Thank you Black Women Everywhere.....
    Picture
    Immigration vs. Slavery
    Picture
    Old Dog
    Picture
    Happy Birthday Dr. King
    Picture
    "The Starless Midnight Of Racism"
    Picture
    Of Time And Touch
    Picture
    Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
    Picture
    The Mixture Of Our Cultures, Blending Us Into One People
    Picture
    An Election Outcome: Do I Dare Hope?
    Picture
    Racist Pt. 2: The First African American I ever Encountered
    Picture
    The Balloon Fiesta
    Picture
    Black Lives Matter: A White Guy With A Sign
    Picture
    Racist Pt. 1 - How Did That Happen?
    Picture
    The Things Teenagers Say
    Picture
    Lest We Forget: A Letter To My Children Days After 9-11-01
    Picture
    Self-Revelation
    Picture
    What Did She Mean By, "Mama Do You Feel Weird?"
    Picture
    Mama, Do You Feel Weird?
    Picture
    But I'm White.......

    Categories

    All
    Children And Race
    Death
    Election 2016
    Family
    Miscellaneous
    Racism

    links to other sites

    www.abuacademy.com

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • Where It All Began
  • About the Author
  • Contact