Happy Juneteenth!

Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

Welcome to If I'm Honest and happy Juneteenth. Today is episode release day and I had initially planned to release an episode called, Can We Talk About Recovery? And that episode is about what the process looks like when we cause harm as a relational concept, right, and the steps it takes to repair and reconcile so that we can keep having, maintain a relationship of trust. And this is a practice that has to happen in your everyday relationships all the time in different ways and what that looks like so that when We do cause major harms like oppression and discrimination that when we're called to the floor, we're able to recover well. And so look forward to the episode next week. But today is Juneteenth and to release that episode today felt like working on my birthday and we're not doing that. We're not doing that in 2024. But today I'd like to talk about, just briefly, about my relationship with Juneteenth and finding out about it in my 30s. And the betrayal of finding out about this day after celebrating Fourth of July for so long. So, if you're not clear, I did grow up in a black family, and we attended a black church. And when I went to the first grade, I went to the black school that was associated with the black church. And just to be clear, my church and my school were 100 percent black. We didn't have any people of color or white people that had attended that. So my entire world, all the way through the eighth grade, was black. It's black, blackity black, right? And my family would make us do book reports on historic figures in the black community at family reunion. Right. And my school, we had black history month that happened every February, right? Like it happens every year in America, but we also had a black history week that happened in the fall. And during that week, I can remember. Had to dress up as a famous historic figure in black history and then give a report on who we were. And people had to guess who we were. So we were dressed up, so it was kind of pretty easy. But I can remember Oh, some of the people I did, and I did Mae Jemison, who was the first African American astronaut to travel into space. She was also an engineer and a doctor and did this historic thing. I also did Thurgood Marshall, who was the first African American Supreme Court Justice. He also, is responsible for the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education. And so we thank him for his contribution in African history. I did I did Ben Carson. Ben Carson was actually one of my favorite. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up. That was just like my dream. Dream. And I had read Ben Carson's book Gifted Hands in like fifth grade. And he had done this really phenomenal thing, like overcoming adversity in the fact that he, his mom was poor and they were impoverished and she had this crazy regimen to make them learn and do book reports and to be educated. And they both came out, he and his brother came out to be successful. But he didn't just. become the successful pediatric neurosurgeon. He also did crazy cases like separating conjoined twins. He later also became a politician, but we just not We just not gonna talk about that. We not. I think I also did Charles Drew, who was responsible for the blood transfusion. You know, he figured out how to store blood on a large scale and created this system of doing blood transfusions and storing plasma. Crazy. So that's who I am. These are the things that I know and it was very important for me to know growing up. So it was wild to me. That all through my education that I didn't find out or hear about Juneteenth on any real level until I was like 31. I can remember hearing about it like in passing when I moved to D. C. And just being like I don't know what that is and not engaging in thought. I didn't meet it with curiosity. I didn't ask questions. I just couldn't worry about it. And It wasn't until I was dating someone who kind of talked about it being a significant day in their own life that I thought, Oh my God, I had no idea that in 1776, 4th of July, when America gained their independence, I was still a slave. My ancestors were still slaves. I had no idea that it would take another 89 years for slaves to gain their freedom. in some kind of way, right? To begin a process of liberation and freedom that makes room for this podcast today. And so I want to make sure that we celebrate days like today and that we acknowledge and we actionably do something that says, We are grateful and we appreciate this day. So I would encourage you that today that you support a black owned business, go eat some black owned food, go buy black owned items, do something to support a black owned business. Because I think It is more significant to have an impact in action than it is to say happy Juneteenth. This is not a space where I want you to go hug a black friend. Please don't do that. I mean, if you got black friends, you want to hug them. Like don't do it because Keisha Sam actively support Juneteenth. All right. All right. Be cool. Be cool. I also want to make sure that we make room for the other holidays that are Representative of other identities, like Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, or Women's History, or Pride, anything. I, I think, I think it's really important that we acknowledge the identities of people who have overcome and are still overcoming, right? And so I can't do that because I check a few boxes but I don't check all of them. And so I would like on those specific days that should be honored and recognized to lend out the podcast. And I'd love to talk to people who are wanting to celebrate a specific day. The only one that comes to mind right now is Cinco de Mayo. We just missed it. But I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know too much about Cinco de Mayo. I didn't, I didn't. I remember I'm a church girl. So I did not grow up celebrating Cinco de Mayo. And I never leave the house. So but I, I bring that up because I think there are days that are historic and special in different cultures and identity that need to be acknowledged and honored and respected. And I want to make sure that I create space that we can actionably say, we support you, right? Like this is not a space where I want us to do land acknowledgements. Not just say, I want to acknowledge that this is the land that we're on. I want us to. Give time, money, support something that is real and tangible that people can use, need, and see that isn't just lip service. Nonetheless, thank you for being here and happy Juneteenth.