Juneteenth Blog Takeover

I stole this image from Kent State University and will remove it if requested.This coming Saturday is Juneteenth,

a holiday that you may or may not celebrate, but one which may soon become a national holiday. Just in case you’ve heard of it, but you don’t know precisely what it is, here’s the two-paragraph version of history:

On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order freeing all slaves in Confederate states on January 1st of 1863 (giving Southern states time to join the Union and thereby keep hold of their slaves, but that’s a post for another time).

Word spread like wildfire via the usual routes, but Texas escaped most of the fighting due to its isolation, and it wasn’t until nearly two and a half years later when General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston and read off General Order No. 3, that the Black folk in much of Texas got the word. June 19th, 1865. Juneteenth.

I’ve said it before, but things happen in America (maybe in this world) only when it’s about damn time, and this was one shining example.

But the past year (and then some) has shown definitively that we’ve still got work to do. And by we, I mean you and me. I’m not saying you need to quit your job and join the next protest du jour, I’m not even saying you can’t continue to put your family first. We’ve all got struggles. So let me by telling you why you should care:

You directly benefit from diversity.

I liken it to brainstorming. You collect all the ideas you can come up with, then you narrow it down to the best ones. The thing is, people from different backgrounds are going to approach a problem differently and therefore come up with different ideas, giving you more choices and a potential best idea you never would have thought of.

The world will always face problems. If you’ve got a room full of monoculture homogenous people with similar backgrounds (think White cis male) working to fix them, you’ll get a lot of the same idea. It’s just that simple.

Our children need a diverse room, and this is how I believe we get there.

■ Support diversity programs in education. We’ve got to make it the norm that no matter a kid’s background, they can feel like a career choice in the sciences and leadership is a legitimate option for them.

■ Support minority-owned businesses. Often times, the only difference between a minority-owned business and a White-owned business is establishment. The White-owned business is established, and the minority-owned business is just trying to get off the ground. If we keep going to the former just because of name recognition, the latter goes out of business, and we lose out on diversity in our region. Again. A reader of my blog recently sent me this list of 181 Black-owned businesses (categorized), and now I share it with you. https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/support-black-owned-businesses/

■ Read what minorities write in your genre. I’m showing my bias as a writer here, but I believe books change us in positive ways. If you are already reading sci-fi anyway, why not give Afrofuturism a chance? I guarantee you there are some mind-blowing options out there. Personally, I love Maurice Broaddus’s work. If memoir is more your jam, the same applies. You can do this one without leaving your comfort zone (I.E., genre-of-choice), and I think you’re going to love it.

■ If you can’t participate, donate. I don’t have a ton left over at the end of the month, but I always set something aside for The United Negro College Fund and The Union Gospel Mission of Seattle, among others. If you collect what you can each month and send out checks toward the end of the year, you’ll be amazed what impact you can have and how good you will feel.

The above list is just my thoughts on the subject,

and this list will change with time. As norms change, we’ll find other areas to have an impact, and someone may say something tomorrow that will spark inspiration in me. This may even happen here on my site, because…

This week, I have some fantastic Black content creators, people I truly admire, who have agreed to share their thoughts and experiences here. At the very least, you are going to learn something interesting, but my hope is that something this week will resonate with you, and you’ll find a new passion in an unexpected area.

So come back tomorrow to hear from Dr. Carlotta A. Berry, Ph. D. for day one of my blog takeover, and every day through this Saturday, Juneteenth.

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