Juneteenth

White liberation must not depend upon black emotional labor.

Juneteenth

My coffee cup, it is empty.

I preached on Juneteenth once. It was not terrible, but I relied upon black members of the congregation to uphold me afterward. That still feels unfair to this day.

Black folk have been doing emotional labor for white preachers for far too long in this country. I really needed to have done my own work.

I think about the woman who used to work for my grandfather and how she cared for us. She was compensated for her emotional labor. My grandfather even set up a retirement plan for her. Still, such arrangements were of an era. My childhood was not all that long ago. It feels even nearer than that. Pearl.

I live not too far from that house. I even have cause to drive by it from time to time. It’s a big old place with a wrap-around porch. My grandfather lived most of his life in that house…age 3 onward.

Emancipation is both a moment and a process. There was a proclamation. Yes. And it was necessary in a land of laws. And it’s been a generations-long process that is ongoing. We have to see one another as liberated. We have to understand that another’s liberation is not our bondage. But that ideology dies hard. For centuries we clung to it.

But the urgency of need, of the frank insistence that liberation is a right all deserve, a holy desire, demands that it not take centuries to undo the legacy of slavery and oppression.

How can we celebrate Juneteenth when we still aren’t free?

We have taken down the portrait of R.E. Lee from the mantle over the fireplace in my lifetime. We must do better.

From Bp. Deon Johnson…

Almighty God, you rescued your people from slavery in Egypt, and throughout the ages you have never failed to hear the cries of the captives; We remember before you our sisters and brothers in Galveston, Texas who on this day received the glad tidings of their emancipation; Forgive us for the many grave sins that delayed that liberating word; Anoint us with your Spirit to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of your favor; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.