The odor of BBQ-slathered ribs crackling on Unc’s grill. Children reciting all three verses of “Raise Each Voice and Sing.” Black pageant distributors hawking handcrafted artwork items as incense smoke wafts within the air.
Right this moment marks Juneteenth—an annual observance of Black emancipation after the Civil Warfare—so from Tampa to Tacoma, you’ll really feel its jubilant presence. As soon as rooted in Southern custom, Juneteenth gained federal recognition in 2021, propelling it firmly into the mainstream. However amid all the deliberate events, parades, and celebrations of Black liberation, there’s one thing that’s simply not sitting proper with me this time round.
All through 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers have swept by means of U.S. cities, bringing President Donald Trump’s mass deportation fantasies to life by arresting hundreds of undocumented residents and even some residents. The raids escalated in Los Angeles earlier this month, as ICE brokers descended with army power, snatching males, ladies, and youngsters from houses, companies, farms, and church buildings. From there, they await deportation in detention facilities that some have described as “deplorable”—reportedly with out due course of in some circumstances.
Whereas these ambushes appear to focus on Latino communities primarily, the connection to Black battle is tough to disregard, particularly with African and Caribbean immigrants additionally vulnerable to being apprehended. Haitian immigrants have been getting deported to the island since Trump took workplace in January. A 44-year-old Haitian nationwide died in ICE custody in April.
Meek Mill as soon as famously requested, “What’s free?” and the way in which this state-sanctioned chaos collides with Juneteenth has me shaking my head and questioning the identical rattling factor.
The vacation that commemorates enslaved Texans lastly studying of their freedom on June 19, 1865—160 years in the past at present—obtained its glow-up shortly after the 2020 police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. That yr’s racial reckoning yielded motion: black Instagram squares, firms that provided a single paid time off, lawmakers draped in Kente material, and sure, the primary federal vacation since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day turned one in 1983. However these have been dopamine hits, not actual options to systemic racism or xenophobia. They have been Black- and brown-toned bandages slapped over a gaping wound. (Please imagine Band-Support capitalized on the second, too.)
Picture Credit score: Joshua Lott for The Washington Submit/Getty Photographs
5 years after the brutality that pushed Juneteenth into the nationwide consciousness, the hallowedness of its federal designation—sarcastically, a reelection promise made throughout Trump’s failed 2020 marketing campaign—thunks loudly as ever. Since federal brokers started swarming South Los Angeles neighborhoods within the early hours of June 6, many restaurant staff, landscapers, and different neighborhood members have continued to work beneath the concern of being immediately arrested. Others are reportedly too afraid to depart their houses or ship their youngsters to high school, terrified they could assist an agent meet some arbitrary arrest quota simply by stepping exterior.
Widespread protests adopted in all 50 states, however Trump responded with extra power than cause in native areas like Compton and the Trend District, deploying greater than 4,000 California Nationwide Guard troops and 700 Marines to disperse crowds with rubber bullets, tear gasoline, and stun grenades. It was the primary time in 60 years {that a} U.S. president federalized a state’s militia with out a governor’s consent—and the primary army deployment in opposition to the American public since 1992, when riots rocked Los Angeles after the police who beat Rodney King have been acquitted.
Once more, I ponder, what’s free? As a result of the curse of xenophobia comes at a value that’s far too costly.
It’s dangerous sufficient that these immigration stings—and the violent quelling of lawful protests—set harmful precedents for the chief energy of a president with authoritarian tendencies. Finally, it’s us who foot the invoice. This yr alone, almost $34 billion was allotted for immigration and border enforcement—greater than two-thirds of all federal legislation enforcement spending, in accordance with the nonpartisan suppose tank Cato Institute. And if the Senate approves the Home’s price range reconciliation invoice (H.R. 1), that quantity may swell by a further $168 billion over 5 years.
Simply think about if even a fraction of that sum went towards fixing the disaster of Black homelessness in Atlanta. Or funding clear water infrastructure in Flint. Or relieving pupil debt. Or increasing federal healthcare. As an alternative, that cash is being earmarked for armored vans and holding cells—instruments of the identical techniques Juneteenth was meant to mark our escape from.
Past the chilly grasp of ICE, Juneteenth celebrations could really feel muted this yr because of the Trump administration’s anti-DEI campaign and energetic erasure of racial historical past. Establishments throughout the nation have scaled again or outright canceled occasions beneath political and monetary stress.
Mainly, all the pieces sucks. Which is why there’s just one acceptable strategy to strategy Emancipation Day: Go up even more durable than ordinary. We all the time knew America may by no means actually embrace Juneteenth with out first taking accountability for hundreds of years of Black bondage. So this vacation has all the time—and can all the time—belong to Black people.
With that being stated, have a good-ass, Black-ass time at present. Hit the Milly Rock and the Laffy Taffy and the Electrical Slide. Dive into Black Boy or The Coldest Winter Ever. Go see Sinners once more. Pull as much as a cookout and ask who made the potato salad. Find out about George Washington Carver’s a whole lot of innovations. Right this moment is a celebration of us, phrase to Skyzoo.
If you happen to can afford to relaxation, accomplish that. However keep in mind that Juneteenth is not any victory lap. If Trump’s second administration has proven us something, it’s that the battle for liberation continues. And we rattling certain gained’t exit unhappy.
