CATEGORY
Juneteenth 2021 Editorials
Celebrating Juneteenth, Honoring Black Lives
As we commemorate Juneteenth, the nation’s reckoning with racism is at the forefront of our societal conscience. Joyful events can summon interruptions of bittersweet reflection. While alongside uplifting Juneteenth festivities, all Americans must mourn and face the injustices still being waged against Black people.
Juneteenth Is An Opportunity To Confront The Nation’s “Hard History”
As the nation prepares to observe Juneteenth, the celebration of the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States, we are engaged in a bitter battle over the teaching of history, particularly the acknowledgment of white supremacy’s role in shaping our laws and institutions.
We Can’t Talk About Black Lives Without Talking About Black Health
We must look at the root causes of why Black communities were hit so hard by this pandemic. We need to address health disparities and inequities where we live, learn, work, and play that lead to lower life expectancies and higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and other conditions. We need policies to change. We need systems to change. We need to be at the table where decisions that impact our health are made. We need to see that Black health matters all the time, not only when there is a pandemic.
Juneteenth An Important Historic Marker
In my opinion, what Juneteenth is, among many other things, is a tangible manifestation of the human spirit of our ancestors that even the inhumanity and brutality of chattel slavery could not extinguish.
Juneteenth Is A Reminder Of The Journey We Have Yet To Complete
In King County, we are working in numerous ways to ensure that we are an anti-racist/pro-equity government - from transforming policing and the criminal legal system to making down-payments towards economic justice for the Black community and all historically oppressed people.
A Liberated Future By And For Black Washingtonians
We are emancipating ourselves from this system of oppression and fashioning a new model of philanthropy anchored in the beauty, soulfulness, and strength of Blackness. Within our first year, we have infused $1 million into Black-led organizations, no strings attached, to support the powerful work of nonprofits that are strengthening health, education, and economic opportunity with Black Washingtonians.