 This is the moment, John, Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the US learned they were “free.” I put free in quotations, because that final announcement of emancipation did not erase the 250 years of trauma wrought by chattel slavery. It didn’t break down the societal systems built on foundations of Black bodies. It didn’t prevent Jim Crow, or the prison industrial complex, or redlining, or any of the infinite aggressions of the next 150 years of our history. Violence—physical, emotional, spiritual, economic violence—against Black people has been woven into the very fabric of this country. We have fought for over 400 years to be truly free. June 19th is a celebration of every victory we have pried from the cold hands of white supremacy. It’s also a reminder of how much we have yet to win. Today millions across the country are rising up to demand an end to the police system that has perpetuated violence against us for over three centuries. We at Sunrise are following the lead of Movement for Black Lives, who have made the demands of this weekend’s Juneteenth demonstrations clear:
Click here to learn more and find an action near you to join. There cannot be climate justice without racial justice. Black and Indigenous people and People of Color across the nation are the first to be harmed by climate change and the corporations that cause it. It’s our communities more than any other who are left with nothing when floods carry away our homes and fires burn them down. It’s us who suffer from higher rates of illness from a lifetime of poisoned air and water polluted by factories and pipelines the wealthy won’t allow in their own backyards. The devaluement of our lives is what makes the fight for climate justice so hard—a system that does not see us as deserving has no motivation to fix a problem that affects us the most. That’s why it’s Sunrise’s responsibility to show up for Black lives—today and every day. Join us and millions of others in what will be one of the biggest Civil Rights demonstrations in recent history. Mattias Lehman, Digital Director |