Team,
Happy Juneteenth!
Today is a day to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. It is a day of celebration, a day of community, and a day of commitment to keep fighting for true freedom.
We can’t stop now. This is a moment for us to recommit to fighting for the substantive policies of racial justice.
Racial justice means tackling the structural inequities that persist in our society today. In housing, healthcare, employment, and the criminal justice system. It means environmental justice. It means dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline and ending the War on Drugs. Both have needlessly upended the lives of so many Black people in this country.
Racial justice means reparations for the descendants of enslaved African peoples, starting with H.R. 40.
It means protecting voter rights and ending deep inequities in education.
It means removing the loophole in the 13th Amendment which allows for prisoners to be paid mere pennies for their labor – because the law ending slavery should never come with an asterisk.
We will fight for these desperately needed policies which will change people’s lives.
We will fight for justice –
While we celebrate Juneteenth.
In solidarity and with love,
Mckayla
