Mindrot and Joketeenth

Thoughts of a dissident on Juneteenth

“IF I’m free, it’s only ‘cause I keep running”

For the past few weeks I have suffered through a malady that I have called mindrot. My case of mindrot is resultant of both overwhelming events in both my life and the world at large. Many of which I will be writing about in the days to come. The absolute madness in the United States, and around the world, rendered me a bit cerebrally paralyzed for a time. The incessant bombardment of terrible, unprecedented domestic and global events has taken a toll. This leads me to today, so called Juneteenth which I sardonically call “Joketeenth.”

Juneteenth is “celebrated” annually on June 19. Juneteenth is a “holiday” that, auspiciously, commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. Problem is, slavery is still legal in the United States and, just like those “emancipated” Alkebulanian slaves the ones that are still legally slaves look overwhelmingly just like the first ones. It is called the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The 13th Amendment, in a most unambiguous manner, states "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The United States is home to the largest number of prisoners worldwide. Roughly 1.8 million people were incarcerated in the U.S. at the end of 2023. Since my readers and subscribers are of stellar intellect I will not insult your intelligence by informing you that the disproportionate number of those incarcerated are Black People in the United States because you already knew.

On June 17, 2021, Juneteenth was officially recognized as a federal holiday in the U.S. When Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, he rather disingenuously stated "This will go down for me as one of the greatest honors I will have as president." I guess if one is not aware of Joe Biden’s legislative and political history the statement smelled more rosy than the equine feces it smelled like to me.

And it has only intensified in its stink.

I have stated in previous writings that the thing that infuriates me most about white supremacy is the constant insulting of my intelligence by its architects, engineers, adherents and practitioners. And, for the record, I don’t give a flying fuck about Juneteenth, which is why, in my wee mind, it is Joketeenth. In the most merciless manner that I might muster I shall now elucidate why.

Being a Black Person in the United States is an existence of constant and unrelenting insult. From the break of day to the dead of night and from the womb to the tomb. A fact made worse by the reality that not only is the society oblivious to this component of its existence, so are many of the insulted. It is called ignorance, and the only thing worse than wholesale ignorance is being proud of it.

“And I’m proud to be an AmeriKan, where at least I know I’m freeeeeee…”

To, statistically, be among the industrialized nations most illiterate and ignorant people.

On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law, designating the third Monday in January a federal holiday in observance of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (now known as MLK Day). States are not required to observe it or any other federal holiday. Despite the federal law, it took 17 years for all 50 states to recognize the holiday and in two states (Mississippi and Alabama) it is known as "King-Lee" day. A conjunction of the politically ghastly insult and joke, of Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee. King Lee, as in King George.

See what I did there?

In the three years since President Joe Biden signed Juneteenth into law, fewer than half of the states “recognize” the holiday. Sound familiar? I’ll likely be dead and gone before they all do; provided the United States still exists.

Asians don’t have a “federal holiday.” Latinos don’t have a “federal holiday.” Arabs don’t have a “federal holiday.” Jews don’t have a “federal holiday.” My Original American ancestors don’t have a “federal holiday.” Yet, in almost virtually every negative societal metric those groups dwarf the numbers for Alkebulanian descendants. The only group close is Original Americans of which I also share ancestry, but at least they have some land of their own (granted the entire country is theirs, technically) and a goddamned casino. There ain’t a Black M.F. that owns and operates a casino in the United States. No where.

I give less than a damn about “the first Black president.” Under Obama, the social metrics for Black People in the United States plummeted. Illiteracy increased, home ownership decreased, “Negative Health Outcomes” increased and incarceration increased. I give less than a damn about a bullshit holiday designed for the oppressor of the oppressed to feel better about themselves (because that is exactly what it is). I give less than a damn about window dressing and disingenuous, chitlin’ circuit, white supremacist politicking.

I care about an incarceration decrease. I care about day after day, year after year I know that there will be a police killing of my people. I care about justice system reform. I care about the fact that, since I have been alive, for six decades, Black Women in the United States have an exponentially higher chance of dying during childbirth along with the highest infant mortality rate. I care about an increase in Black home ownership and the totally apartheid exposing statistic pertinent to the familial wealth gap. I care about food deserts that exist in every single predominately Black community in the United States (and I am fully aware of why it is so).

I care about, probably more than anything, the fact that 84 percent of Black 8th-grade students are unable to do the most rudimentary math and 85 percent of them are functionally illiterate. Because, you see, this is related to the centuries old policy of it being illegal to teach us to read and write…a foreign language. Then, when that is no longer, maintain a de facto system of ensuring that illiteracy with inferior, underfunded schools in the places where they live. If this, alone, were to change the other metrics would, too.

Until the United States, through some cosmic machination, develops the collective intellectual honesty and intestinal fortitude to “recognize” it is an apartheid society nothing will change. Which is why it has not and, likely, will not. It is a society not of truth and reality, but one of lies and “dreams,” the sleep claiming to be awake. It is neither home nor society of the brave, it is the dystopian failed “experiment” of cowards.

Legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix once stated “IF I’m free, it’s only ‘cause I keep running.” That galactic wisdom is exactly why I am going to keep running. Running the truth right up the asses of the denialistic bastards that force me to do so.

Happy Joketeenth and grab your ankles.