Juneteenth
We Still Aren't Free
Yesterday was Juneteenth. I purposely didn’t drop this short essay on the day of Juneteenth but, we must remind ourselves we aren’t free there is no law or decree that can set us free. The slave can’t be emancipated on the terms of the master. The emancipation proclamation wasn’t about shit nor was the 13th amendment when it comes to the Black subject achieving true freedom. Reformed slavery is slavery. How can we sit here and say we are free while many of us are kidnapped and still shipped in 2026. Shipped throughout the neo colonial detention centers let them be deputized to be run by “ICE, or the “Metro Police “ , or the state’s prison plantations. While don’t get me wrong, yes there was a marginal gain made in Galveston when the news broke that we were “free”. That word “freedom” I have trouble seeing that we are free today. If we were truly free I wouldn’t have to say Free The Land, Free Mumia , Free Josh Williams , or Free All Political and Politicized Prisoners. If we truly were free we wouldn’t see the repeated incidents of Black mothers , women , and daughters being murdered in the states , jails , hospitals, or by the man at home. As we saw the verdict that was handed down we even now say Free Karmelo Anthony. Well we aren’t free, that’s the truth. The struggle is ongoing, hell one can even say it’s endless. We can also understand we aren’t free because the state co-opted Juneteenth in itself. Anything under the capitalist market can be bought, sold , and marketed. Let us remind ourselves we can’t celebrate the state federalizing of a holiday that represents the events of being unchained while the state still chains us. We must realize and internalize the struggle ,we must struggle for a new existence, or one may say to end the world. Free The Land.