Every year, Juneteenth rolls around, and you see it — corporate posts, colorful graphics, and well-meaning emails about freedom. Offices close. There’s a sense of progress in the air. But then…things go quiet again. The systems stay intact. The stories stay shallow. And urgency fades.

Let’s be clear: Juneteenth is not a celebration. It is a warning. It is a mirror. It is a call to action.

It commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War had ended, and all enslaved people were free. But here’s what people often gloss over: the Emancipation Proclamation was signed two and a half years earlier. That means thousands of Black people were in held in slavery after they were legally freed, knowingly, intentionally, and with impunity.

That delay wasn’t just a quirk of history. It was a deliberate withholding of freedom, power, and truth.

AND that same deliberate, violently delayed pattern for inequity still plays out today.

We are watching civil rights and human dignity being stripped away in real time. We are seeing communities targeted by political platforms built on fear, white supremacy, and control. Mass deportations, families separated. Trans and queer youth legislated out of existence. Books banned. History rewritten. Voting rights under attack. Yet, we still hear people say, “This isn’t who we are.”

Let’s be real: This is exactly who we are. Over and over again.

America has a long-documented history of denying basic human rights to the very people who built this country. That denial has always been legal. It’s always been strategic. And it’s always been wrapped in the language of “law and order,” “protecting families,” and “making America great again.”

We haven’t learned from the ills of our past because we’ve never truly reckoned with them. We bury them. We rebrand them. We turn holidays like Juneteenth into “days off” instead of days to confront. But, if this holiday teaches us anything, it’s this: Freedom in America has never been freely given. It’s been fought for. Marched for. Demanded. Bled for.

This moment we’re living in is not an accident. It’s a continuation. That’s why Juneteenth is so much more than a historical footnote or checkbox on a DEI calendar. It is relevant. It is raw. It is real.

So, what do we do?

We stay awake. We tell the truth (ESPECIALLY when it’s uncomfortable). We organize. We support Black, brown, queer, immigrant, and disabled communities year-round. We show up for each other.

In the same way Juneteenth marks a delay in freedom, it also reminds us of the power of persistence. Even in the face of denial, people kept fighting. Kept loving. Kept building. Kept resisting. We are their descendants. And the future is still ours to shape.

This is a call to decide who we’re willing to become. Let’s not waste it.