By: Kayla Warner
Yesterday was Juneteenth. And if I’m being honest, I don’t think enough people understand what that really meansâor why it’s so important.
Some people still roll their eyes at it. You can feel it in the way they say, “another holiday,” or the way they go about their day like itâs just a long weekend, not a reckoning. I think some white people still don’t know what Juneteenth is, and others donât want to admit what it represents: the truth that Black Americans weren’t truly free on July 4th, 1776.
Juneteenth, June 19th, marks the day in 1865 when Union troops finally arrived in Galveston, Texas and enforced the Emancipation Proclamationâtwo and a half years after it was signed. Itâs that dayânot the Fourth of Julyâthat marked real liberation for enslaved Black people in the U.S. And yet, I want to say this as clearly and respectfully as I can:
Freedom hasnât fully arrived.
The Prison System is Slavery in Disguise
Thereâs a line in the 13th Amendment that haunts me. You know, the amendment thatâs supposed to have ended slavery in this country? It goes like this:
âNeither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, shall exist within the United StatesâŚâ
That exception clause created the legal foundation for mass incarceration. It didnât end slaveryâit rebranded it.
Right now, Black Americans make up about 13% of the U.S. population, but account for nearly 38% of the prison population. Latinx people make up about 19% of the population, but about 30% of federal prisoners. White Americans make up about 58% of the general population, but less than 30% of those incarcerated.
These numbers arenât random. Theyâre the outcome of centuries of policies designed to criminalize poverty, mental illness, addiction, protest, and Blackness itself.
Today at Work, I Read Something That Gutted Me
I work in a law office, and today I read the presentence investigation report for a woman. A Black woman. The kind of file thatâs supposed to summarize a personâs life in neat little checkboxes and paragraphs.
It told the story of someone whoâs been struggling with serious mental health problems since childhood. Abuse, trauma, poverty, lossâpage after page of suffering. She isnât a threat. She isnât dangerous. Sheâs unwell. She needs help. But instead, sheâs being sentenced. Locked away. Put in a system where healing is almost impossible.
And weâre paying for that with our tax dollars. The United States spends more than $80 billion each year on incarcerationâwhile so many people canât access basic therapy, affordable housing, or care.
I Used to Be a Teacher. I Saw the Pipeline.
Before this job, I was a teacher at Warrington Elementaryâa public school in Florida where most of the students and families are Black and living in poverty. I still carry so much love for those kids. But I also carry rage.
Because I saw firsthand how our education system prepares Black children for prison.
How? By focusing obsessively on standardized tests that are biased and dehumanizing. By threatening schools with closure if scores don’t improve. By labeling six-year-olds âdisruptiveâ instead of asking whatâs wrong or what theyâve been through. By suspending kids for behaviors that are often trauma responses. By not hiring enough counselors. By sending more cops into schools than therapists.
I remember feeling like I was working in a building that wasnât built for our kids to thriveâit was built to sort them. And that sorting happens fast.
Black students are nearly four times as likely to be suspended from school as white students.
Students who are suspended are three times more likely to enter the juvenile justice system.
We call it the school-to-prison pipeline for a reason.
Juneteenth is a CelebrationâAnd a Call to Action
Iâm glad Juneteenth is now a federal holiday. Iâm glad we honor it. But celebration without reflection is empty.
We canât just clap for freedom while ignoring how unfree so many people still are.
If youâre white like me, this isnât about guiltâitâs about truth. Itâs about choosing not to look away. It’s about asking why so many of our systems still fail Black Americans so violently.
Itâs about asking why we call people “criminals” instead of asking what happened to them. Itâs about wondering what kind of country we could build if we invested in care instead of cages.
A Final Thought
To my white friends reading this: this post isnât an attack. Itâs an invitation.
You donât have to have all the answers. But you do have to care.
If Juneteenth makes you uncomfortable, ask yourself why. If youâve never noticed the racial disparities in who gets arrested, incarcerated, suspended, or expelled, maybe now is the time to start paying attention.
Black liberation is not just Black historyâitâs American history. And itâs far from over.
đ Sources and Further Reading
- U.S. Constitution, 13th Amendment: https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-13/
- The Sentencing Project â âTrends in U.S. Correctionsâ: https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/trends-in-u-s-corrections/
- Federal Bureau of Prisons â âInmate Statistics by Raceâ: https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp
- Prison Policy Initiative â âFollowing the Money of Mass Incarcerationâ: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/money.html
- U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights â Civil Rights Data Collection: https://ocrdata.ed.gov/
- American Bar Association â âPipeline to Prison: Special Education and the School-to-Prison Pipelineâ: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/the-school-to-prison-pipeline/pipeline-to-prison-special-education/