Emancipation • (i-man-sə-pā-shən) • noun
Definition: the act of freeing oneself from restraint, control, oppression, or bondage
Origin: English
Every New Year when people are focused on reflections and resolutions, I tend to think about the Emancipation Proclamation. On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the executive order to free all enslaved people in the United States of America, but the order did not come into effect until January 1, 1863.
The first day of 1863 heralded a new era and understanding of freedom in the United States that radically transformed our society for the better, yet America does not celebrate this momentous occasion. We learn about the importance of the proclamation in our history books but never actually celebrate it in real life, and I believe this oversight says a lot about the nature of American society and democracy. We have a society that claims to celebrate the end of slavery, but we do not officially or nationally celebrate the day when slavery became illegal in America.
The Emancipation Proclamation marks the legal end of slavery in America, but the Confederate states ignored the order, so Union troops had to venture to each state and forcefully make each state free their enslaved population. On June 19, 1865 -- more than two years after de jure emancipation -- Union troops made it to Texas, the last state to defy the Emancipation Proclamation, and freed Texas’ enslaved population. June 19 is known as Juneteenth and the de facto end of slavery in America.
In 2020, America finally had a national discussion about making Juneteenth a national holiday, but as of 2021 neither Juneteenth nor the Emancipation Proclamation are national holidays in America. If our nation truly cares about freedom and equality then both days should be holidays.
Emancipation from Ethnocide
In many ways, the work of The Sustainable Culture Lab is an emancipatory endeavor. By raising awareness of and combatting ethnocide, we aspire to collectively liberate ourselves from it. Ethnocide is a way of life that harms both the oppressed and the oppressor, and since American society is built around normalizing various forms of exploitation, we all need new language, ideas, and practices to help emancipate ourselves from this destructive way of life. In other words, we all need to put in the work to free ourselves from ethnocide.
Emancipation first starts with language and philosophy because these pillars help guide the actions that follow. Action without discourse or philosophy is like a body without a spine. You have all these moving limbs but nothing to keep them supported. At SCL we focus on the cultural flaws in American society and cultivate new language that articulates contemporary problems and possible emancipatory solutions, such as ethnogenesis. This newsletter is part of the initiative to create a linguistic shift.
In America, emancipation has long been considered an endeavor that is almost exclusively reserved for people of color. Black Americans have worked to emancipate our community from slavery and Jim Crow, and other communities of color have worked to emancipate themselves from various oppressive structures in America including voter suppression, unlawful detention, police brutality, and cultural erasure. However, emancipation is never thought of as an endeavor that white Americans may need to embark on. Ethnocide harms everyone and makes the exploitation of other people far too easy or less visible. It is essential for white Americans who champion equality to also emancipate themselves from ethnocidal tendencies. You cannot fight for equality while simultaneously destroying BIPOC culture.
Within the Black community, our progress to emancipate ourselves can be seen in the various names we’ve carried. Ethnocidal white colonizers called us “niggers,” “negro,” and “colored”; we began to call ourselves “African American” as we obtained more agency in society; we demanded the capitalization of “Black”; and we made the oppressive identities of the past no longer socially acceptable. At SCL, we use the term Freecano to take this progression a step further. New language and identities have always played a vital role in the struggle for emancipation.
Emancipation and Ethnogenesis
Last year, SCL completed our first Altars Festival where a diverse array of artists created altars to celebrate their cultures. Far too often, America overlooks the importance of ancestor remembrance traditions, and when we do remember these traditions we rarely make them a cross-cultural practice. The diversity of America and our growing interconnectivity means that we must cultivate environments that foster equitable cultural exchanges and create a new culture forged from equality. We call the creation of new culture “ethnogenesis.”
Because we live in an ethnocidal society that teaches us how to either consume or appropriate another culture, people struggled to conceive how we could share and celebrate culture without appropriating it. This is a logical skepticism, but the festival showed how much easier this endeavor is when you have the right language and philosophy guiding your actions. The Altars Festival was a truly remarkable experience that we look forward to growing it each year.
As we begin 2021, I hope we all continue raising awareness of and combatting ethnocide by applying liberating language, philosophy, and ideas so that we can engage in ethnogenesis and cultivate Eǔtopian spaces.
I hope this year brings more health, happiness, and unity.