We are once again sharing these words and music by Melvin Myles in honor of Juneteenth. All of us at DemCast USA are overjoyed that Juneteenth is now a national holiday!
For over 400 years people of color in America have been enslaved, oppressed, lynched, and hated. June 19th (Juneteenth) is what should be a National Holiday observing when black folks heard about their freedom. But what is freedom, what does that look like? You mean we now have the freedom to remain right where we are and be treated just the same as we have always been treated? Yes, that is what they called freedom.
“I Was Not Silenced” is based on the 23rd Chapter of Job; he had everything but when everything was stripped from him and he became enslaved by the darkness of his pain, he refused to allow silence to be an option for him. He cried and argued, moaned and groaned because the oppression of his wounds kept him bitter and frustrated, but he did not lose his hope.
As we celebrate this holiday, I am holding steadfast to that hope that lives within me, even though the darkness of racism, hatred, bigotry, and anything else not of God is encamped all around us, still in 2020; we are more than conquerors, but we have to remember that in order to be a conqueror, you have to be tried in the fire. What do you say about a people who have been tried in the fire for over 400 years? Yes, we are tired, yes, we are angry, and no we will not get over it, but we still stand up to injustice and inequity, lift up our voices. Moreover we will come through the fire pure as gold.
