Juneteenth: First Food for Thought
2021; Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.; Volume: 16; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1089/bfm.2021.29184.sjl
ISSN1556-8342
Autores Tópico(s)Child and Adolescent Health
ResumoBreastfeeding MedicineVol. 16, No. 6 EditorialFree AccessJuneteenth: First Food for ThoughtSahira LongSahira LongAddress correspondence to: Sahira Long, MD, IBCLC, FAAP, FABM, Children's National Hospital, 2101 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., SE 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20020, USA E-mail Address: slong@childrensnational.orgChildren's National Hospital, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:7 Jun 2021https://doi.org/10.1089/bfm.2021.29184.sjlAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail On this day in 1865, almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had officially ended slavery in the states in rebellion against the Union, an announcement was made proclaiming freedom from slavery in Texas, the most remote of the Slave States. Although not an official United States national holiday, Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day and Liberation Day, is now celebrated locally in most major cities across the United States. In December 1865, the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution put an end to chattel slavery, which was still legal and being practiced in two border states of the Union.If slavery was abolished in 1865, many people rightly wonder why its impacts are still being experienced in 2021. Part of that answer lies in the “Seventh Generation” principle derived from the constitution of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois Nation), which states that “In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation…even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine.”1 Put simply, the choices available to me were impacted by the seven generations of ancestors that preceded me. More importantly, the choices I have made will impact the seven generations to follow me. In my family tree, there are only five generations from me to my last traceable ancestor on my father's side of the family who was a slave. My great-great-great grandmother's ancestors, like all slaves, were involuntarily brought to the shores of what became the United States from Africa as breastfeeding people. Breastfeeding, like many other time-honored traditions, was disrupted once our people were enslaved, and in time I became the first in my dad's family line to recapture it after being breastfed by my mother. Therefore, based on the Seventh Generation Principle, I am certainly being impacted by the choices that were not available to my great-great-great grandmother, including the choice of how she would feed her children.Another part of the answer lies in the fact that although slavery ended in 1865, the racism and bias on which it was rooted undoubtedly did not. Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones defines racism as “a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (which is what we call “race”), that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources.”2 Through the two parts of this special issue, it is my hope that the reader has gained a clear understanding of how the choice to breastfeed and support to do so have been impacted by the unfair disadvantages that African Americans continue to face. This multigenerational racial trauma with continued oppression in the absence of opportunities to heal or access benefits available in society have left many African Americans battling what Dr. Joy DeGruy coined as the Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.3 As we, as a society, work to achieve healing from racial trauma and dismantle these systems of oppression to improve health outcomes in the African American community, I offer these words of encouragement from Donny Hathaway's 1973 song: Hang onto the world as it spins around.Just don't let the spin get you down.Things are moving fast.Hold on tight and you will last.Keep your self-respect, your manly pride.Get yourself in gear, keep your stride.Never mind your fears.Brighter days will soon be here.Take it from me, someday we'll all be free.4References1. Great Law of Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Seventh Generation Native Insight Blog. Available at http://nativeinsight.blogspot.com/2012/11/seventh-generation.html (accessed on May 8, 2021). Google Scholar2. How racism makes people sick: A conversation with Camara Phyllis Jones , MD, MPH , PhD, August 2, 2016. Available at https://www.kpihp.org/blog/how-racism-makes-people-sick-a-conversation-with-camara-phyllis-jones-md-mph-phd (accessed on May 8, 2021). Google Scholar3. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Available at https://www.joydegruy.com/post-traumatic-slave-syndrome (accessed on May 8, 2021). Google Scholar4. Hathaway D. Someday We'll All Be Free [Song]. On: Extension of a Man. New York: Atco Records; 1973. Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 16Issue 6Jun 2021 InformationCopyright 2021, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishersTo cite this article:Sahira Long.Juneteenth: First Food for Thought.Breastfeeding Medicine.Jun 2021.446-446.http://doi.org/10.1089/bfm.2021.29184.sjlPublished in Volume: 16 Issue 6: June 7, 2021Online Ahead of Print:May 27, 2021PDF download
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