Texas and Juneteenth have become the center of discourse now that Juneteenth has been declared a federal holiday. Juneteenth, or June Nineteenth, marks the day that federal officials made their way to the southern edge of the continent where enslaved folks in Galveston, Texas resided. There, they informed all that the Civil War was over, had been won by the North, and that the Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect–two years prior. Jubilee.

That statement does not mean that the enslaved and enslavers in Texas were unaware that slavery had ended. Rather, the arrival of soldiers meant accountability and a reason to celebrate. So that’s what black Texans did.

More than anything, I think Juneteenth sheds light on the pace at which information, laws, ideologies, and other things travel. Media, for better and for worse, has increased the speed with which we consume and produce things. Hundreds of thoughts, musings, photographs, songs, ideas and the like are available in the palms of our hands on a distorted “timeline.” Juneteenth brings to light the function of slowness–good and bad. Messages carried by horseback and ship led to a two-year lapse in accountability for enslavers in Texas. Today, even with the speed of social media, and with the proliferation of visible, audible protests, legislation toward true reparations stalls.

At the same time, slow cooked bbq sits on grills to smoke, dirty sprite gives double styrofoam cups a purple hue capable of slowing one’s nervous system all the way down, and chopped and screwed music is beatin down yo block as Texans (and others) celebrate the message of freedom. Even when that freedom has yet to be seen through to completion. But we will see repair. And we will see it soon.

Happy Juneteenth, ya’ll. Here’s a link to support black texans. May your summer weeks run rich, slow and full.