Reflections on Juneteenth from afar

BANGKOK/DALLAS－As the United States marks the second only federally recognized Juneteenth, black Americans living overseas have embraced the holiday as a day of reflection and an opportunity to educate people in their host countries on black history.

US President Joe Biden acted last year to federally recognize the day black Americans have been celebrating since the last enslaved people were told they were free in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, two years after then-president Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

To celebrate the day, people across the US gathered at events filled with music, food and fireworks. Celebrations also included an emphasis on learning about history and addressing racial disparities.

In Liberia, Saqar Ahhah Ahershu, from New Jersey, is organizing the country's first "Journey Home Festival". "Because this is part of that hidden African American history that still hasn't been completely unpacked," he said.

Liberia, Africa's oldest independent republic, was founded by freed slaves repatriated to West Africa from the US in 1822, exactly 200 years ago this year. This weekend's event will include a trip to Providence Island, where former slaves settled before moving into what is now mainland Monrovia.

While there are no official statistics tracking black Americans moving abroad, many are discussing it more openly after the police killing of George Floyd. Many African Americans in the aftermath saw the US "from the outside in" and made up their minds not to return.

Tashina Ferguson, a 26-year-old debate coach, was living in New York at the time of Eric Garner's death.

She moved to South Korea in 2019 and celebrated Juneteenth on Sunday with a group of drag performers at a fundraising brunch for the Marsha P. Johnson Institute.

She has mixed feelings about the newest federal holiday.

"The commerciality of Juneteenth has become this like whole, 'Put it on a T-shirt, put it on ice cream tubs' type of thing," she said. "But as a black person within the black community, I'm like, 'Yeah, let's celebrate us'."

She said only a powerful change would make her consider returning to the US.

Chrishan Wright in New Jersey regularly speaks with black Americans who plan to or already have made the move abroad.

Wright, 47, hosts the Blaxit Global podcast and said many of her guests are tired of the US.

"They've done all the things to achieve what is supposed to be the American dream, and that yardstick keeps moving. They don't feel like they're on solid ground in terms of being able to retire comfortably or pay off student debt or just cover their bills."

Wright plans to move to Portugal in 2023. Through her podcast, she already knows of Juneteenth celebrations in the capital Lisbon.

In some places with larger populations of black Americans, Juneteenth is already part of the program.

Michael Williams teaches African American history at Temple University in Tokyo and left the US when he was 22. He is now 66 and has lived abroad for much of his adult life, but returned to the US for graduate school in Boston and Baltimore.

The US has changed so much, and he feels like a tourist when he visits, he said.

Agencies via Xinhua