Juneteenth Is NOT A Celebration: It Commemorates One Of The Worst Periods In American History
Juneteenth is also NOT Ancient History.
It is one of the deepest shames of human history that the United States—and many other countries—once believed it was acceptable, even legal and morally justified, to strip other human beings of their freedom, their family, and their dignity in the name of profit and power. The very idea that people could be owned, bought, sold, and brutalized simply because of the color of their skin or their place of birth is a horrifying reminder of how far cruelty can go when it is codified into law and normalized by culture. Slavery wasn’t just a system—it was a violent betrayal of the most basic truth: that all people are born equal and deserve to live free. The fact that it was ever considered acceptable should forever haunt our collective conscience.
Juneteenth, short for June Nineteenth, is a federal holiday in the United States that commemorates the end of slavery. Specifically, it marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed the last remaining enslaved African Americans that they were free—more than two years after President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Here’s what makes it significant:
Date: June 19, 1865
Place: Galveston, Texas
Event: Union General Gordon Granger announced General Order No. 3, which enforced the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas
Why it mattered: It was the final enforcement of emancipation in the most remote part of the former Confederacy
Although slavery had legally ended with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the 13th Amendment was on the way (ratified in December 1865), enforcement was slow in parts of the South. Juneteenth represents the moment when freedom finally reached those who had been denied it the longest.
How it’s celebrated:
Community gatherings
Education on Black history
Music, food, parades, and cultural festivals
Reflections on freedom and resilience
Juneteenth became a U.S. federal holiday in 2021, the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983. It’s both a celebration and a reminder: freedom wasn’t granted all at once—and the work of equity and justice continues.
As of today, slavery is officially illegal everywhere in the world—but that doesn’t mean it has truly ended. In many countries, modern slavery still exists, and Black people are disproportionately affected, especially in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, often due to race, caste, or ethnicity.
Here’s a breakdown of where and how this is happening:
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Mauritania
(West Africa)
Race-based slavery still persists despite being criminalized in 2007.
Black Moors (Haratines) are enslaved by Arab-Berber Moors.
People are born into slavery, forced to work without pay, and denied basic rights.
Authorities often deny it exists or fail to enforce laws.
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Libya
After the fall of Gaddafi in 2011, Libya became a hub for human trafficking.
African migrants are often kidnapped, sold in slave markets, or held for ransom.
The UN and CNN have documented horrific abuses, including public slave auctions.
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Sudan & South Sudan
Ethnic-based enslavement has occurred during civil wars.
Black African ethnic groups have been captured by militias and enslaved by Arab-dominated factions.
Slavery includes forced labor and sex slavery, often with racial overtones.
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Saudi Arabia & Gulf States
Official slavery ended decades ago, but “kafala” (sponsorship) systems still exist.
Many African and South Asian workers are trapped in exploitative labor conditions.
Confiscated passports, withheld wages, physical abuse, and sexual exploitation are common.
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Other Countries with Modern Slavery
While not always race-based, Black people are at risk in systems of forced labor and trafficking in:
India – caste-based bondage
Brazil – Afro-Brazilians face high rates of forced labor in agriculture and domestic work
Haiti – the restavèk system exploits mostly Black children in domestic servitude
United States & Europe – trafficking and labor exploitation disproportionately affect Black immigrants and people of color
What Is Modern Slavery?
It includes:
Forced labor
Human trafficking
Debt bondage
Forced marriage
Child exploitation
How Many?
According to the Global Slavery Index (2023):
An estimated 50 million people are living in modern slavery worldwide.
Racism and colonial legacies still shape who is most vulnerable.
Modern slavery affects people of all races, and in many places, it is more tied to poverty, caste, migration status, and gender than to race alone. While anti-Black slavery has a distinct and brutal legacy, millions of non-Black people are enslaved today or subjected to extreme forms of exploitation that amount to slavery in practice.
Here’s where and how people are enslaved around the world:
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South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal)
Caste-based slavery: Lower-caste groups, especially Dalits, are often trapped in bonded labor, where families are forced to work for generations to repay tiny debts.
Child labor in brick kilns, carpet weaving, agriculture, and domestic work is rampant.
Victims are usually native South Asians, not foreigners—showing this is not about race but social hierarchy and class oppression.
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China
Uyghur Muslims are subject to forced labor in internment camps in Xinjiang.
Many are forced to produce goods for global supply chains (including clothing, electronics).
This is a form of ethnic and religious oppression, not racialized in a Western sense, but devastating nonetheless.
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North Korea
Citizens are forcibly conscripted into lifelong labor, often in mines or factories.
North Korean workers are even exported abroad to earn money for the regime, working under near-total surveillance and without freedom.
This is state-enforced slavery—entirely based on political control.
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Eastern Europe
Human trafficking is rampant.
Young women from Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova are trafficked into Western Europe for sexual exploitation.
Men and children are trafficked for forced labor in agriculture and construction.
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Middle East (Gulf States)
While many victims are African or South Asian, Filipinos, Indonesians, Sri Lankans, and Nepalis are also enslaved under the kafala system.
Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable—locked in homes, denied passports, and abused without recourse.
It’s not race-based—it’s economic and legal vulnerability based on migration status.
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Latin America
Indigenous people in the Amazon and Andes are trafficked or trapped in forced labor.
In Brazil, non-Black rural poor are often enslaved in agriculture, charcoal camps, or logging operations.
Women and children are sold or coerced into sex slavery in tourist areas and cities.
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Western Countries
In the U.S. and Europe, trafficking affects immigrants, undocumented workers, and vulnerable citizens.
Victims are of every ethnicity—white, Black, Asian, Latinx.
Domestic servitude, labor in nail salons, farms, factories, and sex trafficking all happen in major cities.
Key Point:
Modern slavery is global, intersectional, and systemic. While racism makes certain groups more vulnerable, so do poverty, conflict, displacement, gender inequality, and corrupt or broken systems.
Juneteenth reminds us that the fight for freedom, justice, and human dignity is not just historical—it’s ongoing, and it’s global. Liberation is not a one-day event. It’s a commitment. So while today is a day to celebrate, today should also be a day to mourn and light a candor for all those who suffered under slavery and as a reminder of how awful humans are capable of being, something we are still seeing today with dangerously, escalating antisemitism, ongoing racism and hate for the “other.”