Juneteenth is a day of commemoration, marking the end of slavery in the United States.
Today, and all days, Amnesty International USA stands with Black Americans in the ongoing struggle for justice and equality—using this day as a reminder of both the progress we’ve made and the persistent inequities that still plague our country.
The legacy of white supremacy ensures that Black Americans continue to face disproportionate challenges, and current shifts in the political climate make the remembrance and commemoration of Juneteenth all the more important.
As the United States moves further into the second Trump administration, racial inequities could not be more important to highlight.
The current administration began with a flurry of executive orders aimed at nipping any racial progress made in the past century. Initiatives aimed at ensuring equal opportunity for Black people have been removed and framed as a return to merit-based systems—aka the white boys’ club in employment. We also have seen executive orders used to shutter offices and departments aimed at addressing racial discrimination, rolling back hard-fought gains from 1965.
Adding insult to injury in this current climate is the open embrace of white supremacist ideologies and the apparent support for those who practice them. For Black people, it is tough to feel safe in a country where groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are pardoned for their white supremacy-driven violent crimes, and protesters in defense of non-white people are attacked when the President activates the National Guard and deploys the Marines to threaten and suppress our rights, including free speech. These actions reinforce the narrative that violence to preserve racial hierarchies is not only acceptable but encouraged.
This country deserves better. Black people deserve better. This Juneteenth, we are reminded of the long road ahead. Looking at systemic police violence, higher poverty rates, mass incarceration, and alarming health disparities, the current state of play needs drastic improvement. These issues are not isolated; they are deeply interconnected, rooted in a history of racial discrimination and injustice that we must confront and dismantle.
Ongoing Challenges Facing Black Americans
Police violence remains a critical concern, with Black Americans being more likely to be victims of police brutality and fatal encounters. Despite making up less than 14% of the population, 27% of victims of police violence are Black and are killed at twice the rate of white people.
Further frustrating those efforts, this year, the Trump administration announced it would dismiss pending police reform agreements in Louisville and Minneapolis, as well as shut down police reform efforts in other cities. These actions are a stark violation of human rights and demand urgent reform. We call for comprehensive measures to ensure accountability, transparency, and justice in law enforcement, like the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
Coupled with discriminatory policing, the over-imprisonment of Black individuals is a glaring injustice, perpetuating a cycle of marginalization and disenfranchisement. And despite decreases in the overall prison population due to reforms implemented over the past 25 years, Black men are imprisoned at a rate of four times that of white men.
True liberation only happens when we adequately address these injustices and offer solutions to address disparities in sentencing.
Poverty rates among Black Americans are alarmingly high, a reflection of long-standing economic disparities. In the United States, Black people represent 13.2% of the total population but nearly 24% of people living in poverty. Reparative economic justice, access to quality education, affordable healthcare, fair housing, and economic empowerment are essential to achieving true equality.
Sadly, poverty and its deep-rooted health inequities have resulted in lower life expectancies for those who are Black in the U.S. These disparities are a result of various social determinants of health, including limited access to healthcare, environmental factors, like those in our recent report on petrochemicals, and economic stability.
Addressing these issues is crucial for improving overall well-being and ensuring a healthier future for Black communities and economic stability.
And in the never-ending fight for reproductive justice, we must be mindful that the maternal mortality rate for Black women is three times that of their white counterparts, a stark indicator of systemic racism in healthcare. This unacceptable disparity demands immediate action to ensure that Black women receive equitable and respectful medical care.
An Equitable Future Calls for Reparative Justice
All is not lost, and we remain committed to being part of the solution to these systemic issues. Charting a path forward requires a commitment to righting the wrongs of our past. This means acknowledging the impact of historical injustices and implementing reparative practices.
In California, we are working hard to pass improvements to the state’s Racial Justice Act, which allows for challenges to racially motivated disparities in the justice system. We are also supporting and pushing for reparations for Black Americans with HR 40 and H.Res 414.
There is a way forward, but that way forward means listening to and amplifying Black voices in policymaking and ensuring that those most affected by these issues lead the way in creating solutions.