A Juneeteenth Celebration
Written by Gregory Pagan-Hill
Watermelon!
For the past 10 years, you couldn’t catch this dark-skinned black man eating watermelon in public (I wasn't gonna look like I was auditioning for the OG Little Rascals). Even though that African melon hasn’t done a damn thing but survive for over 5,000 years, its reputation is so deeply rooted in Racist Americana that even chompin that sweet, crunchy water to the rhine becomes political.
What does that have to do with cannabis? Everything.
This Juneteenth, SWAY invites you to the BBQ, but you gotta earn a seat at the table. Get comfy, this one's a doozie.
Imagine it’s January 1st, 1863; Lincoln just signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but you can’t read. Years later, a General on horseback said, "You’re free." You’re no longer this 3/5th’s thing that somebody subscribed to… It's June 19th, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, and you’re free!
What do you do with this new identity? Skip? Frolic? Kiss the cutie you just jumped a broom for?!? No! This is the white man’s world, my guy. Go find a job!
But no one is hiring… Except for a man with a twang and a whip, you know all too well. He says he has a new position as a Sharecropper for you. Now you get a “share” of the profits, so it's different, right?
Wrong. The man with the whip and a twang says you’re already in debt as soon as you put on the clothes you couldn't buy and use the tools you now have on loan. “All that would come out of your ‘share’ of course..” he says with a grin.
But out of the goodness of his godfearing heart, the man with the whip and a twang gives you a medium-sized watermelon to celebrate the 4th of July, his day of freedom. It’s a gift, so no debt: just red flesh and about 250 seeds. One man's trash is another man’s future.
You decide to rent land from an old white man and grow watermelons for a thing that’s new to you: profit. You have to work twice as hard for half as much, but profit means independence, something you were told you have.
Black people are forced to learn over and over again that some things burn to get you high and other things burn to keep you stuck: White people set the watermelon crops ablaze. How dare Black people make money outside the sharecropper system!? But the people with whips and twangs couldn't burn the sweet, refreshing taste of watermelon out of their own mouths. So what did they do? They made a smear campaign so tough they managed to diminish Black economic independence, all while growing it themselves, often through a sharecropper complex…
This would be neither the first nor the last time that White America would usher in the flames that would turn black progress to ash. Tulsa, Rosewood, Oscarville, and Ocoee all lit up to whitewash the resistance of black folks. The cannabis industry is no different.
Same shit different crop.
Black folks were depicted as thugs and drug dealers; White folks were peace-loving botanists in Birkenstocks passing a joint and a refreshing bottle of ice-cold Coca-Cola. The demographics haven’t changed. Everyone loves weed, like everyone loves watermelon! So why do black people smoking and white people smoking conjure up such different mental images, and what can we do about it in a world where this kind of propaganda can stick 100 years later?
Red is an important color for SWAY and Juneteenth, signifying perseverance and strength, but also bloodshed for the ancestors lost.
Whether you celebrate with watermelon on your table or not, Juneteenth is about paying respect to the folks who came before. A time to skip, frolic, and celebrate the freedom shared. Resistance is taking back the image, and this Juneteenth, I’m doing it with a joint in one hand and a slice of watermelon in the other: Bon appétit, y’all.
Resources: Oprah magazine, Michiel Perry, PBS 2023, Christoper Leach (WBNO) , Delish - Danielle Harling, One Mic History, Shawn Grows (YouTube), Cornell University Botanic Gardens, Leafly, Elena Veselova