Juneteenth & Justice
Liberty and justice for all?
It’s Juneteenth and I am choosing to embrace joy and honor my ancestors as well as the fight, will and determination of enslaved Black people over the years. At the same time I can’t help but be annoyed and disgusted at the hypocritical nature of this country. In 2020 I created a tarot deck called 2020 Visions: The Major Arcana to highlight the major events and shifts of that year. This project wasn’t something I planned; it came to me in my dreams and damn near demanded to be created. One of the first four cards I drew was the Justice card.
“One nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.”
The Pledge of Allegiance that many of us as children were required to recite ends with that statement, but the older I got the more I realized it wasn’t true at all.
The Justice card in tarot is pretty straight forward. When you think of justice you think of law, order, fairness, etc. and there are many symbols in our culture that represent this. Justice for me is also truth, which is one aspect that I believe is consistently missing in American culture. In 2020, Black Lives Matter protests were happening all over the country in response to a lack of liberty and justice for all…because isn’t that what we were told America stands for? The conversation around recognizing the importance of Juneteenth was also getting louder and louder.
One of the defining symbols of this country is the Statue of Liberty and what she represents, but ironically even her story is missing truth and, in turn, justice.
The original concept was proposed by French anti-slavery abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye. The statue was a gift to the United States from France commemorating the perseverance of American democracy and the end of slavery after the civil war. She holds a torch high in her right hand, a tablet inscribed with JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4th, 1776) in her left and has a broken chain and shackle at her feet representing freedom from bondage.
This should be a source of pride and something to be celebrated, but it can’t be if the truth is removed, buried, or hidden. The Statue of Liberty became a symbol of immigration (isn’t it ironic?) and the chains at her feet were never truly highlighted or discussed. The truth is that all enslaved people were not free as of July 4th, 1776. That didn’t happen until June 19th, 1865, which we now celebrate as Juneteenth.
Going back to my version of the Justice card in 2020 Visions Tarot, I wanted to bring truth to what’s been hidden for far too long. In my illustration the torch is missing to focus on her raised fist representing pride. Pride in overcoming oppression, truth and the values America claims to represent. It’s a symbol of strength, perseverance and overcoming struggle/adversity. Instead of the July 4th inscription, it is replaced with Roman numerals representing Juneteenth. If the statue was a gift from France to honor the end of slavery, I wanted to reflect when enslaved people were actually freed. In 2020 we also saw a wave of states recognizing Juneteenth as a state holiday before it became an official federal holiday.
The BLM graffiti on the tabula ansata is a sign of the times/protests, but also a reminder of the Black people this statue was meant to honor. It’s a narrative that was never mainstream… almost as if it DIDN’T matter. The shift to associate immigration and America as a “melting pot” with the Statue of Liberty feels especially odd considering the current climate. It’s as if the country continuously says one thing and does another. The breaking news banner covers her feet, where the shackles are just as they’ve been out of sight and out of mind for years. Unfortunately, many people have only recently become aware of their existence and the reason they’re there.
I’ve rarely seen tarot approached in this way - using the symbolism of real time events to convey the energy and educate even if it is a bit uncomfortable. But knowing how the inspiration came to me, I felt it necessary. This is how we grow and how we learn. It’s how we face uncomfortable truths and challenge ourselves to do better and mean what we say. Do we truly value you justice or does it just sound good? Do we want to spiritually bypass or actually challenge the status quo when we see and feel injustice?
So, on this Juneteenth, I celebrate how far we’ve come, but I also will continue to use my art to challenge us to do better until there is truly liberty and justice for all.
Beyoncé’s show in France today is no coincidence.
Art is often a call to action and tarot is a powerful tool for clarity, self-discovery and understanding the human experience. As we reflect on Juneteenth, let it be more than just a day off. Allow it to remind us of truths that have yet to be told, history that’s still being unearthed and the future that we have the power to shape. I’ll continue to create in a way that pushes us to learn, seek, remember, question and discover. We honor the past by acknowledging and learning from it so that justice isn’t just a symbol or word with empty meaning, but a way of life.
Happy Juneteenth!
“An intersection of the past, present & future”
Check out 2020 Visions Tarot here: https://kaleidadope.com/collections/unique-tarot-decks-shop-online/products/2020-visions-tarot