Juneteenth marks the day when the news of emancipation finally reached enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, more than two years after freedom had already been declared.
I worked at 4 different nonprofit serving unhoused people over a period of 16 years in the Washington, DC and Montgomery County, MD. It was good work in not always the most well run nonprofits. There was never enough money, and always so much need. I was forever changed by my small contribution to trying to make how we served those in need truly effective.
I am deeply thankful for all the work you do, and the caring and wisdom you bring to seeing people for more than their circumstances.
I wish I could give more. My heart is for people who need to be treated as humans in their full dignity and value, and were I to have the funds, there would be no unhoused people, no people lacking care for their physical needs, no school children going hungry or unhoused, no one shivering in the cold because their family kicked them out for not fitting expectations.
I work at a food bank here on the West Coast, and we have a very strict rule about how we distribute our food: if you come into the food bank, we'll give you food. If you have special needs, we'll find something to fit it. If you're just drifting through town, we have "Go" bags with easy-to-eat meals that don't need cooking or preparation. If you show up, we'll welcome you, talk with you, laugh with you, cry with you, and make you understand that you're loved, you're wanted, and if you're hungry you just need to eat - no one needs a lecture or much advice beyond "take care of yourself, and come back any time you want to get some food."
We are lucky, I guess, because we have a generous community here that overloads us with donations. Often it's the goods and produce that we distribute (some fresh from their farms), and other times we use the monetary donations to buy what we lack. For the rest of the summer, for example, we're creating special food packs for families with school children because when school's out, many families don't have enough to feed their kids well. And we have a special period in our food bank's operating hours just for our folks who are in their golden years - they can come in and "shop" with fewer interruptions and a special set of food just for people living on their own or who don't want to cook - or can't cook.
Every week we get one or two groups of people who just pass through. Sometimes it's teenagers who have been booted from their homes. Sometimes it's single people who just are making do. We make sure they're fed, and we work with our local temporary housing authority to direct them to a place for short-term shelter if they need it. We'll probably never see them again after they leave, but we make sure we get to know them, make sure they get the food they can use, and make sure that they leave knowing that we saw them.
We can't help everyone, of course, with everything. Some just can't manage their lives, and lack of food is a symptom of a lack of social self-regulation. Some can't get housing because their lives are chaotic and their humanity has been bypassed by an economy that says you're worth something only if you have a skill someone can make money from. People get left behind by the increasing competition to "make money," and those people don't have the skills or ability to work anymore.
But they are, first of all, people. And people have inherent dignity and worth. We feed them because people need food and we have the food.
We're not solving the problem of lack of housing, yes. I'm on the city Planning Commission, and it's one of our highest priorities to find housing for the working poor and for those who simply cannot work and yet need housing. It's a difficult nut to crack, and we haven't cracked it yet. Still, we do what we can with our limited resources, and we use those resources the best we can.
I guess that's the best anyone can do: when there are resources, and when there is need, we do what we can to make sure those resources reach the people who need them, whether it's food or housing or health care or safety.
I appreciate, then, what you do from your own generosity and care, and I appreciate how you work to organize help using people working along with you to provide food and care to the people you meet in your neighborhoods.
We can't all do everything. But each of us can do something. And I am grateful that you are doing what you can, and that you are helping others understand the importance of loving our neighbors as ourselves.
I so admire your work both professionally and personally. I have supported every cause you have proposed, am a paid subscriber on Substack, I purchase, gift and read your books. I have donated your books to our local library. I have spent my life championing racial equality at every turn, and I welcome the perspective you provide so that I might learn as much as I can about the myriad of issues facing people of color in this country. My heart is broken for the sins of “our fathers” that have exploited, terrorized, tortured and consistently denigrated and impeded the full and rightful citizenship of ALL people.
I am a person that will always tell my opinion honestly so that discussions can be robust, multi dimensional, fair and enlightened. I find myself needing to express this perspective at this time in hopes that you might consider it and perhaps grow in your own understanding of the complex society we live in.
I understand that this fund drive is in honor of Juneteenth, a remembrance of one of the most important events in our history. I also get that the focus should indeed be on what Juneteenth represents to the black community ( the designation that you identify in the name of this fund drive.) I would welcome the opportunity to support any cause that would help people in Harlem, or elsewhere, honor what this holiday symbolizes. But I am confounded by the mission of this current fund drive and I will explain why and hope you will consider my point.
The drive is to provide care packages to 100 “black” homeless people. I am offended by this, just as much as I would be if someone was raising funds for 100 “white” homeless people. Homelessness is a failure by our society in treating and providing the basic human needs to people who are impacted by so many of the failures of our society. If there is any strata of society where equality of circumstance exists, it is in the homeless population all over the world. Everyone is equality forgotten, deprived, unseen, unhoused, and suffering at the same level.
How and why would this be a place to celebrate Juneteenth by marginalizing the already most marginalized of our society?
Honoring the realization of emancipation is not the time to pick and choose among those already desperate, hungry, sick and unseen. The homeless population is an example of pure equality. They are equally devalued, dehumanized, desperate and deserving of being treated with dignity. I understand that the title of the drive is symbolic, but it is misguided. It would be a much greater tribute to the spirit of Juneteenth to take care of the “least of our brothers” no matter their race.
57% of the people who are unhoused (on the streets, in shelters, or "doubled up") are Black; this, despite Black people making up only 22% of the city's population.
32% are Hispanic/Latinx.
7% are White.
Less than 1% are Asian-American or Native American.
By gender, men make up the overwhelming majority of the unhoused: 75%.
Despite your delicate, easy-to-offend sensibilities, need is actually quantifiable. Data sees what your emotions won't allow you to.
Thank you- heading to the link now. Normally, I would share on fb, but just got banned from posting. Will send an email out. Your writing is beautiful and your heart is big. ❤️
I worked at 4 different nonprofit serving unhoused people over a period of 16 years in the Washington, DC and Montgomery County, MD. It was good work in not always the most well run nonprofits. There was never enough money, and always so much need. I was forever changed by my small contribution to trying to make how we served those in need truly effective.
I am deeply thankful for all the work you do, and the caring and wisdom you bring to seeing people for more than their circumstances.
I wish I could give more. My heart is for people who need to be treated as humans in their full dignity and value, and were I to have the funds, there would be no unhoused people, no people lacking care for their physical needs, no school children going hungry or unhoused, no one shivering in the cold because their family kicked them out for not fitting expectations.
I work at a food bank here on the West Coast, and we have a very strict rule about how we distribute our food: if you come into the food bank, we'll give you food. If you have special needs, we'll find something to fit it. If you're just drifting through town, we have "Go" bags with easy-to-eat meals that don't need cooking or preparation. If you show up, we'll welcome you, talk with you, laugh with you, cry with you, and make you understand that you're loved, you're wanted, and if you're hungry you just need to eat - no one needs a lecture or much advice beyond "take care of yourself, and come back any time you want to get some food."
We are lucky, I guess, because we have a generous community here that overloads us with donations. Often it's the goods and produce that we distribute (some fresh from their farms), and other times we use the monetary donations to buy what we lack. For the rest of the summer, for example, we're creating special food packs for families with school children because when school's out, many families don't have enough to feed their kids well. And we have a special period in our food bank's operating hours just for our folks who are in their golden years - they can come in and "shop" with fewer interruptions and a special set of food just for people living on their own or who don't want to cook - or can't cook.
Every week we get one or two groups of people who just pass through. Sometimes it's teenagers who have been booted from their homes. Sometimes it's single people who just are making do. We make sure they're fed, and we work with our local temporary housing authority to direct them to a place for short-term shelter if they need it. We'll probably never see them again after they leave, but we make sure we get to know them, make sure they get the food they can use, and make sure that they leave knowing that we saw them.
We can't help everyone, of course, with everything. Some just can't manage their lives, and lack of food is a symptom of a lack of social self-regulation. Some can't get housing because their lives are chaotic and their humanity has been bypassed by an economy that says you're worth something only if you have a skill someone can make money from. People get left behind by the increasing competition to "make money," and those people don't have the skills or ability to work anymore.
But they are, first of all, people. And people have inherent dignity and worth. We feed them because people need food and we have the food.
We're not solving the problem of lack of housing, yes. I'm on the city Planning Commission, and it's one of our highest priorities to find housing for the working poor and for those who simply cannot work and yet need housing. It's a difficult nut to crack, and we haven't cracked it yet. Still, we do what we can with our limited resources, and we use those resources the best we can.
I guess that's the best anyone can do: when there are resources, and when there is need, we do what we can to make sure those resources reach the people who need them, whether it's food or housing or health care or safety.
I appreciate, then, what you do from your own generosity and care, and I appreciate how you work to organize help using people working along with you to provide food and care to the people you meet in your neighborhoods.
We can't all do everything. But each of us can do something. And I am grateful that you are doing what you can, and that you are helping others understand the importance of loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Hello Frederick,
I so admire your work both professionally and personally. I have supported every cause you have proposed, am a paid subscriber on Substack, I purchase, gift and read your books. I have donated your books to our local library. I have spent my life championing racial equality at every turn, and I welcome the perspective you provide so that I might learn as much as I can about the myriad of issues facing people of color in this country. My heart is broken for the sins of “our fathers” that have exploited, terrorized, tortured and consistently denigrated and impeded the full and rightful citizenship of ALL people.
I am a person that will always tell my opinion honestly so that discussions can be robust, multi dimensional, fair and enlightened. I find myself needing to express this perspective at this time in hopes that you might consider it and perhaps grow in your own understanding of the complex society we live in.
I understand that this fund drive is in honor of Juneteenth, a remembrance of one of the most important events in our history. I also get that the focus should indeed be on what Juneteenth represents to the black community ( the designation that you identify in the name of this fund drive.) I would welcome the opportunity to support any cause that would help people in Harlem, or elsewhere, honor what this holiday symbolizes. But I am confounded by the mission of this current fund drive and I will explain why and hope you will consider my point.
The drive is to provide care packages to 100 “black” homeless people. I am offended by this, just as much as I would be if someone was raising funds for 100 “white” homeless people. Homelessness is a failure by our society in treating and providing the basic human needs to people who are impacted by so many of the failures of our society. If there is any strata of society where equality of circumstance exists, it is in the homeless population all over the world. Everyone is equality forgotten, deprived, unseen, unhoused, and suffering at the same level.
How and why would this be a place to celebrate Juneteenth by marginalizing the already most marginalized of our society?
Honoring the realization of emancipation is not the time to pick and choose among those already desperate, hungry, sick and unseen. The homeless population is an example of pure equality. They are equally devalued, dehumanized, desperate and deserving of being treated with dignity. I understand that the title of the drive is symbolic, but it is misguided. It would be a much greater tribute to the spirit of Juneteenth to take care of the “least of our brothers” no matter their race.
First: It’s Juneteenth.
Second: In New York City:
57% of the people who are unhoused (on the streets, in shelters, or "doubled up") are Black; this, despite Black people making up only 22% of the city's population.
32% are Hispanic/Latinx.
7% are White.
Less than 1% are Asian-American or Native American.
By gender, men make up the overwhelming majority of the unhoused: 75%.
Despite your delicate, easy-to-offend sensibilities, need is actually quantifiable. Data sees what your emotions won't allow you to.
https://www.washingtoninformer.com/blacks-hit-hardest-as-nycs-homeless-population-grows-amid-mental-health-crisis/
Thank you- heading to the link now. Normally, I would share on fb, but just got banned from posting. Will send an email out. Your writing is beautiful and your heart is big. ❤️
Thank you for this work and reminding us about the essence of Juneteenth!
Done and shared on Instagram.
Thank you for reminding us to really look and see our neighbors and to do one small thing(often) to acknowledge our shared humanity.
And thank you for illustrating so eloquently those who are so often overlooked without exploiting their situation.
Done.