Juneteenth—June 19—is the day on which the emancipation of Black people from chattel slavery is celebrated. It took a civil war to end it—a civil war in which Black people fought and died out of proportion to their numbers in the population.
And yet, in basic terms, Black people are still not free. The white supremacy poured into the foundations of this society still remains woven deeply into its fabric. But there IS an answer: revolution.
There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.
—Bob Avakian, from The New Communism
To learn more about the revolution we need and the leadership we have, go to revcom.us.
Read “Racial Oppression Can Be Ended—But Not Under This System,” by Bob Avakian.