West Orange Juneteenth Celebration Belies WO Council’s Treatment of Today’s Struggle to End Genocide IN West Orange
by Lisa Davis
I’m not sure WHO IS BEHIND THIS — BUT I AM COMPELLED TO SPEAK ON THIS! BECAUSE I WILL NOT SEE MY HISTORY AND JUNETEENTH BE PIMPED OUT! And that is literally the role of Black democrats! TO PIMP OUT OUR STRUGGLE FOR THE BENEFIT OF COLONIZERS!
Because when someone sees this they would get the impression that the township of West Orange is so DOWN with Black people and the movement — WHEN IT IS NOT!
This is the township that when Black and Brown pp went before the city council in November 2023 to speak on behalf of Palestine, the CITY COUNCIL with its Black president, TAMMY WILLIAMS, REFUSED TO LET US SPEAK! They MADE US WAIT FOR FIVE HOURS AND STILL WOULDN’T LET US SPEAK! We ended up leaving and as soon as we left, they opened up public comment to allow zionists to speak! I believe that City Council at that time was predominantly Black!
This is the same city council that passed a bill EXCLUSIVELY calling for the protection of “Jewish” people ONLY! I put the word “Jewish” in quotations because that was pushed by zionists and many Jewish people who DON’T BELIEVE IN GENOCIDE AND SETTLER COLONIALISM were against it. They wanted a bill to be passed that was about protecting ALL CULTURES — but that was denied! Admittedly, I need to get the exact wording of what happened regarding that resolution.
While the township IMMEDIATELY PLEDGED ITS LOYALTY TO ISRAEL, THEY HAVE SHOWN NO REGARDS WHAT-SO-EVER FOR PALESTINE OR THE SLAUGHTER OF PALESTINIAN PEOPLE! AND IT IRKS ME TO SEE BLACK POLITICIANS SELLING OUT, TAP DANCING, AND BETRAYING OUR HISTORY!
One last thing. I DON’T RECOGNIZE THAT FEDERAL FARCE CALLED JUNETEENTH NATIONAL FREEDOM DAY! It is a WHITE WASH of our history! I recognize and memorial the real Juneteenth that BLACK PEOPLE HAD BEEN COMMEMORATING! The Juneteenth Of Black Liberation!
