Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

A Decade of Resilience, Resistance, and Revolution: Trans Day of Action 

The Audre Lorde Project

June 27, 2014

New York, New York

The sheriff’s deputies were at a $1.9 million mansion in suburban Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in 2022, serving eviction papers.

Then an SUV with an attached trailer carrying wooden crates pulled into the driveway, according to a video posted by MassLive.

“Hey, hey, hey, she has a truck full of bees,” one deputy can be heard telling another, who responded, “What?”

The driver, Rebecca Woods, a beekeeper, had already gotten out and was lifting the lid off a stack of beehives. She said in a court affidavit that her intent was to let the bees forage on the “lovely flowering landscape,” while also protesting the eviction.

But in the tussle over the remaining crates, some toppled, releasing hundreds more bees, which stung the deputies and other sheriff’s staff members multiple times, including one who suffered stings to the face and head, and another who was hospitalized.

Woods, who did not live at the home, was convicted by a jury in district court in Springfield, Massachusetts, this month of using the bees as a weapon against the deputies.

She was sentenced to six months in county jail.

Woods, 59, has been the subject of several evictions herself, her lawyer, Mary Saldarelli, said. Woods advocates on behalf of people harmed by predatory lending, loan schemes that let lenders charge borrowers sky-high interest rates.

Woods said in her affidavit that she was trying to save her friend’s home because he was almost 80 and was undergoing cancer treatment.

While Woods was at the house, trying to delay the eviction, the owner had gone to the public library to use a computer to file an emergency stay of the order.

Amid the confusion of the confrontation, Woods donned a beekeeper suit, according to the video. While she was trying to move more beehives toward the home, two sheriff’s deputies tackled her, forcing her to the ground to arrest her, as bees swarmed the front yard.

When she was told that some deputies were allergic to bees, the sheriff’s office said that Woods responded: “Oh, you’re allergic? Good.”

Jurors acquitted Woods of the seven felonies that she had been charged with and instead found her guilty of four misdemeanor counts of assault and battery and two counts of reckless assault.

bypass paywall

bwah :3

you feel angry (you feel pain)

stop, take a moment to gather yourself and breathe deeply (stop, take a moment to apply first aid to your wound)

find the root cause of your anger; what brought your anger about and how come? (find what caused your injury; what hurt you, what type of wound?)

what can you do to regain control? try not to fuel the anger with violence; mitigate by being gentle to yourself and others (what can you do to keep you safe from further and future injury? what further treatment do you need? try not to aggravate your wound; be gentle and cautious)