In Conversation with Jeanelle K. Hope
Jeanelle K. Hope wrote the book on Black antifascism; today, we’re celebrating Juneteenth by talking with the cultural historian and Black studies scholar. The holiday was only federally recognized in 2021, but it’s been celebrated for over a century to commemorate the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas and the end of slavery.
Hope, who lives outside of D.C., has had a front row seat to the celebratory “branding of America 250.” She told me “it feels like the pendulum is actually moving in the other direction, even though we are trying to posture ourselves as a nation that is celebrating the semiquincentennial. What does that mean in a moment when we are just now commemorating the abolition of slavery at a national level?”
We spoke about freedom struggles, teaching Juneteenth, the great Boots Riley, and more. For further reading, check out Hope’s Lux article, “An Antifascist Education: Black women’s radicalism has been fascism’s enemy for 200 years”. —Sarah Leonard
SARAH LEONARD How do you talk about Juneteenth right now, in this political moment, with students and the public?
JEANELLE K. HOPE Given the fairly recent federal recognition, folks are still trying to understand what Juneteenth truly means. Obviously, you have to take it back to the history of slavery and how integral this institution was to building what we now understand as America and its modern economic systems. I start any type of education around Juneteenth by commemorating the abolition of slavery, one of the most grotesque atrocities to occur on this earth. The abolition of it was quite a milestone event, given that it was a system that was around for several hundred years.
Black folks in the South have long celebrated Juneteenth. In the current day, Juneteenth also presents a really good point for us to think about the evolution of freedom. For Black folks, to borrow from Angela Davis, freedom is a constant struggle, right? Yes, we are free of bondage, but there is still a type of social and economic bondage that exists — we were meant to continue to fight.
SL What does that mean to students now?
JKL I’ve been talking to my students about how the legacies of slavery are showing up today. Whether that touches on redistricting, the erosion of the Voting Rights Act, Supreme Court cases challenging birthright citizenship, or on incarceration and immigration (which I see as going hand-in-hand).
Even just the ability to teach Juneteenth in a moment where books about Juneteenth might be on banned lists for school districts — right? The ability to teach about the realities of slavery as well as the other atrocities that happened during the formation of this country, if we’re thinking about the experience of Indigenous and Native Americans.
SL Who do you want people to know about this Juneteenth? Who’s on your mind?
JKL Two Black anti-fascists have been on my mind. I’ve really been sitting with Boots Riley; I just saw I Love Boosters. I taught Sorry to Bother You three years in a row. It’s one of my favorite films. I’m from Oakland, California — like Riley. Obviously, he’s an unapologetic communist, anti-capitalist, in support of labor union groups, so I’ve been ruminating with the anti-fascist politics that show up in I Love Boosters. It’s a film about dialectical materialism, which, you know, as an educator and organizer, can be very hard to teach and talk about.
I’m also a thespian — I’m a die-hard theater girl. This Friday I went to see Wendell Pierce leading Othello at the Shakespeare Theater Company in D.C. I love Wendell Pierce, but he made me think about Paul Robeson, who really pioneered the role of Othello. After Paul Robeson got all his acclaim for Othello, he was effectively blacklisted. He came out against Franco’s fascism during the Spanish Civil War. As an artist, he used his platform to name fascism that was happening abroad and talk about how it was also showing up in the South. So he became enmeshed with Black communist and organizing spaces and got the wrath of the McCarthy era.
SL And then I have to ask you how you’re celebrating.
JKL We’re taking the train up to New York. My partner works for BLIS, the Black Liberation Indigenous Sovereignty collective. They work to bring Black and Native artists and organizers together, particularly around issues of reparations and land back. They’re hosting a huge event on the 20th called Reclamation Day, featuring conversations with organizers and a concert with Mato Wayuhi & Joey Bada$$, so we’re doing that. And then, because it’s Pride — happy Pride! — we’re also going to see the recently Tony Award-winning play The Jellicle Ball, Cats told through the Black and brown ballroom scene in New York.
In true Black fashion, for the actual holiday, I need to have a red drink and I need to have some collard greens. And if I can get a piece of red velvet cake, then that’s all the better.
SL This is New York City! You’ll be able to get it.
JKL I feel like I should be able to get two out of the three.