Dear Colleagues,
This is draft #19 of my Chair’s message to the community acknowledging Juneteenth. And yes, it is still a draft. Turns out it’s hard to write the right thing about Juneteenth, easy to write something wrong, and easiest not to write anything at all. But inaction didn’t feel right either.
It was around draft #10 that I accepted the fact that I probably wouldn’t land on the perfect sentiment; and perhaps that was just the point. Perhaps Juneteenth isn’t supposed to be easy. Perhaps today, a new federal holiday, can’t possibly be honored by a Hallmark card, a blowout sale, a marching band parade. Perhaps today isn’t only about freedom, but an acknowledgement of suffering, of hardship, and of the many ways we are still bound by the shackles of inequality and racism.
The establishment of Juneteenth as a federal holiday hasn’t come easy, and for all our progress since June 19, 1865, when news of emancipation reached people in the deepest parts of the former Confederacy, the fight for racial reconciliation is far from over.
In our own Department, as we celebrate many DEI milestones — most recently, the appointment of Dr. Karen Gibbs, the first black female Chair of Surgery in the country — promoting lasting cultural change will require continued diligence. No single person, letter, or lectureship can rewrite history; but together, we can shape the narrative.
And so, today, Juneteenth 2021, please consider this nineteenth draft as a re-proclamation of our commitment to diversity — a team effort, a daily challenge, a work in progress.
Sincerely,
Nita Ahuja MD MBA FACS
Chair, Department of Surgery