Leadership Inside Out

Honoring Juneteenth

June 19, 2024

Today is a reminder that positive change can happen. Through the commitment and fortitude of the abolitionist movement and the inspired imagination of all those who fought for the end of slavery, Emancipation became a reality on June 19, 1865. The end of chattel slavery happened after hundreds of years in which the United States normalized and economically benefited this inhuman system.

As change agents we continue imagine, organize, and work towards an end to all forms of inhumanity and oppression. Even when the society says, it’s just the way things are, or that it would be economically impossible to right the wrongs, we say otherwise.

Juneteenth reminds us that YES WE CAN do better.

As we continue to evolve and grow in love, may we find joy in pushing for the end of mass incarceration (a legalized form of slavery), inhuman immigration policies that benefit from stolen labor & family separation, corporate extraction of wealth from the common worker, and the many internalized systems of oppression.

I believe that the more freedom, compassion, and joy we cultivate within ourselves the more equipped we are for the long road of social change. This is the joyous work I am committed to.

Sincerely, Sonya​

P.S. For more resources to continue to unlearn, and heal while living in a racialized society I recommend, thisthis and this. We could also grab time for a coffee chat