Juneteenth and the Communication Gap Transcript

Jun 19, 2020

Hey, what's up? This is Jahmal Abbott, thanks for tuning in. I know it's been a while, but I'm so thankful and glad that you're here with me for another episode. So today, I just want to share a couple thoughts on my mind. And I know it's been a while. So I promise to get back to you soon with more news and insights about what's happening in the tech world.

And I thought today's story would be fitting in the sense that it's June 19, also known as Juneteenth. So what's important about Juneteenth is that this was the official day that the South finally learn that they were free from slavery. We had this really bad problem with slavery back in the day if you're not aware with what's going on in the United States. And African Americans were used to build up this country to - there were use for free labor and just treat like personal property which is something horrible if you think about it here today to treat another person like a piece of property.

Back in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln at the time. But it wasn't until two and a half years later that the South would finally hear this message. And specifically in Galveston, Texas is when this word finally came through on June 19 1865. So as you can imagine, if you are in a situation where you're in bondage, where you're enslaved, and you're treated like a piece of property, and to hear this news, there's going to be tears of joy, celebration, and then just just excitement about your new freedom and how you're going to live your life as a free person. So that's why this day is so important.

And what I really want to focus on is that it's a two and a half years for this message to finally reach the people down in the south. So as you know, here today, we have all sorts of technology. We're connected with our smartphones, we're connected with our tablets, we're connected with computers. I mean, we are very connected in this time in this day and age.

But this wasn't always the case. And as you just learned about the Emancipation Proclamation taking two and a half years before people finally hearing the word about what was going on, about their status as a citizen in the United States. Some other things to keep in mind too about what was going on at the time, there was no reading, there was no writing for people that were enslaved. African Americans could actually be jailed or killed if they were caught and found out to be educating themselves. And that's the reason why the people didn't hear the message at the time. So when you're in that type of situation, you're not going to be the first one to know about any type of new news or information.

So fast forward to May (2020) there's been a whole lot that's been going on, and especially with the killing of George Floyd who was an unarmed African American man in Minneapolis, who was killed by a police officer who kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes, which is absolutely disgusting. And this is where technology comes into play. So just imagine if we didn't have social media, if we didn't have the smartphones, the access to the data technology that allows us to share information and communicate ideas or things that are important to us, this particular event would have never been captured and then seen by the rest of the world.

And then actually, if you Google some of the news articles, the actual article about what was going on with George Floyd was maybe just a small little paragraph, and didn't even accurately described the actual situation that took place between the officer and George Floyd. So because of the fact that we have modern communication, because of the fact that this was caught on video, this is the reason why this message and this movement really took off. And it's not to say that this alone was the only thing. I mean, you had the Black Lives Matter movement that's been happening for several years now. But you have all these things leading up to this moment. And the fact that we are able to share and to give our opinion about what's going on at any moment at any time, you can see why this particular event reach different levels that we've never seen before, in the sense of this individual being harm hurt and killed by a police officer.

So this is me not saying that, you know, all cops are bad. This is definitely not the case. And this is me not saying that black lives aren't the only ones that matter. But at this particular point in time in history, we are definitely focusing on the fact that black lives do matter, and that it's super important to get the word out about what's going on with police brutality in the African American community, and then how this needs to be resolved as soon as possible. So we're seeing the movement we're seeing things are progressing and this is all because of the fact that we have technology, we have platforms that allow us to communicate and share ideas in a moment's notice.

So this is reason why I'm talking about this here today. It's really a testament to how far we've expanded with our technology. And if the Emancipation Proclamation happened today, we would know about this in a matter of minutes, instead of waiting two and a half years for this event to take place.

So that's my thoughts here for today. I thank you once again, for tuning in. I'll come back again and bring you some more fresh, tech insights and news and updates that you can count on. So once again, this is Jamal Abbott, thank you so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you soon.