FEATURING TREVOR SMITH - The United States turns 250 years old this year, an anniversary that ought to spark sober reflections about the violent origins of the nation, but instead is being turned into a white supremacist spectacle that erases the history of genocide, enslavement, and land disposession. President Trump, who announced a massive series of events called Freedom250, is now displeased, calling for the cancellation of a planned musical performance after too many musicians dropped out.
In the meantime, organizations that have long advocated for an honest reckoning of American history, are launching a new ritual called Reclamation Day.
Trevor Smith is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the BLIS Collective. He is a writer, researcher, and strategist focused on racial inequality, wealth inequality, reparations, and narrative change. He spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about what Reclamation Day is and why it was conceived.
ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:
Sonali Kolhatkar: This incredible Reclamation Day that you and others have organized is such a different approach than what we're seeing, of course, from the White House. But it's also different from even non-White House related, non-federal related celebrations that are at smaller scale because we've had this massive push to undo diversity inclusion, equity efforts, and to generally push back against racial equity. How do you reflect on what is being planned this year? Is it difficult for you to face the prevailing narrative in the coming month?
Trevor Smith: Yeah. It's a really great question. Again, thank you for having me. I wouldn't say that it has been difficult. If anything, planning and curating Reclamation Day has brought me personally so much joy.
But then also as an organization with BLIS, which stands for Black Liberation Indigenous Sovereignty, it's really grown our presence and put us in front of so many different artists, storytellers, collaborators. And my co-founder, Savannah, and I, when we started BLIS, we were really thinking about how do we create the space for solidarity across different movements and across different groups, particularly Black and Indigenous folks.
And when we were thinking about Reclamation Day last year, before it was even called Reclamation Day, we were really thinking about how do we create a counter commemoration to the Fourth of July, while still also celebrating Black and Indigenous joy and resilience. And I think we have really captured that with Reclamation Day. And so it's not a “cancel America” day. It is not a cancel the Fourth of July day. It's a Reclamation Day for us to reclaim our stories, to reclaim our narratives, and to really celebrate Black and Indigenous and working-class joy and resilience in these first 250 years of this nation.
