The Things We See Every Day but Rarely Question
Slavery may seem like nothing more than a chapter buried deep within a history textbook you’ve been forced to read countless times throughout your academic journey a distant tragedy disconnected from modern life. For some, it exists solely as a lesson to memorize, a date to remember, or a test question to answer.
But that perception could not be further from the truth.
While chattel slavery no longer exists in America, the systems, customs, symbols, and institutions it influenced did not simply disappear with emancipation. Many adapted. Some evolved. Others blended so seamlessly into everyday life that few people stop to question their origins.
The reality is that racism is not always hidden. It is not always disguised behind coded language or secret meetings. In many cases, it is displayed in plain sight but has been digested so frequently that it becomes easier to swallow.
From the badges worn by law enforcement officers to children’s playground rhymes, from neighborhood regulations to environmental conditions that shape entire communities, remnants of America’s racial history continue to exist around us. Some are intentional. Others are inherited. Yet all force us to confront an uncomfortable truth: the past is not nearly as distant as many would like to believe.
As we commemorate Juneteenth a day that symbolizes freedom delayed but ultimately achieved we must also acknowledge the ways in which the legacy of racial oppression continues to echo throughout modern society.
The Badge & The Patrol
For many Americans, the police badge represents protection, authority, and public service.
Yet, for countless Black Americans, conversations about policing cannot be separated from history, as many of its past actions are not entirely distinct from its modern ones.
Long before modern police departments existed, slave patrols operated throughout the American South. Their purpose was clear: to track, capture, and return enslaved people who sought freedom. These patrols also enforced slave codes and monitored Black movement.
Although star shaped badges predate slavery and have roots in European traditions of authority, historians have documented how slave patrols frequently served as the foundation for organized law enforcement in many Southern states.
This history has sparked ongoing debate regarding the symbols and structures associated with policing today. While many departments view the star badge as a representation of justice and service, others argue that understanding its historical context is essential to understanding why trust between law enforcement and Black communities remains strained generations later.
The conversation is not simply about a badge. It is about acknowledging the institutions that once viewed freedom itself as a crime.
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe: The Nursery Rhyme We Sanitized
Many children learn the rhyme before they learn multiplication.
“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.”
It is recited on playgrounds, during games, and in classrooms across America.
What many people do not realize is that the rhyme once contained a racial slur directed at Black people a version that remained common throughout much of the twentieth century.
The phrase did not merely include racist language; historians have connected its evolution to broader cultural attitudes that normalized the dehumanization of Black Americans. With lyrics like “catch a nigger by the toe”.
Over time, the offensive wording was replaced, allowing the rhyme to survive while much of its history was forgotten. But forgetting history does not erase it.
It simply makes it easier to repeat traditions without questioning what they once represented.
Butter Pecan: A Flavor Born from Exclusion
Butter pecan is often affectionately called a staple flavor in many Black households.
What is less commonly discussed is the role segregation may have played in its cultural significance.
During the Jim Crow era, Black Americans frequently faced exclusion from restaurants, soda fountains, and ice cream parlors. Oral histories suggest that while certain products and experiences were marketed toward white consumers, Black families often relied on creativity, resourcefulness, and community traditions to create alternatives of their own.
While vanilla ice cream was often associated with purity and marketed primarily toward white consumers, Black families cultivated their own traditions and preferences despite exclusion from many public spaces.
Butter pecan became more than a dessert.
For many families, it became a symbol of making something beautiful from exclusion reminder that resilience often emerges where opportunity is denied.
The Song That Followed the Ice Cream Truck
For generations, the sound of the ice cream truck signaled excitement. Children ran outside. Parents searched for spare change. Entire neighborhoods paused at the familiar melody.
Few knew the tune carried a troubling history.
The melody commonly associated with ice cream trucks became popular through minstrel performances that mocked and caricatured Black Americans.
Minstrel performances, or minstrel shows, were a popular form of American theatrical entertainment that peaked during the nineteenth century. They featured white performers in blackface makeup who sang songs, danced, and performed comic skits designed to mock and reinforce harmful stereotypes of African Americans.
Later adaptations connected the song to some of the most offensive racial stereotypes ever recorded in American popular culture.
The song survived. The history did not.
Only recently have communities begun questioning why a melody rooted in racial mockery became associated with childhood innocence.
HOA: Exclusion with Better Public Relations
Discrimination did not disappear when racial covenants became illegal. It adapted.
Before fair housing protections existed, developers openly used deed restrictions to prevent Black families and other minority groups from purchasing homes in certain neighborhoods.
When those practices became unlawful, new methods emerged. Modern homeowners associations often present themselves as organizations focused on maintaining property values and community standards. Yet historians have documented how many evolved from systems originally designed to preserve racial and economic exclusivity. The language changed. The outcome often remained remarkably similar.
Why Is Church So Long?
For decades, jokes have circulated about the length of Black church services. People laugh about sermons that stretch into the afternoon or congregations that seem unwilling to leave. What those jokes often ignore is history.
During slavery, worship services represented far more than religious gatherings. Churches became places of refuge, communication, emotional release, and community building. For enslaved people, time spent in worship was often one of the few opportunities to gather outside the direct demands of forced labor. The tradition of lengthy services reflects more than religious enthusiasm.
It reflects survival.
Three Meals, Three Rules
Many Americans view breakfast, lunch, and dinner as natural parts of life. History suggests otherwise. The rigid structure of three designated meals became increasingly common during industrialization, when factory schedules required workers to eat according to production demands rather than personal or cultural rhythms.
Colonial systems often treated Indigenous and non Western food practices as inferior, forcing communities to abandon traditional eating patterns in favor of European standards. What many consider common sense today was, in many cases, carefully constructed social conditioning.
Environmental Racism: The Neighborhood You Were Given
Have you ever wondered why certain neighborhoods seem saturated with liquor stores while others are filled with grocery stores, parks, and fresh food markets?
The answer is not accidental.
Researchers have consistently linked historical redlining, discriminatory zoning practices, and economic disinvestment to the placement of liquor stores and other harmful industries within predominantly Black communities.
These decisions affect far more than convenience. They influence health outcomes, crime rates, property values, and quality of life. When entire communities are systematically denied investment while being flooded with harmful alternatives, the result is not coincidence.
It is policy.
Jingle Bells and America’s Selective Memory
For many families, “Jingle Bells” represents holiday nostalgia.
What is less widely known is the song’s connection to nineteenth century blackface minstrel performances, one of the most popular forms of racist entertainment in American history.
The melody survived long after audiences forgot or ignored the context in which it gained popularity. This pattern is not unique. America often remembers the product while forgetting the prejudice that helped produce it.
History Never Left
One of the greatest misconceptions about racism is the belief that it exists only in the past.
History did not vanish after emancipation nor has it disappeared after segregation.
And it did not end simply because society became uncomfortable discussing it.
Juneteenth is more than a celebration of freedom. It is a call to remember, to investigate, and to tell the truth even when that truth challenges the stories we have been taught.
Because history never truly disappears.
Sometimes it simply becomes ordinary.
Resources
American Black Holocaust Museum. (n.d.). The dark history of Jingle Bells: From blackface minstrelsy to Christmas classic. https://www.abhmuseum.org/the-dark-history-of-jingle-bells-from-blackface-minstrelsy-to-christmas-classic/
American Black Holocaust Museum. (n.d.). Butter pecan ice cream. https://www.abhmuseum.org/butter-pecan-ice-cream/
Home Sweet Headache. (n.d.). The true origins of HOAs and why discrimination is baked into the system. https://www.homesweetheadache.com/post/the-true-origins-of-hoas-and-why-discrimination-is-baked-into-the-system
National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. (n.d.). Slave patrols: An early form of American policing. https://nleomf.org/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-policing/
Perspectives McGill. (2023, May 2). Decolonizing diets: Eating three meals a day and its colonial implications. https://www.perspectivesmcgill.com/allposts/2023/5/2/decolonizing-diets-eating-three-meals-a-day-and-its-colonial-implications
Smith, A. (2014, May 11). Recall that ice cream truck song? We have unpleasant news for you. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/11/310708342/recall-that-ice-cream-truck-song-we-have-unpleasant-news-for-you
Tavernise, S. (2014, May 21). The racist children’s songs you might not have known were racist. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2014/5/21/5732258/the-racist-childrens-songs-you-might-not-have-known-were-racist
The Root. (2020, June 12). The history of policing in America [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/oqujZ8qKGJo
Van Ryn, M., & Burke, J. (2006). The effect of patient race and socio-economic status on physicians’ perceptions of patients. Social Science & Medicine, 62(4), 813-828. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17149517/