Black Tot Day and Juneteenth

Juneteenth is an American holiday that commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. People celebrate it by eating African American dishes that are red in colour like red beans or black eyed peas with rice. It is also a day of reflection on the inhumanity that African Americans were subjected to, and the struggles still faced by many of their descendants.

On Juneteenth, many rum companies and bartenders often promote cocktails that are red, honour African-American culinary traditions, or make cocktails with black owned brands like Ten to One Rum.

In past years, Equiano Rum celebrated Juneteenth by raising a glass to the legacy of Olaudah Equiano’s journey to liberation with cocktails like the Freedom Breeze while reflecting “on how far we’ve come & the work still to be done.”

Actor Michael B. Jordan also used Juneteenth to launch J’ouvert Rum, a brand that takes its name from a Caribbean street festival synonymous with freedom.

The equivalent on Juneteenth in the Caribbean is Emancipation Day. This is the anniversary of the end of slavery all across the Ango-Caribbean. Across the region, it’s an occasion of celebration and reflection.

Just like with Juneteenth, rum companies should recognize Emancipation Day with a certain solemnity given the historical relationship between the rum industry and forced labour, and the longstanding use of colonial nostalgia in selling rum.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Five years ago, several Caribbean rum companies including Appleton, Angostura, and Mount Gay participated in an event celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Black Tot Day.

This event honoured the legacy of plantation owners, and the traditions of an Imperial military that was often deployed by the crown against workers in the sugarcane industry campaigning for humane working conditions. It then culminated with an afterparty held on Emancipation Day, almost in open mockery of the memories of the enslaved.

Events like this demonstrate the need for Caribbean rum companies to change how rum is promoted.

Marketing in the Caribbean rum industry relies heavily on colonial nostalgia that white washes the region’s past. There needs to be change, beginning with Black Tot Day.

Image Source; Wikipedia