Slavery is no scholar, no improver; it does not love the whistle of the railroad; it does not love the newspaper, the mail-bag, a college, a book or a preacher who has the absurd whim of saying what he thinks; it does not increase the white population; it does not improve the soil; everything goes to decay. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Juneteenth became a federal holiday on June 19, 2022.
2022. I am no mathematician, but seems like 157 years after the event is not too soon to celebrate officially.
After all, takes a while for a White Christian nation like ours to absorb that many new citizens, right?
Why this Juneteenth is different?
Despite the unprecedented recognition of Juneteenth, antiracist activists warn that this is no time for complacency or self-congratulation around racism. Even as Juneteenth celebrations gain momentum, a conservative movement has emerged to limit and punish teachers for teaching “critical race theory” in schools—basically, trying to keep teachers from explaining how racism has been part of America’s history.
In 2021, Texas passed a law that makes it illegal to teach that “with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to, the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality,” among other things. Instead of taking national accountability for the way that slavery shaped America, lawmakers are working to rewrite history and whitewash our national memory.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott of Uvalde Massacre fame enthusiastically signed the measure.
Just think.
If the insurrectionists get off and the vote is suppressed and enough folks sufficiently radicalize and far right jihadists entrench, patriotic Americans who believe in science and democracy and equality for all, freedom from religion, whatever their gender, real or imagined, might hope to one day enjoy an Independence Day of their own.
But none of us will be here to celebrate.
No. Not your children either.
Nor theirs.
THEODORE R. JOHNSON: The Real Story of the Politics of Juneteenth.
Donald Trump buried that five-word campaign promise in his 2020 “Platinum Plan,” a two-page laundry list of economic and social enticements to win over black voters in his bid for a second term. Trump lost, so we will never know if he would’ve honored this commitment, which was made just six weeks before the election. But we do know that he made no attempt to create the holiday during his four years as president. And, despite his administration putting out historical statements commemorating Juneteenth every year of his presidency, Trump admitted that he had only learned of the holiday’s meaning after being informed about it by a black Secret Service agent just a few weeks before it appeared in his reelection materials.
Should Trump decide to run again in 2024, this campaign promise will no longer be on the table—President Joe Biden signed legislation last year establishing Juneteenth National Independence Day as a federal holiday, after the measure received the Senate’s unanimous consent and passed the House on a 415-14 vote.
But the politics of how Juneteenth became a holiday is a lesson in the unserious ways we grapple with race in America. The unflattering fact is that Juneteenth is federally observed today primarily because there was no political penalty to be paid by congressional members who voted in its favor and insufficient political incentive for those who would block it to follow through.
As a result, the bill’s passage is a less inspiring occurrence of bipartisan consensus on a race-centric issue than it might otherwise have been.
