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The New Juneteenth Holiday Presents an Opportunity and an Obligation
With the recent signing of the new law that declares Juneteenth a Federal holiday, I have heard mixed reviews from my skin folk about this historic moment. I was surprised to hear that a lot people are not excited about the holiday.
“Why should they [white people] get a day off at our expense?”
“They don’t want to teach our history, so what are they going to tell Little Tommy when he asks about Juneteenth?”
“It’s like when the master gave the slaves cake after selling off their family.”
“They killed Martin and gave him a holiday…so what?”
I get it. There is nothing that America can do to repay us for the mass incarceration of our people as slaves. This nation, including the very White House where the law was signed, was built on the backs of slaves.
I get it. America still has a debt to pay for the ongoing racial injustice we face daily.
I get it. There are other laws we needed at this rate of completion, such as an anti-lynching law.
But at what point do we acknowledge the national recognition of a positive day when slaves found out they were free. (‘Found out’ is in bold because they were free two years prior on January 1, 1863, but they did not know…
