As you can hardly help being aware, today is Juneteenth--long celebrated by the Black community in remembrance of the day news of Emancipation came to Texas--two and a half years overdue. Now, in a rare show of bi-partisanship, Juneteenth has become a national holiday.
I applaud this action--at the same time realizing that it does nothing to address the ongoing indignities and injustices suffered by most, if not all, Black Americans. This new holiday could be the beginning of a national exploration of the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. Or it could be co-opted into cookouts and white sales.
And while the Right pats itself on the back for signing on to this holiday, they will continue to demand silence in schools about racial injustice.
It's not an acceptable tradeoff.
There's an excellent essay on the subject HERE, by Kevin Young, the Andrew W. Mellon director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the poetry editor of the New Yorker.
