It was off-topic, but waste not, want not:
I think some people
want to make Juneteenth problematic.
I was in a Twitter
“debate” a few days ago and the poster was claiming that teaching about
Juneteenth was illegal due to anti CRT laws being passed in various states. The
line of “reasoning” was as follows:
Opening salvo by none
other than former Sec of Labor Robert Reich:
“So let me get this
straight: Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, but laws are being enacted all
across the country to keep people from learning about it?”
Pushback
from Zaid Jilani:
“No,
that’s not at all what’s happening, but what’s the point of correcting you?
It’s not a genuine question.”
Defense of Reich from
Xavier Harmony:
What kind of white person can learn about Juneteenth without
feeling discomfort?
“A bill signed into law by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt bans
lessons that include the concept that someone should feel discomfort, guilt or
distress on account of their race.”
Where I come in:
“The point of Juneteenth was that people were freed, not that
it was fine to own them.”
To elaborate a bit: I became aware of Juneteenth about 20 year’s
ago. I believe it was from an article in someplace like The Atlantic
or The New Yorker about Ralph Ellison's novel, Juneteenth.
I haven’t read it, but the review gave some background of the Juneteenth
episode in history.
From
an intellectual point of view, it was somewhat predictable: No rational
person would think that all the slaves were freed the day after Appomattox,
news traveled slowly and it was a large country. In fact, I suppose there
were some people still enslaved even after Juneteenth—some out-of-the-way
place, that didn’t get the news, or just ignored it until somebody came and
forced them to comply.
Anyway,
what I felt about Juneteenth and in fact, whenever I hear about slaves being
freed, wars ending, etc. is happiness. Not guilt. Why would I feel
guilt for things that happened long before I was born? And really, who
but a racist, thinks I ought to feel guilt for something out of my control,
like the color of my skin or the circumstances of my birth?