Do you really want to divide this nation into two waring racial factions that never unite over anything?
What better way to do it than create two national independence days that differ depending on race.
For a few years now, the Left has attacked Independence Day, the 4th of July, as an exclusively White people’s holiday.
Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks
— Chris Rock (@chrisrock) July 4, 2012
Happy white people proud of their racist ancestors day
— Damon Wayans Yunior? (@wayansjr) July 4, 2017
Black ppl have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized + terrorized by America for centuries, & are expected to join your commemoration of “independence”, while you enslaved our ancestors. We reject your celebration of white supremacy & look forward to liberation for all. ✊🏾 pic.twitter.com/YCD2SYlgv4
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 4, 2020
Last year #FvckTheFourth was trending on Twitter where Leftists attacked the 4th of July.
From US News:
For Black Americans, Independence Day Is Complicated
July 4th celebrations remind some Black Americans of America’s sordid racial past.
From PBS:
For some Americans, July 4 is a time not to celebrate, but reflect
From Buffalo Rising:
Black Folks’ History with Independence Day: It’s Complicated
During last year’s “summer of love” the movement came to replace Independence Day with Juneteenth.
Ain’t no 4th! #FvckTheFourth #JuneTeenth pic.twitter.com/gCfok6c25b
— Papì 💙 (@1p_a_t) July 4, 2020
Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream opined on it, because of course they did.
What It Means to Celebrate Juneteenth This Year
The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t end slavery. The end of the Civil War didn’t end slavery. But an order issued in Texas by a Union general on June 19, 1865, did. We call that day Juneteenth and we celebrate it every year. But this year isn’t like most years.
This year we’ve seen weeks of protests against police brutality, systemic racism, and white supremacy, all sparked by the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd, murders that seemed to jolt the world into realizing that while slavery may have ended in 1865, its legacy lives on.
From slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration, racism and state-sponsored, anti-Black and Brown violence have been a fact of life in America for 400 years. So this Juneteenth let’s celebrate and support this growing nationwide movement to wrestle openly and honestly with that history in a way that has never been done before.
For Black communities in America, justice has often been delayed. Whether it’s waiting almost 90 years for the promise of the Fourth of July to be fulfilled, or a year and a half for the Emancipation Proclamation to have the force of law—or months and months to be released from jail only because you can’t afford to pay bail.
It’s this very history that makes it so important to celebrate Juneteenth. Slavery was an abomination and it took a war to end it, but it did end. Jim Crow enshrined racism and prejudice in our laws, but the Civil Rights movement put an end to Jim Crow. Today, Black and Brown people still experience racism every day at every level of American life and face violence at the hands of the police, but millions of people are marching, advocating, rallying, and organizing to finally put an end to that too.
This Juneteenth, let’s stand together and continue the long march toward justice. Yes, it has taken far too long to get there, but change at last feels like it may be at hand.
Other similar OpEds were published in the news.
Juneteenth – not the Fourth of July – was the real Independence Day
I do not celebrate the 4th of July. This choice, which I made several years ago, is one that I wouldn’t previously have called expressly political. I didn’t stop celebrating the fourth of July in an attempt to formally renounce the occasion for its utter hypocrisy, though I certainly believe I would have been more than justified in holding that sentiment. I stopped observing the holiday because I felt ridiculous doing so. I won’t deny that the years I spent gathering with friends and family, wearing the colors red, white and blue, and staring upwards into an evening sky illuminated by dazzling light shows were, for me, filled with an irreplicable innocence and optimism. But as I moved into adulthood, learned the expansive and ongoing history of American imperialism, experienced blatant racism, homophobia, and transphobia, and internalized that my ancestors were held in bondage and considered chattel far beyond the date and year that I was supposed to consider the demarcation of American “freedom”, the idea of celebrating the holiday became untenable.
This year, the US Federal Government is finally segregating Independence Day.
House passes bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, sending it to Biden
A bill that would establish a federal holiday on Juneteenth, marking the end of slavery in the United States, passed the House on Wednesday, paving the way for President Joe Biden to sign it into law.
Making Juneteenth a federal holiday is “a crucial step in remembering our past, and it will undoubtedly help us build a better future,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who introduced the bill on the floor.
Here is the actual text of the bill:
To amend title 5, United States Code, to designate Juneteenth National Independence Day as a legal public holiday.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Juneteenth National Independence Day Act”.
SEC. 2. JUNETEENTH NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY AS A LEGAL PUBLIC HOLIDAY.
Section 6103(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to Memorial Day the following:
“ Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19.”.
Juneteenth National Independence Day.
As noted in the aforementioned news article:
Some Republicans objected to the naming of the holiday as an “independence day.” They noted that Juneteenth has also been referred to as Jubilee Day and Emancipation Day, among other names.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., argued the chosen name will “create confusion” with the Fourth of July, saying, “Why ask Americans to pick one of the two independence days to celebrate?”
Massie is wrong, it’s not to create confusion, it’s to create division.
Juneteenth National Independence Day will be the Black Independence Day.
4th of July, Independence Day will be the White Independence Day.
I guarantee that social media will explode over White people who choose to celebrate Juneteenth will be accused of racism and cultural appropriation and will be told to celebrate their Independence Day next month.
Let me be clear. If our government wanted to create a holiday to celebrate emancipation or the ratifying of the 13th Amendment or the ending of Jim Crow, or all of the above, I’m for that.
My issue is very specifically the naming of the holiday along with the cultural shift that says Juneteenth is the Black Independence Day and the 4th of July is the White Independence Day.
Creating two national holidays for the two largest racial demographics in this country will only fracture us more.
You know what? All us “white”people could all kill ourselves, leave our estates to poc give all our land back to the indians and THESE racist pos whining puke inducing asshats WOULD STILL NOT BE HAPPY. BLEEP BLEEPIN BLEEP BLEEP BLEEPIN BLEEP them.
“I guarantee that social media will explode over White people who choose to celebrate Juneteenth will be accused of racism and cultural appropriation and will be told to celebrate their Independence Day next month.”
Going to partially disagree. ‘White people’ will be expected to cowtow to POC and denigrate themselves as much as possible. Many lefties will.
Just refer to it exclusively as “Republicans Freed the Slaves Day” and watch the cognitive dissonance.
“Republicans Freed the Democrat’s Slaves Day.”
I am still waiting for a single Prog to succinctly explain how dividing and categorizing everything by race isn’t actually racist.
And waiting…..
Don’t hold your breath. You’ll asphyxiate, die, and vote Democrat in several Presidential elections before they ever explain that.
I’ll be glad when the fascists race war kicks in for real, with poc being 13% it won’t last long and the fascists will have to import a fresh crop.
Too far, man. 🙁
So this is like the Christmas vs. Kwanza brouhaha of a few decades ago. Lovely. SMH
I guarantee that social media will explode over White people who choose to celebrate Juneteenth will be accused of racism and cultural appropriation and will be told to celebrate their Independence Day next month.
(Similar to what Tantiv V posted.)
And I guarantee that social media will explode again, two weeks later, over white people who choose to celebrate Independence Day on July 4th. We/they will be accused of racism (because “White Independence Day” is naturally racist, of course) and cultural appropriation (because white people have no culture of their own, so everything we do is appropriation, dontcha know?).
Separating Independence Day into distinct Black and White holidays on different days, is a way to de-legitimize and eventually eliminate the “White” one — y’know, the one that birthed the American Experiment the Left hates so much — as a racist, archaic, and obsolete holiday.
Look, I get that folks are upset that slavery in America didn’t end until almost 90 years into America’s history. But let’s not forget that among the Western world, America was one of the first to abolish it, and we did so voluntarily; we didn’t have to have abolition externally forced on us, like so many others.
And let’s also not forget that if the July 4th Independence Day hadn’t happened, freed slaves would have been British subjects, not American citizens, would not have the benefits of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and would today have only the extremely-limited personal freedoms British subjects largely aren’t permitted to enjoy.
If you want to celebrate Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, or whatever else you want to call “Juneteenth”, great. Ending slavery is a historical event worth celebrating and I support you.
But DO NOT tell me that American Independence Day on July 4th is illegitimate and needs to be replaced by “Black Independence Day” just because slavery still existed while the ink on the Declaration of Independence was drying in 1776. America, for all her past and current flaws, is nevertheless the greatest nation on the Earth, and I for one will not allow her achievements to be lessened because the Socialist Left chooses to instead focus on her flaws. (Especially ones we remedied over 150 years ago.)
As an afterthought, being that it’s a celebration of the end of slavery in America, “Juneteenth” is a distinctively “black” holiday, is it not?
As in, not inclusive of Hispanics, Latinos/Latinas, AANHPIs (I’m told this is “Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders”), Native Americans, or any other “non-white” people.
I wonder how all those other sub-sets of the “BIPOC” community feel about the “B”s getting their own holiday….
Well, in theory the 13th Amendment outlaws all forms of slavery, applied to any race. That of course hasn’t stopped the draft, but then again, the number of judges and other politicians that obey the Constitution can be counted on the fingers of one, or maybe two, hands.
“Creating two holidays for the two largest racial demographics in this country will only fracture us more.” Hispanics outnumber POCs by 5% now. White 76.3%, Hispanic 18.5%, Black 13.4%, and asian 5.9% plus everything else 1% or less. These numbers are from census bureau.gov and yes i know they don’t add up, I want my tax money back.