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.
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.
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.
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