Posted on 06/22/2021 6:01:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the day the last slaves in the U.S. were formally freed hardly seems like it should be controversial.
But when a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday passed the House of Representatives last week, progressives were quick to enlist the holiday to support their contention that celebrating America is celebrating racism, since blacks have not historically been given the same rights as whites in this country. But conservatives, just as quickly, let them adopt the holiday.
Juneteenth celebrates a significant step toward racial equality in America, something many conservatives undoubtedly find worth celebrating. Of course, Leftists will use the holiday for their own partisan political ends, but that is not reason to give up.
Conservative commentator Candace Owens expressed disapproval. “Juneteenth is soooooooo [sic] lame,” she tweeted. “Democrats really need to stop trying to repackage segregation.”
Candace argued that a specific celebration of a day that marked black independence from slavery would be used as a repudiation of the holiday we celebrate a month later, marking the birth of America. Candace put it, “I’ll be celebrating July 4th and July 4th only. I’m American.”
Owens is right that some will use Juneteenth as an opportunity to participate in ritual “America is an irredeemably racist country” self-flagellations. BuzzFeed News, for instance, placed the Juneteenth holiday in seeming contradiction to opposition on the Right to critical race theory, in a headline that read: “Juneteenth a Federal Holiday Amid Critical Race Theory Debate.” Twitter added the blackpower fist to the “Juneteenth” hashtag. An opinion article at MarketWatch encouraged us to take the opportunity to design a new national flag that “represented all Americans.” The framing of Juneteenth as a repudiation of traditional American patriotism is frustrating.
But that is exactly why conservatives shouldn’t allow the Left to define the holiday, and overtake the cultural symbols we deem too dirty to save.
Take the visual arts, such as painting, acting, and film-making, as an example. It is no secret that the Left practically dominates these sorts of artistic pursuits. Few conservatives have deemed it worth their time to attempt to retake the visual arts. For the most part, conservatives have voiced opposition but done little else to really reclaim this culturally significant pursuit.
Now, one political persuasion dominates the natural impulse to create innovative and beautiful things, and the conservatives who have given up on fighting this battle are missing in action. Perhaps the Right doesn’t think the arts are worth fighting for. After all, we have facts and logic on our side, so a painter’s opinion on America’s imperialistic patriarchal systems of oppression doesn’t matter. Wrong. Art is powerful. Think about it. Would you rather spend your time at an art show, or at a panel explaining the scientific basis for the fact that there are only two genders?
Consider the rainbow: Once a symbol of God’s promise never to flood the earth again, a biblical narrative most conservatives still cherish, it’s been co-opted by the LGBTQ+ community for its own socially progressive ends. And while some may have voiced opposition to the symbol of God’s promise becoming the symbol of cultural decadence, most have simply abandoned the rainbow.
The significance of the rainbow flag is not that it substitutes for argument, but that it can be the rallying point around which one can assemble a formidable movement. To signal your support, for instance, for any number of socially progressive policy points, one need only display the rainbow colors. Does anyone really think of God’s promise to Noah in the book of Genesis when they see a rainbow? Of course not, and maybe that’s our fault. Here, as in the case of Juneteenth, conservatives are abandoning the significance of symbolism as soon as that symbol becomes too tainted with the ownership of the other side.
This week, commentator Charlie Kirk reneged on his own support of Juneteenth being made a federal holiday once it became clear that Leftists were using it for their political ends. A year ago, Charlie was chiding Democrats for not making Juneteenth a federal holiday. Juneteenth, Charlie tweeted, celebrated, “the end of slavery in the United States,” and was, “made possible thanks to Republican President Abraham Lincoln.” Last week, however, Charlie opposed Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday. Kirk claimed the motive of Democrats who support making Juneteenth a federal holiday was to “replace” July 4th. In many cases, this is undoubtedly so. But for others, it is a celebration of the end of an institution of oppression, the triumph of the best parts of America over its worst, and the destruction of one of the last remaining formal shibboleths of racism. Can Kirk not find it in his heart to celebrate that?
To be fair, he likely can. But instead of fighting for a definition of Juneteenth that he and many others would agree with, he gives up the field entirely.
When Democrats stepped up to make Juneteenth their own, Kirk let them.
It’s understandable that Kirk and conservatives like him don’t want to assist the Left in its comprehensive reframing of American history. But instead of giving up the fight and leaving Juneteenth for the Left, why not fight for a correct interpretation of history?
Juneteenth celebrates an important step towards the realization of founding principles for black Americans. Whether you’re liberal or conservative, that’s a worthy holiday. For once, instead of abandoning symbols the Left claims for their agenda, the Right should play ball.
No - they DONT.
This is pure propaganda.
It’s been more than 150 YEARS since the Civil War was fought where WHITE PEOPLE shed their blood and gave their lives to protect black people and free the slaves.
Memorial Day was founded to remember those who died for the slaves in that war and you have gone and destroyed and desecrated that memory to assuage your own personal communist feelings.
FU!
Dear Liberals: GFY
Juneteenth brings the Federal holiday count to 44. That’s a lot of days off.
It’s the ONLY American holiday celebrating one race EXCLUSIVELY. That makes it racially divisive.
Rome has the record but we are closing in fast. Look what happened to Rome.
republicans were absolutely pathetic in their groveling to race baiting liberals when they voted for Juneteenth.
Even Trump was in favor of it.
For me, this ridiculously named holiday is a celebration of the end of a “thousands of years long” worldwide age - at least as far as the US is concerned, just as any “reparations” can be taken out of the blood of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who shed theirs for the end of slavery in this country.
I applaud the US as the only nation of a planet of racist and slave trading nations that celebrates the official end of such practice within its borders. We now celebrate the day the racist and slavery history of humankind changed in our country.
We, as the United States of America are now officially the least racist nation of all, and now have a holiday to celebrate the day it ended.
Of course they do. That's when northern mostly whites led by a REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT offered up their lives to free the slaves in the then democrat south.
Too bad only 1% of the population at most will see it that way.
On this day we should also remember the lives of those who fought for the freedom of the slaves.
On this day we should also remember the lives of those who fought for the freedom of the slaves.
Juneteenth is about American Exceptionalism. Consider what Condoleezza Rice said last summer:
Well, I’ve always thought that America’s greatest strength is that we are a country where you can come from humble circumstances and do great things, and where, despite our painful history, we’ve worked harder and harder every day, brick by brick, to build a more perfect union for all of us. And I would say to those, particularly in places like China and Russia and Iran, who may want to use this for propaganda, let’s not be absurd.
This is not Tiananmen Square where you’ve mowed down people who disagreed with the government. This is not the invasion of Crimea where you took land from your neighbor. This is not the Green Revolution in Iran where you killed people wantonly because they wouldn’t agree with the theocratic government.
Rice continued, “And I would even say to our friends abroad, in places like Europe, where I’m seeing demonstrations in support of what is happening here, thank you for your support, but please look in the mirror. Please ask yourself, in countries in Europe and countries all across the world, what are you doing about racial and ethnic inequality in your own circumstances? America has gotten better because we have been willing to confront our problems. And we’re going to confront our problems again. We’re confronting them now.
“But I really don’t need to be lectured by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping about peaceful protest when they have themselves used their own force just because people wanted to criticize the government. That is not what is happening here,” she added.
I understand the concerns people have, that we are Americans first and holidays like Juneteenth potentially emphasize the prefixes people love to use, e.g., Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, African-Americans, more than the suffix. Fair enough. But the same can be said for Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Labor Day, and maybe even Christmas. Those holidays, which btw I'd never dream of repealing, fundamentally celebrate people who've given and sacrificed (sometimes ultimately) for the betterment of this nation.
Maybe other people have different motivations for Juneteenth - especially of the wokey variety - but letting them do the equivalent of turning Christmas into something other than Christ's birthday is a bad idea.
Fundamentally, and in line with Dr Rice, Juneteenth celebrates America embracing freedom. Other nations' histories have nasty things but only America has the testicular fortitude to address them AND fix them and then celebrate that correction.
In that same spirit I consider adding a federal holiday to celebrate the emancipation of slaves (I mean, we DID have a little war that sorta touched upon this scourge....it's not a holiday celebrating Elvis and James Brown though that'd be bitchin') to be prima facie evidence of what makes America Exceptional AND better than every other nation on the planet.
I fully support a holiday to celebrate when republicans freed the democrats slaves!
Perhaps this would be an opportunity to remind everyone that the Union Army freed the slaves, not unionized social workers.
Equality means if there is a WHITE CRACKER national holiday, then blacks get their own holiday too. INEQUALITY means they get a special day and other groups do not.
“ It’s the ONLY American holiday celebrating one race EXCLUSIVELY. That makes it racially divisive.”
There is also only one remaining federal holiday named for one individual: MLK day.
Columbus Day?
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