On The Performative Act of Making Juneteenth a Federal Holiday

The U.S. Senate passed a bill yesterday (June 15) to recognize June 19th as a federal holiday commemorating Juneteenth. For decades mostly Black communities across the nation have held celebrations in honor of the day (June 19, 1865) that enslaved Africans in Gavelston, Texas learned that the Emancipation Proclamation had brought an end to chattel slavery. Now, in the wake of a tumultuous 2020 when uprisings stemmed from the globally profiled killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, the same Senate that is comprised of a segment of unrelenting bigots that hold a deep disdain for any semblance of racial progress, has decided to reward everybody with a day off to celebrate Black folks being free.

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