Originally published at: Juneteenth: "Emancipation is a marker of progress for white Americans, not black ones" | Boing Boing
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We have Juneteenth, but we have no protections of our US citizen’s voting rights. Hollow victory, but a victory none the less.
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(Of course, slavery in the US wasn’t officially abolished until the ratification of the 13th Amendment six months later.)
It should be noted that the 13th Amendment didn’t abolish slavery in the U.S., it enshrined and preserved slavery as legal and permissible for convicted people. It’s still legal today, which, when combined by the disproportionate incarceration of Black people in this country, indicates that the system has done a lot of work to preserve an oppressive status quo.
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Between the federal recognition of Juneteeth and the release of FORGET THE ALAMO, it’s been a bad week for those who endeavored to keep this history out of my Texas schools.
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Outrageous. We should definitely be locking up more women.
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Some white Americans (who happen to be members of congress) apparently don’t see it as progress, unfortunately:
I’m unclear if he thinks this holiday is supposed to make us “ashamed” because it makes us think about how the country had slavery, or because it ended. Though given he thinks the end of slavery was one of “America’s darkest moments,” I guess I have my answer.
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…but then turn around and say we should keep Confederate statues because they don’t make us focus on slavery…
Double standard is very strong with this party…
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FORGET THE ALAMO?
Why is nobody using that as a label for the GOP effort to scrub Jan 6 from history?
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I really don’t get this wording, which seems to be a common description. They could’ve enforced it before then, but there was an army literally fighting not to. The change wasn’t recieving word, but the 2000 Union troops there to prevent the ongoing enslavement.
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Even worse, the Confederate statues are about “remembering history” no matter how bad it is*. So it’s fine to “remember” Confederates that way, but not the end of slavery.
*Unless, of course, these Republicans don’t think the Confederacy was bad. Gosh, that can’t be it.
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It is a tragic irony that the Federal government is finally recognizing this holiday at the same time Republicans across the country are enacting legislation to prevent children from learning the history behind it.
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What a fucking moron. It isn’t meant to replace the 4th of July. Jesus Christ.
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unfortunately, instead of going for quantity, they had their widdle hearts set on this one woman …
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Juneteenth: “Emancipation is a marker of progress for white Americans, not black ones”
Yeah. This whole thing about a new federal holiday smells like wet wypipo. Especially with so many repubs voting for it.
Now they can point to that vote and say, “How DARE you call me a racist! I voted for the um [Checks notes] June Tenth Holiday. See how progressive-- um, ahem, mumble mumble, Biden’s a commie, etc.”
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It’s dumb on so many levels. Every element of his statement is dumb and wrong by itself, but become even dumber relative to the other bits. Just his juxtaposition of July 4th and Juneteenth - the first is fine and marks the time, ostensibly, when (white) America threw off the shackles of British oppression, the second is one of “America’s darkest moments” and marks the time when America threw off the shackles of slavery. He might as well come out and say it - he thinks the first is cool because white people “became free” and the second is bad because Black people became free.
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From the article:
…the celebration is rooted in a perception of slavery as something that happened to black people, rather than something that the country committed. The paradox rests on the presumption that the arrival of freedom should be greeted with gratitude, instead of with self-reflection about what allowed it to be deprived in the first place.
I wish this succinct observation could be stamped on Rosendale’s forehead (next to the Number of the Trump).
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The thing is, I think on some level he actually understands that, and that’s what he objects to. He absolutely Does Not Want any “self-reflection about what allowed it to be deprived in the first place.” He sees himself as the inheritor of the culture and traditions of enslavers, not the enslaved, and it’s not just about skin color, but ideology.
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That’s what I was wondering… either way, what an asshole…
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