[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]
Juneteenth came and went with a bang and a whimper—plus a lot of confusion.
The conservative press seemed split on the value of the holiday. A political writer I generally respect surprised me when she offered nothing but praise for the day. “Juneteenth represents the best of American ideas,” she wrote. She then went on to explain in detail the holiday’s Texas roots—the fact that it was first celebrated in that state in 1866, honoring the memory of how Union troops arrived in western Texas on June 19, 1865 and announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state were now free.“For many African-Americans Juneteenth is at least equally if not more important than the 4th of July as their ancestors were not true citizens until emancipation,” the writer concluded.
Juneteenth’s “competition” with July 4th is part of the problem. Its closeness to July 4th in fact has already had a parasitic effect on the nation’s chief holiday, at least in commercial terms. Local stores in my neighborhood were over stocked with Juneteenth paraphernalia, such as small lawn signs with raised black fists recalling the ‘No Justice, No Peace’ signs one saw during the 2020 riots. The commercial avalanche also included Juneteenth drinking glasses, wrist bands, altered America flags, socks and t-shirts that read, “Juneteenth: The Real Independence Day. “
Meanwhile, the sidelined July 4th items for sale seemed reduced in size and selection. The “demotion” of July 4th was blatant and obvious. The July 4th merchandise on the shelves seemed more like an afterthought—a quaint throwback to a different America–next to t-shirts that seemed to call for a new and bizarre kind of Black Nationalism.
The enshrinement of Juneteenth as a federal holiday so close to July 4th illustrates the thoughtlessness and/or inherent perversity of the Biden administration. From the moment it was established one could clearly predict– in lieu of current social cultural trends– that over time Juneeteenth would take July 4th hostage in much the same way that March 31 or Transgender Day of Visibility—founded in 2009 by a Michigan trans activist as a small esoteric celebration—was resurrected by Biden this year into a big Easter-devouring “holiday.”
When Biden declared Juneteenth a national holiday in June 2021, he wasn’t thinking of Texas Union troops freeing enslaved black people in that state, he was thinking of how to commemorate a George Floyd-inspired social justice movement that cased 2 billion in damages nationwide.
Former presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, went for the jugular when he said that making Juneteenth a federal holiday was the result of a cultural gun being put to the nation’s head.
The Hill quoted Ramaswamy as saying that Juneteenth was made a holiday under “political duress” following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Ramaswamy stated that this is not “how we should create holidays” and added that he stands with the “presumption of time-tested traditions,” because the “spirit” of Juneteenth is already represented with holidays such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents’ Day.
“We shouldn’t have redundant holidays that celebrate overlapping purposes. It should have a distinct purpose,” he said.
But overlapping purposes and redundancy seems to be what Democrats want when it comes to creating new federal holidays. Ramaswamy, of course, agrees that there are already too many federal holidays and that the “cultural gun” that created Juneteenth stands ready to create even more federal holidays should political-cultural needs arise.
Ramaswamy is fighting a losing battle because Juneteenth has already been enshrined among the “systemic racism” crowd that sees the United States as an eternal penitent (in sackcloth) because the country once embraced slavery. “Forgiveness” for slavery, unlike the “Go and sin no more” absolution given by Christ, just means more and more penance.
The perception among white liberals that black Americans embrace Juneteenth in an unquestioning manner is quite false.
I found scores of ambiguously and negatively worded Juneteenth headlines in black publications. In some cases the stories were mostly leftists attacking other leftists—the main complaint being that the holiday is merely a cosmetic fix that does nothing to end systemic racism. The articles proved that there is widespread dissatisfaction with the holiday in general.
“Making Juneteenth a Federal Holiday Does Nothing to Right the Wrongs of Systemic Racism.” So ran a Black Agenda Report in June 2022. This report went on to say:
“…When Joe Biden signed the law which made Juneteenth a federal holiday his remarks were replete with platitudes about the sin of slavery, the redemption of American progress, the importance of HBCUs and home ownership, and just for good measure, a plea to be vaccinated against covid. The laundry list of topics was further proof that a people’s holiday has become meaningless.”
In a piece entitled, “The Problem with Juneteenth,” The Mises Institute reported in June 2024, that,
“…In the years since Biden signed the so-called Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, the holiday has become increasingly co-opted by progressives in media, academia, and politics as a way to push for radical policies like collective reparations or the exclusion of white people from celebrations.
“Because of that, most of the rhetoric we see from those promoting Juneteenth sidesteps the actual issue of slavery. They do so because adherents of modern progressivism do not actually believe in self-ownership, the antithesis of slavery.”
Then there was this admission:
“How do I feel about Juneteenth? It’s complicated,” a black resident of the city told a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter in 2023. “I can’t celebrate that without wanting to kill somebody…”
Murder as the final act of reparation, perhaps…
In 2022, The New York Times offered its skeptical view of the holiday with a piece entitled, “The Good, the Bad and the Cringe of the Juneteenth Gold Rush.” The article talked about the gross commercialization of the holiday.
“Does recognizing Juneteenth come at a cost?” the Berkeley News asked in 2023.
Most startling of all were comments from a black singer-songwriter named Macy Gray, who in 2021 in an address to Joe Biden, VP Kamala Harris and some members of Congress, stated that the American flag as we know it “has been hijacked as code for a specific belief.”
“God bless those believers, they can have it,” Gray declared, while going on to say that, “like the Confederate flag, the flag is tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect” and that “it’s not fair to be forced to honor it. It’s time for a new flag.”
Of course, smash and burn everything and then build something new from the ashes. That’s an especially Marxist vision of things.
The Democrat tendency to culturally enshrine every new social movement/ event uprising into a federal holiday won’t stop unless Yamaswamy’s views prevail and the madness ends. If this doesn’t happen, the future looks bleak, with many new possible federal holidays on the horizon, such as:
National Reparations Day
End of Systemic Racism Day
End of Confederate Monuments Day
Black Pledge of Allegiance Day
Kamala Harris First American of Color Presidents Day
New American Flag Redesign Day.
The fact is, even with the addition of these ‘creep show’ federal holidays, in reality they will not be holidays in the traditional sense at all. Nothing does as much to kill the spirit of celebration as turning it into a federal holiday—with closed banks, zero mail delivery, reduced public transportation schedules, limited restaurant and fast food options.
In short, the public square as a quiet dead zone, such as Juneteenth was in my neighborhood, when people just seemed to be idling about biding their time until the following day when life returned to normal.