Juneteenth is a contentious day. It was officially established as a federal holiday in 2021, yet the day itself has been something of a landmark moment since 1865 when General Gordon Granger's Union Army came to Galveston, Texas and announced that the slaves were freed.
If you think slavery is abhorrent, then Juneteenth is actually a great day. It signifies the death of slavery in the United States as a result of the death, destruction, and sacrifice of Americans who worked toward it. Yet, Juneteenth is a holiday that many people are unhappy with.
The knee-jerk reaction from the left is that the reason people don't like Juneteenth is that America is a racist country, conservatives are racists, Republicans are racists, white people are racists, and everyone and everything, including air, dogs, and noise, is racism.
But let's be real. It's not that. America is, for the most part, not a racist country. In fact, you'll find most of the racism is on the left, where it is usually and has been since before the Civil War.
The reason people don't like it was demonstrated by Al Sharpton recently. As Mike Miller highlighted, Sharpton appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe to use it as a social justice cudgel with which to beat people over the head with:
The reason I think [Juneteenth] is so important today is that the issues in this election for people like me is around states' rights, where you have states, I was in Florida last night, trying to ban books, trying to stop women's right to choose.
It's an issue that's still alive, states' rights against the Union, the federal government protecting women, protecting blacks, and protecting history studies and other things ... the ability to communicate. When you get your news from the wrong source, you can be freed and don't even know it.
That was a lot of word salad, but you're picking up what Sharpton is putting down, mostly because you've heard this nonsense a million times before. The message is the same; the packaging is just a little different.
It's just used as a day to spout off more self-victimization nonsense, and since every victim needs an oppressor the finger is, once again, pointed at America: its past, its present, its system, its values, its belief, and its people. That means you. Instead of being a celebration of a great moment in American history, Juneteenth is being used as an excuse for the social justice-obsessed left to, once again, label you as a bad guy.
It also opens the door for people to be openly racist against white people, as this woman demonstrated.
Black woman is mad she has to work for a white person on Juneteenth and then demands only black people get paid double. pic.twitter.com/VP3k7hzCaI
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 19, 2024
The modern social justice movement is a disease. It's beyond divisive and convinces people they're either evil or the victims of evil when really they're just subject to their own choices in life. And Juneteenth is now another excuse for the social justice left to ratchet up the division.
It's so tiring. People are sick of hearing the same song and dance from activists, self-victimizers, and talking heads who thrive on the idea of racism and bigotry.
Juneteenth isn't just a celebration of black culture. It's a celebration of a nation's victory over a moral evil. Everyone shares in that victory, not just the black community. Yet, it's being made out to be another reason to tell America it's evil and filled with bigotry.
Kind of hilarious when you really stop to think about it. A day that showed America is not a racist country is being used by the left to tell it that it is.
But that's the social justice playbook for you.
