Senate Passes Resolution To Make Juneteenth An Official Federal Holiday

Make this make sense.

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

After the events of 2020, the murder of George Floyd, the killing of Breonna Taylor, and the countless other incidents of racism and harm that were done to Black people, Amerikkka is fraught with overwhelming tension surrounding the issue of race. There are some white folks who have tied themselves in knots trying to figure out how not to act in racist ways and there are white folks who are fighting tooth-and-nail for the right to be as racist as they want with impunity. This story finds itself smack-dab in the middle of both.

According to CNN, the Senate has voted to pass a resolution that makes Juneteenth a federal holiday. No work. A day off. A national day of recognition for the emancipation of slaves in the United States, kinda. The vote was unanimous and is now on its way to the house for a final vote and then to Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

This might sound cool to some people, but we can’t help but inhale the stench of…disingenuous charity. Maybe we wouldn’t feel that way if Republicans weren’t so pressed about downplaying, disregarding, banning, and questioning the validity of Critical Race Theory in public schools.

As recently as 2020, conservative politicians like Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin were totally against putting Juneteenth on the federal calendar. He didn’t think it was “worth the money.” Funny how money is never an issue when it comes to military spending or tax cuts but let it come down to recognizing Amerikkka’s sin then the pearl-clutching starts.

What say you? Are you happy that Juneteenth is seemingly going mainstream or does this feel like another way to placate us into satisfaction with symbolic bulls**t that won’t make our lives any better?