Brian Kemp Will Not Allow Paid Day Off For State Employees On Juneteenth

Stacey Abrams gotta come back and take this guy out.

Source: Megan Varner / Getty

Today, we are celebrating Juneteenth but somewhere on this glorious day of freedom, Brian Kemp is hard at work being a hater. According to the AJC, Kemp signed a proclamation this week that deemed Juneteenth a holiday but decided that he would not make it a paid day off for state employees. A spokesperson from Kemp’s office cited some wonky Georgia law that allows for only 12 paid holidays without fluctuation and 12 are already on the books.

The gag is that state employees and private sector employees who want to enjoy the holiday likely already took PTO today far in advance of the latest performative government legislation that Joe Biden signed into law. We imagine that there are a lot of offices in Atlanta where the only people working today are white.

Even major local business entities like the Atlanta Hawks offered their employees paid time off on Monday to supplant yesterday’s mandatory work schedule due to game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals last night against the Brooklyn Nets. We get that there was somewhat short notice this year because most didn’t anticipate that a federal mandate would be handed down but companies should definitely plan to give employees the day off. We know the EEOC would probably frown upon just giving the Black employees the paid day off but…we don’t see a problem honestly.

Anway, f**k Brian Kemp. Happy Juneteenth!