Always a Symbolic Victory Instead of Material Change: Making Juneteenth a Federal Holiday

Always a symbolic victory instead of material change.

Making Juneteenth a National Holiday is merely lip service in an attempt to appease  a community that has continued to be exploited and harm through systemic racism. 

Making Juneteenth a federal holiday does not answer the calls to defund and abolish the police, protect marginalized communities' right to vote, or prevent hate crimes and discriminations. 

What does a symbolic victory do for a community that is still facing racism and prejudice? It will only build and reinforce the resentment of our government and those that are supposed to serve us. 

Soon, Juneteenth will get the rebrand that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has received in recent memory. It will become a "day of service;" it will no longer be a day to commemorate the emancipation of Enslaved African Americans.

Making it a federal holiday means that African Americans who work low-wage jobs are watching White people have the day off on a day meant to honor and remember Enslaved Black people in Galveston.

Add to the fact, there is currently a push to ban critical race theory in schools. Making Juneteenth a federal holiday while at the same time preventing people from learning why it's a holiday is a slap to the face of activists and the calls for reform we have seen in the past year.