Our corporate overlords have declared Juneteenth a holiday, and so it be declared that we, too, will be taking the day off.
Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021 — and long-time readers will remember we took it off in 2020. Our parent company skipped it in 2021, but it’s back on the calendar.
The holiday celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans and African-American culture more generally.
As for us, we’ll be back Tuesday — if you’re ready for Corey’s next part in the Lamborghini series, look for it mid-morning.
I’m aware race can be a fraught issue (it shouldn’t be, but that’s not the world we live in) so please play nice in the comments. Racist and bigoted comments will get the banhammer.
See you Tuesday.
[Image: scoutori/Shutterstock]
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We should certainly celebrate the end of slavery in America. Hopefully someday, we’ll be able to celebrate the end of Jim Crow too.
One can hope.
‘Slavery’ in the U.S. was 5% of the world’s total back then. Basic world history. This hardly makes the U.S. the ‘evil country’ all this media stuff suggests. And of course we all know, blacks in Africa owned slaves, blacks in Africa also sold slaves. This terrible thing is contained in the topic of: Human Nature.
@Detroit-X–True and slavery exists still in many parts of the World but it doesn’t make it right. “Man’s inhumanity to man.” We should all strive to do better.
Psh. Who cares about Jim Crow…we have Jim Eagle now! And if you don’t agree with that then you are just Bull Connor…and you ain’t black, unlike the great Negro pitcher Satchel Paige.
Now let’s see if quoting the President gets moderator action.
What are you even babbling about? There are affirmative action/preferential hiring policies in virtually every corporation, university, ad agency, and government agency in the country.
And yet even with those programs in place, study after study keeps showing that people whose resumes contain visible indicia of Blackness are less likely to get interviewed than others with identical qualifications. Almost as if they were a response to a really deeply entrenched problem.
The reverse is true. There is actual institutionalized racism against white people (and against Asians when it comes to college admissions). Sorry if the facts don’t fit your narrative.
You can prattle all you want but the research shows I’m right.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-29/job-applicants-with-black-names-still-less-likely-to-get-the-interview
“..there is actual institutionalized racism against white people…”
Funny, I’m White, and I’m 58, and I’ve never experienced bigotry because of my race. Unlike most White folks, however, I know exactly what bigotry feels like, thanks to being Jewish. I know it when I see it. I know it when I feel it. And I’ve seen and felt it happening to any number of Black people over the years – friends, co-workers, acquaintances, even my kid’s boyfriend. Sometimes the bigotry is a secondhand story, but I’ve seen it happen right in front of my face. And I’ve seen it enough to know that it’s very much ingrained in American life.
So…just tell yourself that White folks suffer bigotry as much as you want. It does happen. But it happens infinitely more often more to people who aren’t White, and I’m sorry if that particular fact doesn’t fit YOUR narrative.
Happy Juneteenth, by the way.
Tell us about some of those “visible identica of blackness”. Your comment is kind of meaningless without that context.
Black-sounding names and membership in organizations with “Black” in the name (e.g. “Society of Black Engineers”) are two of the most notable ones.
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minorities-who-whiten-job-resumes-get-more-interviews
Cool, thanks for proving my point!
Absolutely NOTHING is preventing you or anyone else from going down and registering to vote. Black people, old people, newly minted American people are all capable of obtaining an ID and showing it at a polling place.
My biggest objection to Juneteenth is that it’s given the laziest of people…government employee union members, yet another paid holiday.
I also find it ironic that Juneteenth (June 19th) will pretty much always fall on Father’s day weekend (third Sunday in June). This from a racial group with the highest percentage of out-of-wedlock births (70%), and that does not seem to value fathers or fatherhood very much.
Oh, if only IRONY were a drug I could roll up and smoke.
But enough about Herschel Walker…
I get it, man. Refuting statistics is HARD. Your reference just proved my point. I don’t care what his politics are.
Um, it falls on Father’s Day weekend because that’s when the history happened.
In other words, Juneteenth came long before Father’s Day.
Too bad “registration to vote” isn’t “voting”. Republican-controlled jurisdictions have a habit of closing polling places in some neighborhoods and opening more in others. If you compare the demographics of said areas, there is a clear indication of systematic racism that is purely Jim Crow.
I am amused they took a uniquely Texas holiday that celebrates an event three years after Lincoln freed the slaves to be a Federal holiday though. Never even heard of it until I moved to Texas.
im surprised texas made a Black holiday
Finally screwed up my courage to watch Biden’s Kimmel appearance from start to finish:
Good news: Don’t sweat high gasoline prices, because the price of insulin is coming down.
Pretty sure they solved racism in that interview too (right here if you’re so busy):
.
First link:
youtu.be/ZEtPV-qvLe8
Second link:
youtu.be/ZEtPV-qvLe8?t=1007
remember, biden raised the price of insulin after Trump lowered it
Story checks out:
https://www.policymed.com/2021/10/biden-administration-rescinds-trump-administration-insulin-pricing-rule.html
Watch Kimmel struggle to comprehend why Kimmel (as a voter) did everything right from Kimmel’s perspective in attempting to address issues which are important to Kimmel — and yet none of the measures which Kimmel supports get implemented. Interesting stuff.
What are you even babbling about? There are affirmative action/preferential hiring policies in virtually every corporation, university, ad agency, and government agency in the country.
And yet it’s still not working.
Fix education. You guys run it after all
At least they put this holiday when the weather’s decent.
King Day not so much.
What are you talking about? The skiing today is terrible.
I wonder if anything is happening on July 1st?
Well, there’s International Joke Day … but somehow, I suspect that’s not the holiday you were alluding to?
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/joke-day/
Ask not what your country can do for you…especially if it’s a free holiday. Damn this repression! ; >
I had to give up Columbus Day
July 1 is Canada day …Just sayin
We don’t get Columbus or Presidents day even working for a gov’t contractor. I was surprised when they added Juneteenth that they didn’t take another day from us.
I think we found all the poor, confused, hard working and VERY deserving, under appreciated and EXTREMELY entitled white people. Come on, you know who you are!
And I just stopped following TTAC. Most blacks know even less about this silly made up holiday than you claim to. A race to the bottom to pander. How virtuous. Go woke, go broke.
Please explain to us why being “woke” is a bad thing.
They’re just scared at the loss of life-long privilege. It’s a new day. Progress sometimes causes pain. But progress can’t be stopped.
“Please explain to us why being “woke” is a bad thing.”
Explain how it’s good.
Going “woke” is evil. Men can get pregnant, men can compete against women as long as they wake up that day and declare they are a woman, paying reparations in states that never even allowed slavery, going soft on crime (SF and LA), bringing children to drag shows, etc.
Christ even Bill Maher rails against wokeism.
woke
/wōk/
past of wake
alert to injustice in society, especially racism.
you keep doin your thing!
Commemorating the day when the last slaves in America were finally freed is not a “made-up holiday.” It’s an actual important historical event that occurred on June 19th. This is not a Hallmark-Holiday that someone invented out of whole cloth to sell greeting cards.
And if the comment sections are any indication, TTAC is pretty strong in the Angry White Guy demographic; taking Juneteenth off is hardly “pandering”.
I’m pretty sure you are not the least bit qualified to speak to what “most blacks” do or don’t know.
It’s not a made-up holiday per se but it was a uniquely Texas holiday that is now a Federal holiday. It’s been a Texas state holiday for over 4 decades.
“Most blacks know even less about this silly made up holiday than you claim to. A race to the bottom to pander. How virtuous. Go woke, go broke.”
REPLY
“On June 19, 1865, about two months after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Va., Gordon Granger, a Union general, arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended. General Granger’s announcement put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued more than two and a half years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln.
The holiday is also called “Juneteenth Independence Day,” “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day.”
https://www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-day-celebration.html
June 19 has been celebrated ever since I can remember and is very significant especially if you are Black. Do I need to explain there was slavery in the US and there was a Civil War from 1861 to 1865 to end it. Schools must not be teaching American History along with not teaching handwriting (schools teach keying and stopped teach cursive writing) . Our educational system has really gone down hill. The dumbing down of America.
As a Canadian I have ‘no dog in this fight’.
I do greatly dislike the phrase Canada Day, a name created by Trudeau the elder. It was previously Dominion Day, a name with some class/dignity and history to it. Legally we were The Dominion of Canada. I believe that some American states are also ‘dominions’. Prior to the elder Trudeau ‘firecracker day’ was held on Victoria Day. He changed that to Canada Day. And Victoria Day is another term rarely used anymore, instead we hear of ‘The May long weekend’ or ‘May two-four’.
As for America and racism. The ruling elite in the USA have long used racism/ the fear of the other to obscure the actual issue which is class division. Europeans who have education in and knowledge of the differences between fascism, communism, autocracy, social democracy and socialism understand the considerable differences between these philosophies/types of government. Most Americans do not. And rather than establishing a class consciousness in the USA, Americans are too often divided along racial or ethnic grounds.
The American elite/establishment continues to benefit from this, using the same divide and rule along racial/ethnic lines tactic that they have used for centuries.
It’s too bad that Americans do not acknowledge or see this ‘elephant in the room’.
@Arthur–Well said and the leadership uses it to “divide and conquer.”
On Dominion day, do Canadians dress up as Changelings, Vortas, and Jem H’Dar?
I had to look those references up, not being a Trekkie.
Canada was created by the British North America Act in 1867. It was proclaimed on July 1st of that year. Rather than being the Kingdom of Canada, we became The Dominion of Canada. Our national motto reflects this.
Dominion of Canada is the country’s formal title. “A Mari usque ad Mare” or “From sea to sea,” is Canada’s official motto. It is taken from the Old Testament of the Bible, Psalm 72, Verse 8: “He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”
Yeah, I knew all that. I just thought it would be funny to see Hugh Rowland dressed up like a Jem H’Dar.
I shudder to think of truckers strung out on Ketracel White.
A few years back, I wanted “NX-74205” as a personalized plate, only to be told by some Vorta at the State of Colorado that it was not available. However, there is a car here in Denver with “NCC-1701” plates. Lucky bas*ard.
Have you checked out “Strange New Worlds” yet? It’s real, real good stuff.
Nice Deep Space 9 reference. I liked Avery Brooks more as Hawk.
Now Juneteenth is holiday?!
Minoritarianism run amok.
I think we’ve had more than enough “majoritarianism”.
Tyranny of the minority.
https://www.vox.com/2018/9/12/17850980/democracy-tyranny-minority-mob-rule-james-madison
In hindsight John Conyers probably should have pushed for a Juneteenth holiday bill as opposed to Dr. MLK since it makes more sense then and now. However Conyers the Soviet stooge -if not worse- may have simply been following Kremlin orders for subversion:
“However, in the current hothouse climate regarding Russian spies and lies in our nation’s capital, Conyers’ ties to the Kremlin need to be discussed. From the beginning of his political career, Conyers had close relations with prominent members of the Communist Party USA, and he was a longtime member of the National Lawyers Guild, a CPUSA-affiliated group, as well as a leader of its Detroit chapter. Conyers never made much effort to mask his associations with known CPUSA members, even after being elected to Congress. Keep in mind that, as proven by KGB files, the CPUSA was a wholly-owned Kremlin operation, clandestinely funded by Soviet spies, and operating under Moscow’s direction.
Conyers went further and associated with known KGB fronts. He was long active in the World Peace Council—which sounds like a Quaker-run group but was founded by the Kremlin at the beginning of the Cold War. The WPC followed the Moscow line religiously, serving as a conduit for KGB Active Measures against the West, regularly denouncing American “war-mongering” and “imperialism” while coordinating anti-NATO protests in many countries.
With the publication of the Mitrokhin archive in 1999, the KGB’s supervisory relationship to the WPC was made public, though it was obvious long before to anyone who wanted to see that the latter was a leading Kremlin front for espionage and propaganda. Not that Conyers was deterred from involvement with the WPC, and he helped establish its American chapter, the U.S. Peace Council. He addressed its inaugural meeting in Philadelphia in November 1979, alongside numerous KGB agents, including Romesh Chandra, a prominent Indian Communist who headed the WPC for decades and was a senior operative of the Soviet secret police.”
https://observer.com/2017/11/john-conyers-accused-of-sexual-harassment-but-his-kgb-ties-are-worse/
Celebrating a day when people were freed from slavery is a marked upgrade over celebrating a guy who enslaved people everywhere he went.
jackass
“jackass”
Yep he went to Mar-a-Lago.
youre free to keep your hood on and not celebrate. nobody cares.
Oh my….
Good job having comments turned on for this one. Real smart.
They know what generates the clicks. Sigh.
Imagine that moment. Probably tremendous confusion, fear, relief for some and terror for others. No electricity/phones/cars, spotty newspaper coverage, illiteracy…. can’t imagine the overwhelming bewilderment that must have taken place.
Nice pictures, but what’s that beside the Corvair? I thought it was an old two-door Blazer, but the wheel arches are wrong?