Happy Juneteenth! pic.twitter.com/VAaPGrBexx
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) June 19, 2015
Jamelle Bouie, at Slate, “Juneteenth isn’t just a celebration of emancipation, it’s a celebration of our commitment to make it real“:
Officially, the Emancipation Proclamation freed “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State” where the residents were “in rebellion against the United States.” In practice, it applied only to those slaves who lived near Union lines, where they could make an easy escape or take advantage of the Northern advance…
As such, for the next two years, slaves and slave holders lived at a far remove from the events of the eastern United States, including the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865. Yes, it ended the war, but it didn’t end the conflict, as fighting continued on the far borders of the Confederacy. And so, when Gen. Gordon Granger entered Galveston, Texas, on June 19 to lead the Union occupation force, he wasn’t just faced with Confederate remnants (the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, for example, had surrendered only a month prior); he had to deal with ongoing slavery in defiance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
To fix the situation, he issued an order:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
This proclamation would form the basis for June the Nineteenth or “Juneteenth,” a holiday celebrating the announcement of the end of slavery in Texas…
Slavery records will soon be easily searchable online http://t.co/OF4rQMk4vp via @USATODAY
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 19, 2015
White supremacists worry the Charleston shooting makes them look bad. http://t.co/F9ZJ3GtpSd
— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) June 19, 2015
(Yes, it does, and yes, it should “worry” them. I devoutly hope that within my lifetime people will no more willingly admit to being white supremacists than they would to being pedophiles.)
Black lawmakers announcing bills for next SC Statehouse session to bring down Confederate flag and enact hate crime laws.#CharlestonShooting
— schuyler kropf (@skropf47) June 19, 2015
JPL
Several decades ago, when I lived in Texas, I learned about Juneteenth. Now a days not so much. I can’t imagine what changed.
Shakezula
I can’t wait to see how RW chicken guts turn the availability of slave records into an attack on the hardworking slave owners of the goode olde dayef.
JPL
Jeb doesn’t know what the terrorist was thinking, but he does know Terry Shiavo can see.
beltane
@Shakezula: Don’t call them slave owners, call them job creators.
Smiling Mortician
The only reason pedophiles don’t admit it openly is that it’s illegal. Otherwise they’re the same.
Davis X. Machina
@beltane: Hey, blame the Invisible Hand. There is a wage price at which the market for labor always clears — zero dollars an hour.
David Koch
Good thing none of the 2016 candidates are using the crypto Confederate slogan “Right to Rise”
oh wait.
David Koch
somethingblue
I’m middle-aged, and, you know, maybe I just move in the wrong circles, but I feel like I lived in that country for much of my life. It’s only in the last decade or so that it became quasi-respectable to spew sewage like this in the open. Maybe it was the rise of online newspaper comment sections, or maybe it was Fox. Or maybe, as with so many things, it was September 11. (Thanks, Osama!)
Brachiator
@Shakezula: I have read racist libertarians argue that the evil federal government illegally deprived Southerners of their property.
Redshift
@David Koch: And simultaneously wins the “Most Fascist Slogan” prize.
lamh36
They really don’t want what this shit will bring their way!
https://mobile.twitter.com/jelani9/status/612059597701029888
Belafon
White supremacists already look bad. It’s self-awareness that they’re lacking.
lamh36
posted this comment in Elon’s lasy post I decided to turn it into a longer post at my own lil blog home.
here’s the link to the “longer” post over at my lil personal blog.
http://nellybellsplace.com/2015/06/19/dear-white-people-time-to-deal-with-your-shhhhhh/
David Koch
jl
How about legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday.
And even though one of my reasons (to be honest) is that we need more holidays. how about repealing the legislation that attaches them all willy nilly, except for a few like Christmas and Thanksgiving. So then the holidays will stand alone on their proper days, and while we holiday, we can think about what the holidays are about? And more incentive to do something in line withe holiday.
Like, in California, field trips, real or virtual, to Colonel Allensworth State park?
jl
@lamh36: thanks. you are saying what needs to be said.
SiubhanDuinne
@David Koch:
I’m just trying to figure out any time Caucasian Heritage Night would have been a good idea — recent tragic events or not. FFS.
KG
@lamh36: hopefully some local patriot guard riders will be willing to step in as they have on several other occasions involving military and first responders.
Steeplejack
@lamh36:
Well said.
Belafon
@SiubhanDuinne:
When I had an argument with my parents over the McKinney pool incident, one of the statements from my mom was “When are whites going to have rights?” There’s an audience for this sort of thing.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@SiubhanDuinne:
The description does sound like it was supposed to be a joke event that would mock stereotypes about white people. Serving mayonnaise sandwiches on white bread is clearly not meant to be a serious “Yay White People!” event.
Wag
@beltane:
How about “job thieves?”
Wag
@David Koch:
They actually sound like they may have learned something.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@efgoldman:
White people aren’t allowed to mock themselves?
ETA: To be clear, I think canceling the event was the right thing to do. But I’m not sure that discouraging self-deprecating humor is really the best way to fight racism.
Shakezula
@Brachiator: I hope they don’t get any ideas about reclaiming their property. “Sez here my great-great-great grandfather owned yours…”
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: Seriously?
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@efgoldman:
Now I’m really confused. Yes, a Catholic (Cardinal Dolan) should not make fun of Jews by using the same self-deprecating jokes Jews use themselves. What does that have to do with white people making fun of themselves using stereotypes about white people?
scav
@Mnemosyne (tablet): There’s also a bit of a difference between a person and a team/corporation. Is the “team/corporation” “white” and thus being self-deprecating? So now along with religious beliefs corporations have ethic identities?
Fair Economist
That “Caucasian Heritage Night” sounds like it would have been fine if it weren’t for the circumstances.
Talking Points Memo has a good article about Juneteenth. Emancipation didn’t arrive with the pronouncement of Union victory. It had to be fought for, by the Army, loyalists, and the emancipated slaves themselves, in a campaign lasting the rest of the year. The Juneteenth celebration is more about the accomplishment of the (moral) Texans themselves, white and black, as well as a ceremony to remind the white ex-slaveholders who had won. It’s not just a delayed celebration of Appomattox.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@efgoldman:
I’m at the opposite end — I think it’s important to start pointing out that there is a specific “white people” culture, not “real Americans” and “everyone else.” De-normalize whiteness. Make it clear that, no, “white” isn’t a norm that everyone non-white is deviating from. “White” is just another ethnic group with its own set of quirks and habits, no better than any other.
“White” has been the measuring stick that everyone else has been forced to compare themselves for several centuries. Time to admit that we’re not actually the center of the universe that everyone else has to imitate.
mai naem mobile
I wanted to post this on Wed. When the shooting happened,the reporting continuously(for several hours)mentioned how this was one of the worst ever shootings ever. I kept on thinking, well sheet,how many 9+ person shootings have there been in SC? Is this a yearly occurrence or.something? WTF?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Stuff White People Like has been doing that for a while. Albeit from the point of view of a particular social class and political bent – I recognize myself and my social circle in it.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I’ve been stretching my vocab a bit lately for fun. Using words I usually wouldn’t, just for fun. We all have our own modes of nerdery.
Mike J
@mai naem mobile:
There have been 200 mass killings since 2009.
mai naem mobile
The Twitter machine has some racist stuff from the judge who sat on the bond hearing of Roofs today. Are basically the vast majority of white South Carolinians racist rednecks?
mai naem mobile
@Mike J: I meant specifically in SC. The reporting specifically mentioned SC.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Yeah, earlier tonight I was talking to someone about several of my modes, but this one just popped up now. Also, have you looked at the ‘site I mentioned and compared it to the liberal arts majors you have known?
VFX Lurker
@lamh36:
I thought the WBC couldn’t sink any lower, but there they are.
I hope “Angel Action” counter-protesters can organize in time.
Mike J
@mai naem mobile:
What I saw wasn’t racist, but pretty insensitive right after a mass murder.
I think he was trying to say that it was a horrible situation for everyone, but it sounded like he was equating Roof’s family’s pain with the other victims. It shouldn’t be a competition. Just not the right time or place for that.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus: Not gonna search for a link, but I have seen Libertarians argue that “theoretically” it would have been so, so much simpler if the President had simply offered to buy up all those human property units, at fair market value, than to “risk” the horrendous consequences of the Civil War.
The discussion, when I’ve seen it, always devolves into a pixel-shouting match between those proud theoretricians who deplore that Northern industrialists would never have permitted a massive surge of cheap labor competing for immigrant jobs, and the heritage specialists who insist the war was an orchestrated ploy to destroy the shining example of a Libertarian paradise where hard-working entrepreneurs could amass human capital without a lot of bureaucratic interference, because “everybody knows” the darkies were happier than the free blacks, the Pap Finn white luzers, or the tenement-dwelling subhumans north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Not that the writers are in favor of slavery, they’re always careful to remind each other. It’s just that so many humans just aren’t ready to be free thinking individualists…
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: There are concepts around which I refuse to wrap my mind. I could try, but just fuck no.
Mike J
@Anne Laurie:
Funny how they never include themselves in that group. I’d have more respect for Rand Paul[1] if he would say that he’s running for president because he wants the free house and meals, and he would accept that same offer in return for field work from any American who wanted to offer it.
[1] I don’t think I could have less.
Anne Laurie
@efgoldman:
It’s Orem. I suspect the original joke was along the lines of “Mormon Night”, with the “White People” label as an in-group cover.
St. Patrick’s Day has been deracinated to the extent that “everybody” can make fun of puking Irish drunks looking for a fistfight. But when I was growing up in a blue-collar neighborhood divided between Irish Catholics & Italian Catholics, jokes about St. Pat’s or Columbus Day were monitored very carefully to make sure the “wrong” people weren’t “taking advantage”. Maybe the Mormons in Utah are more generous/more secure in their control of the local political structure, but then again, a commercial sporting enterprise will err on the side of caution.
sharl
@Mike J: what mai naem mobile may be referring to – something turned up by internet sleuths apparently – is a courtroom exchange involving that judge that took place back in 2003, for which he was reprimanded by SC state government. Under Section_II of FACTS, toward the bottom of the link (“respondent” is the judge):
“n_____” is, of course, that ‘n’ word.
Aleta
Damn Your Eyes Etta James
Aleta
@Aleta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaeOyfcLPO8
Damn Your Eyes
Omnes Omnibus
@Aleta: In keeping with the tone of this week. Trigger warnings for the video especially – I am not kidding.
Aleta
Would You Change
Steeplejack
@efgoldman:
This strikes me as slightly tone-deaf, and I note that this is a comment on the event from an external person who reported on it for NBCSports.com. But you said, “If they’d left the second quoted paragraph out [. . .],” referring to this, as if it came directly from the team.
I think the whole thing is mostly loopy baseball-adjacent humor rather than clueless racism. It was sensitive of them to cancel it, but I don’t see cause for outrage. But then I’m white, so I wouldn’t. I’m willing to be convinced otherwise, but so far I’m not seeing it.
lamh36
@sharl: but, but, his one Black friend told him that . so that makes it okay…don’tcha know…
smdh…
sharl
@lamh36: Haha, basically, yeah. For reasons that elude me to this day, soooo many of my fellow low-melanin tribe members really, really want to utter THAT WORD, and they feel so deprived when the larger society frowns on them when they do. SO UNFAIR!
Jordan Rules
Good post AL. ‘Preciate it.
Suzanne
My high school had a significant white supremacist contingent, and someone got the bright idea that, since the Latino students had a pride/heritage club that they should also have a “Caucasian Club”. They found some teacher shitty enough to sponsor. I couldn’t find anyone to sponsor a chapter of Young Democrats. That anecdote encapsulates much of my high school experience.
Happy Juneteenth, all. I feel like burning a Dixie Swastika flag to celebrate.
Steeplejack
@Suzanne:
Damn, that’s cold. My condolences.
fuckwit
@Suzanne: That’s a really interesting idea for civil disobedience. The wingnutosphere goes batshit berserk whenever someone burns an American flag… let’s see what they do when someone burns a traitor flag, let’s say, the flag of a country that fought bitterly against the United States? They should be just fine with that, should they not?
fuckwit
@Omnes Omnibus: That is truly horrible. Chilling. The song, the performance, and the video seem like the most fitting dirge for this week.
Aimai
@Shakezula: more likely it will cause white people to feel even more aggrieved either because it becomes clear that they lost out financially with the end of slavery or they didnt benefit enough. Never underestimate the power if the persecuted hegemon
fuckwit
@Anne Laurie: Reminds me of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo-1W_8otS4
Aimai
@Suzanne: i just told my daughter about juneteenth. I think (white people) should start demanding it be observed formally but where that isnt possible we should be learning about it, teaching sbout it, and celebrating it with our children. I have not neglected to educate my children about things like the Tulsa Massacre (“race riots”as they are called). I should also include more hopeful history. Btw if anyone wants some book reccomendations i highly reccomend “Capitol Men” a great book about the incredibleAA men who served in the reconstruction congress.
Elizabelle
Good evening. Fitfully watching “Standing in the Shadows of Motown” in background. About the Funk Brothers. Really well done. Will pay more attention next viewing.
Kathleen
@Elizabelle: I’ve seen it a dozen times and I still cry at the end when they place the pictures of the musicians who passed in the chairs. Such a great film on so many levels.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@efgoldman: Yup.
One of the big problems with calling it “White Heritage Night” is the implicit comparison to “(Other ethnic group) Heritage Night”. The latter is supposed to be a celebration of differences. If the first is to be mocked and laughed at, why not the latter?
It can easily be taken as punching down.
It wasn’t necessary and they didn’t think. Let’s hope they learned.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
A fabulous movie
Chris
@Anne Laurie:
They’re full of shyte.
White Southern slave owners would never have gone along with that. It would’ve meant ending a way of life that they considered their birthright and said so repeatedly in the run up to the war. Ending it through purchase of the slaves was as anathema to them as through war.
I mean, what are we supposed to believe? That every slave owner in the South would have simply retired? Or started running their plantation with nothing but paid labor, if given the choicr? Please. It was always going to take government coercion, whether or not there was a war.
Uncle Cosmo
@Wag: Job cremators.
Uncle Cosmo
@Anne Laurie: Once those records are fully accessible, I wonder how long it’ll take some descendant of slaveholders to submit a detailed list to the Feds along with a demand for compensation for the property so evilly taken from his/her ancestors? There’s a reason chutzpah is one of the handful of words (e.g., hotel, restaurant) recognized by nearly everyone on the planet…
Another Holocene Human
@efgoldman: Timothy Dolan can go fuck himself, and right that red velvet beanie straight to Hell.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Agreed. White has been unmarked. It’s part of white privilege. There is such a thing as white American culture. It should be marked. I thought the Seinfeld and Friends thing was hilarious. Especially because fans of both shows are the only ones who can’t see how damn white those shows are.