by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Donald Trump has two basic response modes: he never accepts blame for anything that goes wrong - never - and he always takes credit for things that go well - always. And by that measure we must acknowledge that Juneteenth (June 19th), the day the last American slaves officially heard that they were free, is a very good thing to celebrate. But Trump, being Trump, has horned in on the national celebration by loudly proclaiming that he is the person who made America aware of its significance. What he actually said was:
All glory for recognition of Juneteenth belongs to Donald John Trump, with any left over going to Trump's white, evangelical Jesus!
And to a point, he is correct. Although I haven't seen any polling on the subject, I would suspect that more Americans are aware of the importance of Juneteenth in black American culture than ever before - but it wasn't because some racially tolerant Donald Trump deliberately brought it to their attention.
Trump and some of his hard-right advisors (Stephen Miller, I'm looking at you) decided that the 19th day of June would be a perfect time to resurrect Team Donald's traveling hate show, and that Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of one of the worst race riots in American history, would be the ideal location to host it. The Trump campaign was intentionally trying to sow some racial discord with the event's timing and location. They knew that there would be blowback, but perhaps it came with greater speed and force than they anticipated. The event was subsequently postponed one day - but would still take place in the conservative terrarium of Tulsa.
Trump had lost his significant date, and to make up for it he wanted to hog credit for making Juneteenth more prominent. Such a poser!
This former college history major was well aware of the importance of June 19th in black America's long and continuing march to freedom (and has written about it in this space on other occasions), and so were many of his white friends. But if Trump wants to take credit for making the date significant to much of America - let him. A great many of his backwater white supporters probably did not have a clue, but and now they have one more thing to be pissed off about.
Karen is probably raising hell in multiple Target stores as I bang out this blog post.
Yes, Target. The international chain store announced at the beginning of this week that it is officially recognizing Juneteenth as a company holiday. The stores are still open, but employees who choose to work are receiving time-and-a-half pay, and those who choose to stay home and spend the company holiday with friends and family are getting full pay!
Did that go the way you planned it, Donald?
But it wasn't just Target. JC Penney, Nike, and Best Buy are making Juneteenth a paid holiday for their employees as well - and several other companies are also recognizing its official importance - companies like Twitter, Adobe, Lyft, Postmates, Mastercard, the New York Times, Vox Media, TikTok, Spotify, and the National Football League (NFL).
There is no word yet from Fox News and National Rifle Association (NRA), but we must remain hopeful that in this gush of national race consciousness more companies, organization, and individuals will seize the moment and hop on board the freedom train.
There is even serious talk in Congress of making Juneteenth a national holiday!
And all of this forward social momentum is rooted in the fact that Donald John Trump made us aware of the importance of June 19th!
Or not.
Citizen Journalist
Donald Trump has two basic response modes: he never accepts blame for anything that goes wrong - never - and he always takes credit for things that go well - always. And by that measure we must acknowledge that Juneteenth (June 19th), the day the last American slaves officially heard that they were free, is a very good thing to celebrate. But Trump, being Trump, has horned in on the national celebration by loudly proclaiming that he is the person who made America aware of its significance. What he actually said was:
“I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous. It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.”
All glory for recognition of Juneteenth belongs to Donald John Trump, with any left over going to Trump's white, evangelical Jesus!
And to a point, he is correct. Although I haven't seen any polling on the subject, I would suspect that more Americans are aware of the importance of Juneteenth in black American culture than ever before - but it wasn't because some racially tolerant Donald Trump deliberately brought it to their attention.
Trump and some of his hard-right advisors (Stephen Miller, I'm looking at you) decided that the 19th day of June would be a perfect time to resurrect Team Donald's traveling hate show, and that Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of one of the worst race riots in American history, would be the ideal location to host it. The Trump campaign was intentionally trying to sow some racial discord with the event's timing and location. They knew that there would be blowback, but perhaps it came with greater speed and force than they anticipated. The event was subsequently postponed one day - but would still take place in the conservative terrarium of Tulsa.
Trump had lost his significant date, and to make up for it he wanted to hog credit for making Juneteenth more prominent. Such a poser!
This former college history major was well aware of the importance of June 19th in black America's long and continuing march to freedom (and has written about it in this space on other occasions), and so were many of his white friends. But if Trump wants to take credit for making the date significant to much of America - let him. A great many of his backwater white supporters probably did not have a clue, but and now they have one more thing to be pissed off about.
Karen is probably raising hell in multiple Target stores as I bang out this blog post.
Yes, Target. The international chain store announced at the beginning of this week that it is officially recognizing Juneteenth as a company holiday. The stores are still open, but employees who choose to work are receiving time-and-a-half pay, and those who choose to stay home and spend the company holiday with friends and family are getting full pay!
Did that go the way you planned it, Donald?
But it wasn't just Target. JC Penney, Nike, and Best Buy are making Juneteenth a paid holiday for their employees as well - and several other companies are also recognizing its official importance - companies like Twitter, Adobe, Lyft, Postmates, Mastercard, the New York Times, Vox Media, TikTok, Spotify, and the National Football League (NFL).
There is no word yet from Fox News and National Rifle Association (NRA), but we must remain hopeful that in this gush of national race consciousness more companies, organization, and individuals will seize the moment and hop on board the freedom train.
There is even serious talk in Congress of making Juneteenth a national holiday!
And all of this forward social momentum is rooted in the fact that Donald John Trump made us aware of the importance of June 19th!
Or not.
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