# Juneteenth is now a Federal Holiday



## lavaflow99 (Jun 17, 2021)

Great news today!  But still lots of work to do.  Many are saying that this move is just performative with all those Jim Crow 2.0 bills out there.

I am originally from Texas and known about Juneteenth as a kid as it was taught in schools.  I had assumed it was a Texas holiday based on its foundation so didn't realize it was celebrated across the country.









						Congress approves bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday
					

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery. The House voted 415-14 Wednesday to make Juneteenth, or June 19th, the 12th federal holiday.




					apnews.com


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## Ivonnovi (Jun 17, 2021)

I learned about Juneteenth as a young adult in the 90's, from a Texan.   

Where I have no problem with Blacks celebrating their independence.  I have my reservations about the celebration's narrative focusing more on this as an achievement for Blacks, than focusing on how this is an achievement for the consciousness of Whites (texan slave owning whites); but don't mind me I also don't care for the "Jumping the Broom" in wedding ceremonies.     

There are some unsettling truths attached to the State taking 2 years to declare it's enslaved population free.  

But don't mind me.      I told this same thing to a YT lady that asked me would I be participating in any event's for Juneteenth.


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## nyeredzi (Jun 17, 2021)

I learned about vaguely as a child, but not in school, I don't think. From family. I've never actually celebrated it, maybe just acknowledged it.


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## Rastafarai (Jun 17, 2021)

Learned about it in college when I had joined one of the Black affinity groups on campus.

Very happy to hear about this, but my emails have been popping off at work. I'm in the finance industry and they're ensuring that folks know that bond and equity markets will remain open for business and we best be available for our clients. 

Same ish, different day is how most of "them" view this holiday.


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## lavaflow99 (Jun 17, 2021)

I updated the poll to include "another time in the past" when one learned about Juneteenth.


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## SoniT (Jun 17, 2021)

I learned about Juneteenth in college.


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## Black Ambrosia (Jun 17, 2021)

Idk where I learned it but it seems like I’ve known it forever. Definitely knew as a kid.


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## awhyley (Jun 17, 2021)

I may have heard about it here and there, but most of what I learned about it came from here a few years ago.  



Rastafarai said:


> Learned about it in college when I had joined one of the Black affinity groups on campus.
> 
> Very happy to hear about this, but my emails have been popping off at work. *I'm in the finance industry and they're ensuring that folks know that bond and equity markets will remain open for business and we best be available for our clients.*
> 
> Same ish, different day is how most of "them" view this holiday.



Doesn't everything close for a federal holiday?


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## TrulyBlessed (Jun 17, 2021)




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## Lylddlebit (Jun 17, 2021)

I learned about it as a kid. My church was big on teaching the youth black history.


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## melisandre (Jun 17, 2021)

I’m pretty sure I learned about it several years ago on this forum. Lol.


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## Peppermynt (Jun 17, 2021)

I didn’t learn about it in school (grew up in west philly) and only became aware of it after watching a movie. I think it was the Tupac Janet Jackson movie. I forget the name (or even if that’s the right movie).

I hope our company makes it a paid holiday. They just this year made MLK day an official holiday (you could always take it off yourself as one of those “personal days” that you still got paid for). Our black networking group at work had a Juneteenth “event” as well - we had an hour long discussion over Zoom with Nikki Giovanni today.


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## Everything Zen (Jun 17, 2021)

I learned about it probably around the Obama years as many other aspects of our history came to light.


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## nysister (Jun 18, 2021)

That's awesome. I admit, I just found out about it around 10 years ago, and I think it was from LHCF.


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## awhyley (Jun 18, 2021)

Can someone clarify?


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## OhTall1 (Jun 18, 2021)

I learned about it about 20 years ago, in my 20s.  A community was having a Juneteenth celebration and I looked it up because I'd never heard of it before.


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## sunshinebeautiful (Jun 18, 2021)

I believe I was in college when I first learned of Juneteenth. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was in my African American History class. We didn't grow up celebrating it where I grew up (North Florida).


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## classychic1908 (Jun 18, 2021)

I've known about Juneteenth since college, so 20 years or so.  In my extended family we've been celebrating it by honoring our cultural roots and ancestors, not about freedom.


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## TrulyBlessed (Jun 18, 2021)




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## Rastafarai (Jun 18, 2021)

TrulyBlessed said:


>



Exactly.

Is anyone actually off today? Just curious.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Jun 18, 2021)

TrulyBlessed said:


>


I'm fine with it. Now they lil' kids know. They are forced to recognize the significance of the day. 


OTOH.... really wanted Voting Rights.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Jun 18, 2021)

Rastafarai said:


> Exactly.
> 
> Is anyone actually off today? Just curious.


My husband took today off. No one questioned it.


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## fluffyforever (Jun 18, 2021)

Rastafarai said:


> Exactly.
> 
> Is anyone actually off today? Just curious.


My mom works for the county and they have today off.


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## TrulyBlessed (Jun 18, 2021)




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## lavaflow99 (Jun 18, 2021)

TrulyBlessed said:


> View attachment 473025


How does one even respond to this?


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## weaveadiva (Jun 18, 2021)




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## OhTall1 (Jun 18, 2021)

Rastafarai said:


> Is anyone actually off today? Just curious.


I was off but my employer had already dropped Presidents Day this year for Juneteenth as a paid day off, so it wasn't an extra holiday.


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## Everything Zen (Jun 18, 2021)

My company gave Juneteenth off last year as a floating holiday. In other words #alllivesmatter. 
The new CEO made a much better statement about equity diversity and inclusion needed in the organization but as a white man with zero black peoples on his board or leadership he just needs to 

I just got promoted 3 months ago and I have been performing like my usual rock star self. I’m applying for a Director level position that was just posted that I’m more than qualified for. They do it all the time.


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## TrulyBlessed (Jun 18, 2021)




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## yamilee21 (Jun 19, 2021)

TrulyBlessed said:


>


I knew this would happen… I assume DeSantis in Florida and Noem in South Dakota will immediately follow. Might be a little trickier for Abbott in Texas, but I’m sure he will find a way.


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## TrulyBlessed (Jun 19, 2021)

Oh dear…


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## january noir (Jun 19, 2021)

I believe you can have several conflicting feelings about the holiday and the historical event.  I do.
There's anger,  pride, joy, and recognition.  People are going to have their own feelings.
I wish that all the other ills that plague us as a people were resolved just as fast as the signing of this day as a federal holiday, but I'll take it as a step.  Not a huge step, but a step nonetheless.


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## yamilee21 (Jun 19, 2021)

TrulyBlessed said:


> Oh dear…



Someone at Food and Wine wanted to attract attention to themselves, probably some darn Qpublican trying to make a nonsensical point about cancel culture.

Actually… the recipe supposedly came from a black woman’s cookbook. But this same black woman was featured in Bon Appétit with a spread on Juneteenth, and food stereotypes were not recognizably present.


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## january noir (Jun 19, 2021)

I can't remember when I first became aware of the story of Juneteenth, so I might have been in high school or soon after because I continued to read and educate myself about my people and participated in black history talks, conferences, etc.
I am slightly surprised that people say they never heard of Juneteenth's origin and how and where it is celebrated.


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## TrulyBlessed (Jun 19, 2021)




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## HappyAtLast (Jun 19, 2021)

Ivonnovi said:


> I learned about Juneteenth as a young adult in the 90's, from a Texan.
> 
> Where I have no problem with Blacks celebrating their independence.  I have my reservations about the celebration's narrative focusing more on this as an achievement for Blacks, than focusing on how this is an achievement for the consciousness of Whites (texan slave owning whites); but don't mind me I also don't care for the "Jumping the Broom" in wedding ceremonies.
> 
> ...


I learned about this as a child since I grew up in Texas. But even then I never understood why it was something to commerate. It just highlights the injustice to me, and I want to learn and have everyone aware of this disgusting injustice, but I don't get the celebration.


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## awhyley (Jun 19, 2021)

TrulyBlessed said:


>


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## HappyAtLast (Jun 19, 2021)

TrulyBlessed said:


> Oh dear…


Wow, they just couldn't help themselves! They will NEVER get it!


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## awhyley (Jun 19, 2021)

HappyAtLast said:


> Wow, they just couldn't help themselves! They will NEVER get it!



Just a quick word on handling 'those folk'.  (Note that this has "choice" words, let me know if I need to remove.)


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## kimpaur (Jun 19, 2021)

I’ve known about Juneteenth since I was a kid but don’t actually think I understand what it meant until adulthood. In my city we had a yearly music festival/concert for the longest but eventually they stopped doing it.

I’m seeing a lot of people say they didn’t know what it was until adulthood. I have so many thoughts about that,but I really want us to be empowered to pass our history down to future generations.

And yes  we were off and paid for it


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## weaveadiva (Jun 19, 2021)




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## charmingt (Jun 19, 2021)




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## TrulyBlessed (Jun 20, 2021)




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## B_Phlyy (Jun 20, 2021)

I learned about Juneteenth as a child in school, but not from a textbook. My elementary school had like 80% black teachers and administrators so they would give us extra info if there was ever any down time in the day. 

Last year my job gave us half a day for Juneteenth and provided a catered lunch. This year, we go cupcakes on Friday and the clinics were closed yesterday.


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## Kanky (Jun 20, 2021)

TrulyBlessed said:


> Oh dear…


Is it weird that this doesn’t bother me at all?  I was planning to grill some peaches for a salad later and now I might toss some grilled watermelon in there too. There was a Twitter thread complaining about fried chicken and collard greens being on a Juneteenth menu and I was just annoyed that they didn’t offer any candied yams or macaroni and cheese with it.


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## charmingt (Jun 20, 2021)




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## Crackers Phinn (Jun 20, 2021)

HappyAtLast said:


> I learned about this as a child since I grew up in Texas. But even then I never understood why it was something to commerate. It just highlights the injustice to me, and I want to learn and have everyone aware of this disgusting injustice, but I don't get the celebration.


I was taught about Juneteenth as a kid as a shameful injustice perpetrated on black people.  I was shocked to find out as an adult that black folks celebrate it anywhere let alone Texas.  I'm appalled at it being a federal holiday but I'm not go say no to these sales.  

I have never celebrated it.  I never will.  I won't preach to anybody who wants to celebrate it tho.


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## Chromia (Jun 20, 2021)

I grew up thinking that Juneteenth was just a local summer festival.  I didn't know that it was commemorating anything.

Maybe about 10 years ago I found out that a nearby city has also a Juneteenth festival, and then I found out it was national.

I think here on LHCF, maybe 5 or 10 years ago, is where I learned about the meaning of Juneteenth.

I didn't have the day off.  My dept's VP and the President of my company both sent out emails on Friday about it being Juneteenth.


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## TrulyBlessed (Jun 22, 2021)

The way I would grab a plate  The menu is lookin right on time.


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