Reactionaries who oppose Juneteenth are the political, ideological, and spiritual descendants of those who were defeated in 1865. They dominate today’s Republican Party.
Like I said, even pointing out a glaring contradiction is enough to provoke a sanctimonious lecture on the need for white people to humble and scourge themselves. You're proving my point. One could argue that it's a privilege to be in a position to humble and scourge yourself, to find it a novel enough experience that you need to seek it out. So I guess the Union soldiers who literally died in the Civil War weren't fighting against slavery except for the one in ten who were black? So the 90% who weren't black were getting bayoneted and blown apart on the battlefield for some other totally unrelated reason, and their sacrifice should not be acknowledged or honored in any way, hell, let's split on their graves, maybe it'll earn us some brownie points among upper middle class sociology grad students who've never been slapped.
Bravo, if the insecure, paranoid, down shouting, extremist profiled in this article seemed fictional, you have laid that belief to rest. Has it ever occurred to you that there is a lot of territory between ignoring or lying about the realities of the past and spitting on Union Soldier's graves? Ever heard of nuance? Ever heard of humility? Grey area? Why are you so threatened by the idea of saying, yeah that was shameful, let's do it differently going forward. Instead the stance that you take truly makes it seem like you (and other like-minded folks) not only lack empathy but also that a repeat of history might be completely possible. That comment also underscores the attitude that earns you the "racist" label because your anger appears to be over a perceived slight to you, with little/no concern about those actually victimized by our forefathers.
Well, thanks for calling me sanctimonious for pointing out the long history of erasure of Black agency in fighting for their own freedom. But I challenge you to find any suggestion that white people need to scourge themselves in order to recognize that maybe ignoring Black history is problematic.
Your response, that paying attention to the 10% of soldiers who were Black is somehow ignoring the 90% who were not is yet another variation on the old cry, “What about White History Month?” from white people who fail to grasp that that’s the remaining eleven.
You let me know when the monuments to Union soldiers dotted all across the North reflect the actual proportions of Black soldiers who fought (and disproportionately died) for Emancipation, OK?
"Juneteenth, on the other hand, was the result of the United States – the country conservatives claim to love above all else! – *winning* the most destructive war in its history and defeating a traitorous rebellion. Why are conservatives acting like they are told to celebrate their own defeat? The answer is that, in a very profound way, that is exactly what is happening."
Bingo.
The fascists want to establish (re-establish, that is) an apartheid state in the service of White cis gender hetero males, just like in 1860. Also, they want impunity to brutalize and murder with impunity whomever they choose. (That part hasn't changed so much.)
As with most things, there's usually a grain of truth even in the dumbest stuff. It's still not clear if or how white people are supposed to "celebrate" Juneteenth. I heard on a podcast recently that it's only black people who should celebrate; that while the Civil War was about slavery for the South, it somehow wasn't about slavery for the North. That seems like a logical backflip to me. The Confederate soldiers get all the disgrace of fighting FOR slavery, but the thousands upon thousands of Union soldiers who were killed by the pro-slavery side don't get any credit or thanks for fighting AGAINST slavery.
According to my Indivisible group, white people should spend the day donating to black-led nonprofits and buying from black-owned businesses, which sounds more like atonement than celebration to me. So...yeah. We do need to talk this stuff through, but it's hard when even just making a comment like this is likely to get you the side eye.
It’s more like, white people should spend the day learning that even for those who fought for the Union, white Americans were not entirely free from complicity in slavery, profiting from industries that relied on slave labor, like New England’s textile mills; or profiting from serving enslavers, like my own ancestors in the shipyards of that region, built by slave labor and the Triangular Trade.
Even in the North, the abolition of slavery was seen as a radical position, and free Black people were not generally considered to be citizens, entitled to education or a vote. Most white Northerners, like Lincoln, were initially in favor of only gradual emancipation and then sending the former slaves literally “back to Africa,” to colonize Liberia… and certainly not to remain here, exercising the vote or the rights of citizenship.
And at the same time that the taste for equality of my white, Northern ancestors is exaggerated in historical memory, the contributions of Black Americans to their own emancipation is generally erased from white tellings of history. By the end of the Civil War, for instance, one in every ten Union soldiers was Black, and one in three of those Black soldiers lost their lives in the conflict.
Recognizing these facts matters because the myth, that wholly-benevolent white Northerners acted as “white saviors” of passive and grateful Black people plays out even now, when white liberals too often become angry when our involvement in racist policies and institutions is challenged, on the grounds that we marched with Martin Luther King, or donate to the NAACP.
Too often, white Americans exaggerate the importance of our small contributions to anti racism, minimize the significance of Black leadership and Black sacrifice in that struggle, and lash out in hurt and anger when we show up late and ill-informed to the struggle, and aren’t saluted as leaders and applauded as heroes.
It will do white Americans no harm to have a little humility about our contributions to history for a single day each year, and turn from lauding ourselves to listening, and learning a more nuanced understanding of the history of emancipation. This is not to denigrate the contributions of the Joshua Chamberlains of history… but it is useful, at least once a year, to recognize and elevate Americans like Robert Smalls, and to remember that Black Americans have always led the way in their own liberation.
Americans have been so caught up in The American Century idea that we rarely (read ‘never’) consider what the post-WWII situation was like in other countries. What re-thinking was required? How countries had to reconsider choices they had made. Apparently it took Germany 25 years to start that process. 160 years after the American Civil War and we have still not managed to figure out who won and who lost. Thanks for this excellent article!
Like I said, even pointing out a glaring contradiction is enough to provoke a sanctimonious lecture on the need for white people to humble and scourge themselves. You're proving my point. One could argue that it's a privilege to be in a position to humble and scourge yourself, to find it a novel enough experience that you need to seek it out. So I guess the Union soldiers who literally died in the Civil War weren't fighting against slavery except for the one in ten who were black? So the 90% who weren't black were getting bayoneted and blown apart on the battlefield for some other totally unrelated reason, and their sacrifice should not be acknowledged or honored in any way, hell, let's split on their graves, maybe it'll earn us some brownie points among upper middle class sociology grad students who've never been slapped.
Bravo, if the insecure, paranoid, down shouting, extremist profiled in this article seemed fictional, you have laid that belief to rest. Has it ever occurred to you that there is a lot of territory between ignoring or lying about the realities of the past and spitting on Union Soldier's graves? Ever heard of nuance? Ever heard of humility? Grey area? Why are you so threatened by the idea of saying, yeah that was shameful, let's do it differently going forward. Instead the stance that you take truly makes it seem like you (and other like-minded folks) not only lack empathy but also that a repeat of history might be completely possible. That comment also underscores the attitude that earns you the "racist" label because your anger appears to be over a perceived slight to you, with little/no concern about those actually victimized by our forefathers.
Well, thanks for calling me sanctimonious for pointing out the long history of erasure of Black agency in fighting for their own freedom. But I challenge you to find any suggestion that white people need to scourge themselves in order to recognize that maybe ignoring Black history is problematic.
Your response, that paying attention to the 10% of soldiers who were Black is somehow ignoring the 90% who were not is yet another variation on the old cry, “What about White History Month?” from white people who fail to grasp that that’s the remaining eleven.
You let me know when the monuments to Union soldiers dotted all across the North reflect the actual proportions of Black soldiers who fought (and disproportionately died) for Emancipation, OK?
I’ll wait.
"Juneteenth, on the other hand, was the result of the United States – the country conservatives claim to love above all else! – *winning* the most destructive war in its history and defeating a traitorous rebellion. Why are conservatives acting like they are told to celebrate their own defeat? The answer is that, in a very profound way, that is exactly what is happening."
Bingo.
The fascists want to establish (re-establish, that is) an apartheid state in the service of White cis gender hetero males, just like in 1860. Also, they want impunity to brutalize and murder with impunity whomever they choose. (That part hasn't changed so much.)
As with most things, there's usually a grain of truth even in the dumbest stuff. It's still not clear if or how white people are supposed to "celebrate" Juneteenth. I heard on a podcast recently that it's only black people who should celebrate; that while the Civil War was about slavery for the South, it somehow wasn't about slavery for the North. That seems like a logical backflip to me. The Confederate soldiers get all the disgrace of fighting FOR slavery, but the thousands upon thousands of Union soldiers who were killed by the pro-slavery side don't get any credit or thanks for fighting AGAINST slavery.
According to my Indivisible group, white people should spend the day donating to black-led nonprofits and buying from black-owned businesses, which sounds more like atonement than celebration to me. So...yeah. We do need to talk this stuff through, but it's hard when even just making a comment like this is likely to get you the side eye.
It’s more like, white people should spend the day learning that even for those who fought for the Union, white Americans were not entirely free from complicity in slavery, profiting from industries that relied on slave labor, like New England’s textile mills; or profiting from serving enslavers, like my own ancestors in the shipyards of that region, built by slave labor and the Triangular Trade.
Even in the North, the abolition of slavery was seen as a radical position, and free Black people were not generally considered to be citizens, entitled to education or a vote. Most white Northerners, like Lincoln, were initially in favor of only gradual emancipation and then sending the former slaves literally “back to Africa,” to colonize Liberia… and certainly not to remain here, exercising the vote or the rights of citizenship.
And at the same time that the taste for equality of my white, Northern ancestors is exaggerated in historical memory, the contributions of Black Americans to their own emancipation is generally erased from white tellings of history. By the end of the Civil War, for instance, one in every ten Union soldiers was Black, and one in three of those Black soldiers lost their lives in the conflict.
Recognizing these facts matters because the myth, that wholly-benevolent white Northerners acted as “white saviors” of passive and grateful Black people plays out even now, when white liberals too often become angry when our involvement in racist policies and institutions is challenged, on the grounds that we marched with Martin Luther King, or donate to the NAACP.
Too often, white Americans exaggerate the importance of our small contributions to anti racism, minimize the significance of Black leadership and Black sacrifice in that struggle, and lash out in hurt and anger when we show up late and ill-informed to the struggle, and aren’t saluted as leaders and applauded as heroes.
It will do white Americans no harm to have a little humility about our contributions to history for a single day each year, and turn from lauding ourselves to listening, and learning a more nuanced understanding of the history of emancipation. This is not to denigrate the contributions of the Joshua Chamberlains of history… but it is useful, at least once a year, to recognize and elevate Americans like Robert Smalls, and to remember that Black Americans have always led the way in their own liberation.
Americans have been so caught up in The American Century idea that we rarely (read ‘never’) consider what the post-WWII situation was like in other countries. What re-thinking was required? How countries had to reconsider choices they had made. Apparently it took Germany 25 years to start that process. 160 years after the American Civil War and we have still not managed to figure out who won and who lost. Thanks for this excellent article!