June 2021 Blog: “Recognizing Juneteenth and Full History Education”
Progress in anti-racism work is slow and arduous, partially due to the seeming inability of progressives to win public relation battles. We’ve witnessed backlash caused by calls for “reparations,” chants of “defund the police,” and advocacy for “critical race theory.” These terms have been distorted into linguistic bogeymen, which is why it’s surprising that Congress so swiftly made Juneteenth a national holiday with an overwhelming majority in the House and unanimously in the Senate!
In these contentious times, I wonder, why now? Was resistance simply not worth the effort, as Senator Ron Johnson, who opposed the national holiday, implied when he said, “there is no appetite in Congress to further discuss the matter?” Was it because the battle had already been won in the 48 states currently honoring June 19? Or is it simply easier to celebrate liberation than study oppression, so we’ll make a holiday as we attack critical race theory?
A friend recently suggested that many opponents of critical race theory don’t fully understand what it is. Few know that it arose four decades ago when legal scholars like Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado argued that the personal agency of Black Americans is tremendously limited by structural and cultural racism embedded in power structures and law.
Some who oppose this argument take our nation’s staggering racial wealth gap as evidence of the inferiority of Black people. NYU psychology professor Andrei Cimpian explained that such “shortcut” explanations reinforce racist cutbacks in social services that hurt people of color disproportionally. In 1967, when inaugurated as Governor of California, Ronald Reagan condemned welfare and pledged not “to perpetuate poverty by substituting a permanent dole for a paycheck.”
Reagan’s argument included the claim that welfare is responsible for “destroying self-reliance, dignity and self-respect.” This mantra is repeated today by opponents of critical race theory. Ian Rowe of the Wall Street Journal criticizes critical race theory for teaching the next generation of Americans, black and white, “…that the entire destiny of one race rests in the hands of another…. The potential damage is that young people are robbed of their sense of personal agency – the belief and ability they can control their own destiny….”
It seems clear, however, that for people to control their destiny, they must know history, including the toxins and horrors, and call for correctives to systemic inequality. Critical race theory is neither indoctrination nor the cause of culture wars. As journalist Kendra Hurley puts it, “What divides us is not teaching the truth, but leaving kids to fill in the blanks for the vast inequalities they see around them.” Let’s honor the new national holiday of Juneteenth by demanding “full history education.” Perhaps this term can more successfully advance the wisdom of ”critical race theory” without being so easily demonized.
Further Actions:
1) Honor Juneteenth by learning and teaching about its history. Begin with PBS’s concise explanation. Listen to and share Dr. Yohuru Williams interview with Pacifica Radio about Juneteenth. (Note, Dr. Williams is an advisor to the 400Years.today project) Read a recent New York Times article about how to celebrate this holiday. Read the short book, On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed, which Kerri Greenidge of The New Republic says “brilliantly meditates on the origin stories that we tell ourselves in an effort to avoid the nuances of history.”
2) Resist demonization of “full history education”* or “critical race theory,” or whatever you want to call it, by promoting reasonable approaches to teaching the history of racial enslavement and oppression. (*thanks to Geoff Burk for suggesting this term)
3) Offer thoughtful analysis, not demonization of your opponents, as my friend Chris Centner did on Facebook. I offer his commentary here:
In explaining his “nay” vote against the Juneteenth Holiday, Montana’s Representative Matt Rosendale stated, “This legislation is the culmination of decades of efforts by the Left to prevent unashamed celebrations of our national story, heritage, and history. Their intent is to replace the Fourth of July with this new day, one that will inevitably focus on America's darkest moments. We're not perfect as a country, but we are a great nation, morally, economically, culturally, and in many other ways besides. I will never support efforts to pull down that legacy and replace it with self-hatred.”
There are many errors in this statement.
Firstly, it’s not a negative celebration, any more than VE Day. It’s celebrates the end of slavery, a positive event. Second, nobody wishes to replace the Fourth of July with Juneteenth. The 4th is and will remain the nation’s day to celebrate its Independence. Third, Juneteenth IS part of “our national story, heritage, and history.” If you’re an American, it’s YOUR history, as are all national events, both good and bad, that have passed upon our land. Our history isn’t just events affecting White people. It’s everybody. Finally, the claim that this holiday promotes self-hatred and shame is bizarre. Our history includes many events, both noble and ignoble. Your history is the Fourth, Wounded Knee, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese-American Internment camps, Selma . . all of it, whether glorious and disgraceful. When Germans bump their toes upon one of the small bronze markers that memorialize a Holocaust victim they are reminded that, as Germans, their past has lessons they must never forget. And that makes Germany better.
We learn from history only if we face it in all its myriad aspects realistically. If we don’t, we learned nothing and are doomed to perpetuate mistakes and tragedies. Perhaps reading of horrible events of the past makes you feel shame, guilt, or regret. That’s actually a wonderful thing: it affirms your humanity, and helps inoculate you from making similar moral errors. Our country could use far more learning and introspection, and far less loud self-aggrandizement.
On Juneteenth let’s celebrate this small but bright event in our history which concluded a great tragedy. I can’t think of a better way to honor our country.