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Today is Juneteenth.
You know, I always impulsively cringe when I hear this "holiday" has arrived because I can't tell the number of times I have heard (and tried to avoid) the following uncomfortable conversation:
Random Person #1: "Hey, it's Juneteenth today."
Random Person #2: "Yep it's [deleted] Day."
I suspect that most Wise Countians know exactly what I'm talking about. Honestly, I haven't heard it quite as much over the last few years (probably because I hang out with less and less people), but I bet it was said all over county/state today.
We've got a long way to go. And I'm not sure we're walking very fast to get there.
39 comments:
Let me take a stab, Barry-----is it the "national association for the advancement of liberal colored people day?"
Is the deleted word "Banjo"
I am not supporting the people who use derogatory comments to demean these individuals but does it not seem that counter-racism is over abundant in today's society. As a young adult white male I am in a disadvantage to the minority races when it comes to an education. They are entitled to tons of government funding that is not available to me and I find that offensive. This instance is just the first to come to mind.
I just don't understand the whole concept of racism. If you want to be equal or not treated any different then why do you expect more than average. I know this will sound like a typical stupid white guy but why do you have to have a black Miss America and things of that nature. Isn't that promoting racism. Aren't they wanting to be different.
I am not wanting to start a racist debacle but would just like some educated feed back on an issue that I don't understand.
Block party to celebrate on what "June the 23rd"??. must be fading away finally.
Again...I plead the 5th.
there is no room in this country for bigotry. none at all. none for racial intolerance. none for religious intolorance. none for sexual intoloerance. if we allow it , we are no different than the sunnis' and the shiites '.
it always amazes me to think that the ww ll veterans fought and died to deliver people from the evil oppression of the germans/japanese and then came home and continued to oppress american citizens because of the color of their skin. what a joke!
this is supposed to be the greatest generation? i hope not.
the challenge is ours.. we can continue this hypocrisy or we can do the right and manly thing and change .
Why did God have to invent cotton?
Colin Powell and Condi Rice probably do not even celebrate this day. They are too White, Conservative, and Republican. And I do think the deleted word is B__jo. Did not want to spell it out.
well if they get their day why don't we get one
Let's see. First, an MLK day. 2nd, a "Black History" month.
3rd, Juneteenth.
When's someone going to schedule "Honky Day". I find it completely absurd that we live in a society that will accept these holidays in addition to "Black Miss America", "Black Chamber of Commerces, etc. The very moment white people wanted to label an event such as "Miss White America", we'd be labeled racist in a heartbeat. Why does society allow the black race these privileges? I just wish we could all be treated EQUAL. That seems to be the "dream" that MLK had. Not privileged, but EQUAL.
It's amazing to read this stuff. All those black events started, originally, because every month was white history month - blacks were only in the mainstream textbooks as slaves, every Miss America was white, every face on most college campuses was white, and on & on. I'm over 50 & I remember all that - Affirmative Action was a way to right past wrongs. No one is blaming any of you particularly for the past wrongs, but 150 years ago blacks were treated as personal property, less than humans, slaves for goodness sake. It was against the law to teach them to read. We all know that education is the way out of poverty & that education is cumulative over generations - if you have a parent that didn't finish high school, you are more likely to drop out, etc.
Affirmative Action was a way to help blacks catch up........ in education, in economic opportunities, in social opportunities because they didn't have it - solely because of their race. Affirmative Action was a way to get them invited to the party of opportunity that we call USA, just normal for us whites. I have never been denied an opportunity, a job, anything because the color of my skin. In the prejudiced world of the past, we got all the advantages because we were white. You didn't need a Miss White America because that's what Miss America was. Yes, we've come a long ways & maybe we can let go of some of those designated things like Miss Black America. But oh my gosh, quit whining about scholarships not going to whites - they do go to whites - many of the scholarships that are not designated by ethnicity do go to the whites.
On a lighter note, it cracks me up to see people worry because Texas is now a minority majority - more than 50% are minorities, not white. THey are afraid because Hispanics will be THE majority by 2050. Maybe they are afraid because they fear that the way they have treated minority groups will be the way they will be treated when they are in the minority. What comes around goes around..........
To get back to the original topic -What is wrong with people celebrating as a group the day that they found out Lincoln freed them from slavery? Is that not worthy of celebration?
4:55 and 5:41, every other day in America is white day. If you really think you are disadvantaged, you are seriously deluded. It is people like you two while these policies are necessary.
Blacks like that Chris Rock make me laugh when they cuss alot but sometimes their jokes are off color.
7:22-
I never in any way indicated that I felt like I was disadvantaged. I feel that each and every one of us in this country have EQUAL opportunity at succeeding, if we work hard enough at it. There should be no "policies" inacted to give ANYONE an advantage or disadvantage. It is all about EQUAL opportunity. Don't blame me for the wrongs of the past. Races of ALL kinds have been made slaves throughout history and have overcome that in the future through hard work and a strong will. Please do not call me a racist. I just want each person in this country to pull their own weight.
NOT every other day or even every month is "White History" day /month. EVERYDAY in the United States is U.S History Day. When Blacks, Hispanics/Mexicans/Latins ELECT to drop the ethnic status from THEIR national affiliation and ELECT to be "AMERICAN" and ONLY "AMERICAN" then and ONLY then will they feel INCLUDED in the NATIONAL history and fabric of the United States. So long as an individual or group REQUIRE to be segregated and individually categorized that individual/group will NEVER feel as though they belong to the larger group.
One reason Chinese, Koreans, Japanese assimilate so well when they immigrate to the United States and achieve the American Dream is because they EMBRACE being AMERICANS and do NOT require other Americans to grant them SPECIAL accord for being Asian Americans. Asian immigrants have learned that if a person wants to be treated EQUALLY then they bloody well had better act according to the STANDARD of what is expected of the majority. For now the majority of the people in control within the United States are white and the MAJORITY of industry and business is run by WHITE people.
I was taught at a VERY early age; Unless you want to be a LOSER, when you are in someone else's ballpark, you play THEIR game by THEIR rules and kick THEIR arse at THEIR game or build your own ballpark and play your own game by your rules. From personal experience I know it takes QUITE a bit of playing by someone else's rules to be able to build your own ballpark.
If you banjo-lovers were truly enlightened you wouldn't give a rat's arse what anybody said from either side. You want justice from an unjust world. Keep working it.
"Colin Powell and Condi Rice probably do not even celebrate this day."
You are right - because it is a TEXAS holiday - dumb ars.
mzchief: i think you may be missing the point in two ways:
1. when the previous comment stated that "every day is white history month", he/she meant that the history of our country has largely been determined (and written) by white folks. I personally feel that "Black History Month" and similar things are rather silly. But I don't see how it hurts non-blacks to have some kind of attention drawn to the part of history that (primarily) concerns blacks.
2. Regarding Juneteenth in particular, as the earlier commenter pointed out, how in the world can you criticize a holiday designated to celebrate a group of people being freed from slavery? Isn't this something we should all celebrate? Surely you wouldn't argue that the end of slavery was a bad thing, right? As a white person, I celebrate not only the freedom of this group of people, but also the fact that the other members of my race became enlightened enough to agree that they should be freed.
There are a lot of aspects of the perpetual race conversation that give me (as bsg would say) tired-head, but the concept behind Juneteenth seems to be almost entirely devoid of any of those negative aspects. In a nutshell, black people were freed from slavery in Texas on June 19. Yay black people! Yay white people! What is there to argue about?
4:55 I am sympathetic. In the department where I work, a minority (not just a black minority but anyone who is under represented) can get a $3,000 scholarship with a 2.5 GPA but a white male with a 3.8 GPA gets nothing.
It's gone too far. But still the opportunities aren't there for the very young minorities and the education is often inferior. That's where affirmative action needs to start.
Mzchief is right that Chinese, Koreans, Japanese assimilate better here. They even take American names because it is almost impossible for Americans to pronounce their names without training in their language. They love being Americans and I love the food they bring to parties. ; )
Still, Wise County is deeply racists and backward.
Please Shut up Squarehead!!!
Wise County is not backward or racists but is conservative on social issues.
It is sad that some people don't understand the community or really know and understand the values of the community where they live.
Perhaps it is more common among people who do not have any investment in the community.
To hhl...
If we are ALL just AMERICANS without consideration to individual ethnicity WHY then would/should the ethnicity of the person who had contributed or is contributing to the history of the United States be of ANY consequence. My point being, Martin Luther King did as much for white people as he did black in that he freed whites from the curse of institutionalized bigotry that had relegated whites to the soul sapping position of oppressor/bigot. The fact that MLK was black did not alter the VALUE of his contribution to the future of the U.S.
It is my belief that the person who carries hatred within their heart does more damage to their own soul than to those whom they hate. I know, I know, whites tortured and killed blacks in unimaginably inhuman ways but I believe those whites have gone on to endure a fate worse than that which they inflicted on blacks. I will be forever grateful to MLK for having created a world in which I NEVER was put in the position to hate people because of the colour of their skin thus saving me from causing harm because of societal ignorance.
As for Juneteenth, it is a day that should be PROUDLY celebrated by ALL Texans because it is the day (albeit 2.5 years AFTER Pres. Lincoln signed in 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation) Texas pulled its head out of its arse and decided that "legally" ALL men should be free. Unfortunately it took Texas and the MAJORITY of the rest of the U.S. another 60 years to grant women full citizenship and the RIGHT to vote in 1920. Incidentally, Wyoming granted women the right to vote in 1869, six years AFTER the Emancipation Proclamation.
It is my opinion that it is divisive to separate by colour/sex/ethnicity those people who have made and are making MONUMENTAL contributions to the history and future of the United States and it is clearly SEGREGATION which is indeed something Martin Luther King fought to the his death.
hhl, you MORE than most should know as stated in Brown v. Board of Education; "Separate is NOT equal."
To anonyNOTHING 7:58...
You offering, "Please Shut up Squarehead!!!" as YOUR contribution to this discussion says FAR more about YOU than ANYTHING I have written says about ME.
YOU truly NEED to get over ME BEING ME. It REALLY must suck to be YOU.
I think Mzchief said it correctly. They will never feel totally included until they stop wanting to be seperate.
HHL
I don't think anyone that has posted is against the holiday for June 19th. I think very few people in today's society think that slavery had any positive effects. Also I don't think they were talking about scholarships but government grants that you can't even apply for unless you are a minority. If the way out of poverty is through education then only use money as a factor, not race.
I personally feel that today's generation would have less racism if there weren't any so called "Black Events." Go ahead and say that every other day in the year or every other event is for white people but that is stupid. Minorities can compete in anything they want to and they are allowed to participate in every other holiday. They are only making it a continuous struggle for themselves. That is not to say that in years past affirmative action wasn't necessary but in order to advance it needs to stop.
I hate to tell everyone this, but the slaves have been free for a long, long, lonnng time! Yet every year they celebrate like it was just LAST YEAR?
Why is that? And they are the ones who keep the racism stirred up.
Let's call a spade a spade!
What's with all this "arse" crap. It's ASS!
I wonder....how would it go over if we started having the Miss White USA Padgent? The United Caucasian College Fund? The White Chamber of Commerce? The National Association for the Advancement of White People? The White Entertainment TV Channel?
TO anonyNOTHING 9:31...
Were you dropped on your head at birth or are you JUST smoking crack?
Following your "LOGIC" the fireworks, hot dogs, hamburgers and boating accidents on July 4th and hangovers on July 5th should come to a SCREECHING halt since the United States, more than 230 years ago, obtained independence from Britain. I guess YOU no longer celebrate YOUR birthday since your birth occurred in 1995.
If YOU are having DIFFICULTY with the math it means you are TWELVE.
Why do many people consider successful black Conservatives such as Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice "too white?" How is "too white" defined, and who defines it?
Bigotry is hard-wired into the human race. (For examples, check out Spike Lee's "School Daze" or some of the comments posted here regarding Wise county.) The best we can hope for is to lessen the damage it does.
For my birthday-June 19th-someone decided to leave a watermelon on my front porch-THANKS!!
Wise County needs more Eskimos and Tongans.
When I moved to Texas in 1979, I was struck how often I heard THE word. Now, I hear it only rarely. I do recognize, however, that it is sometimes spelled differently these days and hidden within a variety of other words and phrases..
Don't go to a Juneteenth celebration and bump a child with your car. They will pull you out and beat you to death. They have come a long way haven't they?
8:45 You sound like someone I know and don't love who is also transparent. :)
I do understand this community with it's LARGE segment of profoundly backward and disgustingly racist people. In addition, I have plenty invested in this community but that doesn't mean that I will choose to live here forever.
mzcreep's family owned a few slaves back in the day. probably still does!!!!
Way to speak out Mzchief, Barry U opened a black jar of fishing worms. Clean those fish now, u have caught plenty.
TxSheehan, I thought you were moving out of Wise County. Please hurry so the IQ level will rise.
Look, our own president still looks down on blacks, so we all should, too:
"THE PRESIDENT: Proud you're here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it's over. (Laughter.)"
Clicky here.
9:21, tone down the "dumb Ars" talk unless you are including yourself. it may have originated in Texas, but there are 14 or so states that now observe it. Plus, has Colin or Condi ever been to Texas? Do you have to be a Cajun to celebrate Madi Gras? You are the W Dumass focker. FU.
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