The Great Value of Juneteenth
I fear for the future of this Black holiday
On June 17th, 2021, two days before I was going to use a sick day,1 the Biden administration declared Juneteenth a federal holiday in an appalling show of false benevolence. There were prolonged efforts to have Juneteenth become a federal holiday in the past, and it was already a paid holiday in Texas since 1980. The declaration of Juneteenth as a holiday was made with less than 48 hours notice not in response to advocacy, but to appease the masses.
A little over a year since the murder of George Floyd and the resistance that ensued, there were sustained demands to take systemic reparative and preventative action against police violence. These demands were not new, but that had previously been ignored when coming from Black people. What was different this time was that they were suddenly gaining momentum and being adopted by liberal white people. Out of this adoption, Diversity & Inclusion™ (D&I), which was rebranding as Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion™ (DEI), was advertised as a lucrative saving grace for companies and organizations alike. There was a louder clamoring for greater Black representation in media, leadership, and boardrooms.2 In the midst of the noise, what came out was the desire to see images of Black people doing better.
I’m sure to the relief of capitalists and white supremacists alike, the muddled noise of political bandwagoners made it so that symbolic gestures and paying the right people could appease the new majority of the uninformed. Calls for real systemic change could be easily shut down.
Abolish the police? Insane! Who else will monopolize violence and enforce the oppressive, homicidal status quo?
Defund the police? Stupid! How can we monopolize violence and enforce the oppressive, homicidal status quo without competitive salaries?
Police accountability? Unreasonable! Police can’t monopolize violence and enforce the oppressive, homicidal status quo properly under constant surveillance by the public.
In the midst of all of this, in comes Walmart. They saw the perfect opportunity in monetizing a brand new holiday, and quickly got to work creating their new product. In May of 2022, they launched the Great Value Celebration Edition Juneteenth™ Ice Cream.3 Adorned with black, red, gold, and green, the container invited the world to “[s]hare and celebrate African-American culture, emancipation and enduring hope.”4 Next to hands of varying shades of brown high-fiving, surrounded by floating music notes, Walmart shared its conclusion that the flavor of emancipation was “[s]wirled Red Velvet and Cheesecake Flavored Ice Cream.”
The corporation believed they had perfectly encapsulated the holiday and the people who were most likely going to celebrate it.
And to the shock and horror of no one but Walmart’s decision-makers, Black people fucking hated it. The product was a cold, opportunistic appropriation of Blackness. It also bore an uncanny resemblance to a small black-owned business’s ice cream. Creamalicious’s Right As Rain Red Velvet Cheesecake had red velvet cake-flavored ice cream with fudge chunks and cheesecake swirl. It was as if they searched for something Black people had already created themselves just to make an inferior imitation and sell it as their own.
The product was immediately taken off the shelves, never to be seen again. You can still buy Juneteenth decorations from Walmart,5 but the intention was made clear. At the soonest opportunity, corporate interests will capitalize on anything for and by Black people.
This is why my heart sank when I heard the news two days before I was going to take my sick day. Juneteenth would no longer be a day I could take for myself as a political act. It was never a simple “celebration,” especially not a sweet treat. It is a day that memorializes the survival and emancipation of Black people from slavery. It is a day that celebrates the day where every Black person knew that they were free from chattel slavery.6 Juneteenth was created by Black people, for Black people. Observing Juneteenth for over a century was not easy. Black people were determined to do it in spite of the odds that they faced.
I lamented the eventual fate of that Juneteenth would share with Martin Luther King Day. Once the day was officially decreed by the government to be for “everyone,” it would be stripped of its historicity. I feared that Blackness, Black history, and Black people would be whitewashed to fit into the imagination of white people who otherwise balk at the idea of social justice or reparations.
I don’t know how far gone this holiday is four years later, but I hope Black folks remember that Juneteenth is not only for them, but bears significance only because of them. I hope Black folks hold onto this holiday and protect it from capitalist white supremacy. I hope Black folks can rest today.
I hope Black folks have a Black Juneteenth today.
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Between being a teacher, quitting, and somehow looking for work by the summer after previous jobs, I didn’t have the chance to take off for Juneteenth. 2020, I was caught up supporting damage control for the corporation I worked for as a DEI practitioner.
There were suddenly Black people in every commercial.
Conspicuously, the trademark sign was above “Juneteenth”. It’s similar to when Disney tried to trademark Dia de los Muertos four years before Coco was released in theaters.
I find the lack of an oxford comma nauseating.
I also saw that you can get Martin Luther King Day party favor Hershey kisses. Hard to beat the taste of bitter irony.
Not withstanding the subsequent sharecropping, convict leasing, Jim Crow laws, segregation, discrimination, white terrorism, counterintelligence operations, school to prison pipeline, prison industrial complex, etc.
“And to the shock and horror of no one but Walmart’s decision-makers, Black people fucking hated it.”
{cackles enthusiastically like a mad scientist} these corporations really underestimate us don’t they?
This. Was. Awesome. Thank you!! And I, too, find the lack of an oxford comma nauseating.