[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

It means I gotta wait until tomorrow to take care of of couple things I was gonna do today because many businesses are closed.

"Many" businesses are not closed. "Most" businesses will be open. Banks are closed, there's no mail delivery today, post offices are closed. Perhaps a few black-owned small retail stores or restaurants might be closed but other than that - everything is open around here.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

That was in 2020, not 2002. Hopefully that was a typo on your end. If not, then maybe - it's even more important than I thought it was, that Black History be taught in every school in the country.

A better idea is to teach our kids more about American history including the good and the bad to get a better idea of how much we have advanced as a nation.

[mrf0151]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

At least I won’t lose money in the stock market today.

You need to get away from Parady.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

"Many" businesses are not closed. "Most" businesses will be open. Banks are closed, there's no mail delivery today, post offices are closed. Perhaps a few black-owned small retail stores or restaurants might be closed but other than that - everything is open around here.

Unfortunately, I’m currently at our home up north in Massachusetts where just about everything is closed. At least the YMCA is open, so I can go swimming. As a federal holiday there won’t be any golf today, crowed courses with weekend/holiday rates and no generous weekday senior citizen discounts. When I worked I lived for weekends and holidays, now I can’t wait for weekdays.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

A better idea is to teach our kids more about American history including the good and the bad to get a better idea of how much we have advanced as a nation.

Wouldn't the history of blacks in America be, by definition, American history? Focusing only on the "bad" would paint the wrong picture but so would focusing only on the "good."

[Taltarzac725]

I took a course in Minorities in American Society at the University of Nevada, Reno and recall sitting next to a man from the Ivory Coast who was royalty according to him and the Professor. He might have been pulling my leg but he had made some of the most racist comments I have heard about the African Americans whose ancestors had come here while his ancestors ruled in some capacity. They probably stayed in power by aligning with the slave traders.

On another note, for this class, I did a presentation on my grandfather's fight to keep his land on Cape Cod. His ownership was being challenged in court by the Wampanoag who were asserting they still were a tribe under US laws and had a claim to this land. Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe - Wikipedia

[manaboutown]

I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and only knew of a couple of black kids. Most of the kids I knew were either Anglo or Nuevomexicanos, kids having hispanic ancestry going back to Spain. Their ancestors had originally settled in New Mexico, not Mexico or other latin country.

Anyway, one black kid was named Willy. I met Willy at the downtown YMCA where I was learning to swim. Willy showed up with a different bike every day until he was arrested for stealing bikes. The other was a girl in my large high school I never met. Thus I had no real knowledge of American black culture.

Then in 1965 I ended up at Ft. Jackson in South Carolina for US Army basic training followed by playing in the post band. Most of the RAs in the band were blacks and I was put in the RA barracks although I was in the Maryland National Guard as the NG barracks was full to capacity. It was an interesting experience to say the least. When June rolled around the blacks became excited in a joyful way. They were celebrating Juneteenth I was told after I asked why they were suddenly so happy. When I asked what it was about I was told that was the day Lincoln freed the slaves. Not exactly correct but close enough. Hearing that I could certainly understand their high spirits.

As to whether Juneteenth should be a taxpayer funded holiday for Federal, State and Civic civil servants, bankers and postal workers I would have to vote no.

[Taltarzac725]

10 Must Watch Slavery Movies - Best Movies Right Now

There are lots of movies out there about the slave trade and slavery.

Rosewood - Rotten Tomatoes

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Wouldn't the history of blacks in America be, by definition, American history? Focusing only on the "bad" would paint the wrong picture but so would focusing only on the "good."

We have been teaching our kids less and less about American history which is incredibly foolish.

Teach ALL of our history good and bad including black history as well as we became a melting pot having people from all over the world come here.

BTW did you notice that I said good and bad? How else do people learn how we came to be.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

We have been teaching our kids less and less about American history which is incredibly foolish.

Teach ALL of our history good and bad including black history as well as we became a melting pot having people from all over the world come here.

BTW did you notice that I said good and bad? How else do people learn how we came to be.

Well said. There is certainly a lot of great history out there to learn from.

The Great Courses has lot of material on US history. The Great Courses

The Great Courses African American History: From Emancipation through Jim Crow

The Great Courses
America's Long Struggle against Slavery

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

That was in 2020, not 2002. Hopefully that was a typo on your end. If not, then maybe - it's even more important than I thought it was, that Black History be taught in every school in the country.

Yes, I meant 2020.

Why should schools teach "Black History"? History should be color blind.

[margaretmattson]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

Well said. There is certainly a lot of great history out there to learn from.

The Great Courses has a lot of material on US history. The Great Courses

The Great Courses African American History: From Emancipation through Jim Crow

The Great Courses
America's Long Struggle against Slavery

Agree! Learning and Federal Holidays should not be one-sided. Since Juneteenth is now a federal holiday all races, beliefs, religions, minorities, what have you should be included.
.
It doesn't seem right to celebrate the freedom of only one race. The real truth is that every race has been forced into slavery at one time or another. Unfortunately, it is still happening today - sex trafficking, forced child labor, menial wages no man can live on, etc.

If you are going to declare Juneteenth a federal holiday don't leave anyone out! Who is to say one man's suffering is greater than another?

[ThirdOfFive]

Well, I suppose there are worse things to celebrate than freedom, but I see this "Juneteenth" holiday as just another manifestation of the divisiveness that is plaguing America. Bear in mind that Juneteenth is the ONLY federal holiday that is limited to one particular ethnicity.

Of course, we can celebrate along with them over the fact that they are no longer held in bondage--but then why not include (say) the Chinese, whose suffering particularly on America's West Coast from the mid-19th Century to the early 20th was in many respects equal to, and in many cases, exceeding that of the African-American ethnicity in this country. Slaves represented an outlay of capital--in many cases a substantial one--but for many of the Chinese their "employers" paid nothing to the workers, paying instead a daily pittance to the procurers who brought them over here, many against their will, to serve essentially as slaves to people who had no interesting in protecting an investment at all, resulting in human abuse that in many cases exceeded that of the Black slaves in the antebellum South. Or how about the Irish, who were literally untermenschen in many parts of america long before 1930s Germany ever popularized the concept. Or how about the mentally handicapped, who before our "enlightened" time in America were all too often treated about the same as cattle; rounded up and institutionalized where very often they were forced to work for the profit of those who were essentially nothing more than slavemasters, and whose treatment very often was barbaric: I know of cases where such people, if too vocal for their masters' taste, had their vocal chords torn out, and where "corrective discipline" if they were lucky was to be sprayed with ice-cold water from hoses, but which was all too often a straight jacket and a totally dark room for hours--sometimes days. Or how about society's rejects; the orphaned children of the poor and and the penniless, when the idea of "treatment" was to be institutionalized behind high fences and stone walls and put into the care of "house parents" (there were other terms too) who very often drove them like cattle, forcing them to work for whatever reason, and where death was often just termed "failure to thrive" but what was later discovered to be just the lack of positive human contact--just a hug or two, that was in all too many cases not forthcoming even when they were dying. Don't believe me? Then google Minnesota State School - Owatonna, where I used to live. It used to be Minneota's orphanage, but it is a museum now, and one of the "exhibits" is the children's cemetery where row upon row of little white crosses bear witness to those kids who were just not strong enough to survive the cruelty and the oppression.

Sure. Let's celebrate freedom. But don't continue to divide America by doing it.

[eweissenbach]

What it means to me is that it is a great day for all the bigots to get irritated.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by eweissenbach

What it means to me is that it is a great day for all the bigots to get irritated.

How is it that we disagree with something and all you can say is we are bigots. So if you disagree with something I write will it be ok to call you a bigot or worse?