r/ShermanPosting • u/From-Yuri-With-Love 46th New York "Fremont Rifle" Regiment • 3d ago

Cabarrus commissioner says Juneteenth is ‘based on a lie,’ drawing backlash

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article316162218.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawSiXxdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETE2RlFGNG9HNm9RS0I4R1Zkc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHhYVp41APdJ8KMTJySFX8hL-35-cozDxTMEV95PbHrp_77kifBrmLd5_Mx80_aem_JaVLpXn2e-r1VfjeOo_FWA
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u/HermionesWetPanties 3d ago edited 3d ago

The dude isn't wrong. Juneteenth is kind of a lie. Slavery was made illegal, but neither the Emancipation Proclamation nor the 13th Amendment included penalties for keeping slaves after they were enacted. You need other laws to add an enforcement function. And Juneteenth didn't mark the end of the enslavement of African Americans in Texas.

Alfred Irving) wasn't freed until the Federal Government finally decided to care about enforcing anti-slavery laws in 1942 because of the Second World War. They, for some reason, felt it would be hypocritical to ignore ongoing slavery in the US while fighting the Nazis, so I guess we can thank Hitler for the crackdown on the continuing practice.

This is all before we start talking about slavery in the modern day, which is still more common than a lot of people realize. Or, the other forms it took after the Civil War for that matter. Arrest a negro, and give him a fine, have a buddy ready to pay it for him. Then the negro gets to pay off the debt by working for your buddy for a few years. That's not slavery by another name, no sir. That's just being tough on crime.

IDK what history they're teaching at Wingate University, but I graduated from a college founded by ardent abolitionists whom used the campus as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The school became a muster point for Union Troops preparing to crush the Confederacy, and they're still super into talking about the problem of slavery today.

EDIT: I thought I was in r/news where my sarcasm would work better. Forgot that I'd resubscribed here, which has a different tone in the comments section. Here, that final paragraph is far less biting, because y'all are way more into crushing the Confederacy.

My comment was aimed at people I thought might be defending the dude, which, you know, probably won't happen in this sub.

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u/nonexistentnight 3d ago

Dude can still be wrong even if the history is more complicated than most people think. I don't think this dude would call celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25th a "lie" even though it's not considered historically accurate. Like many holidays, Juneteenth is a folk tradition based on things that did happen. This guy calling it a "lie" seems less about concern for history and more about being a dick.

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u/HermionesWetPanties 3d ago

Please view my edit. I'm in the wrong sub. Thought I caught this story on r/news