What the Heck is Juneteenth, Anyway?

Today, June 19th, is a federal holiday in the United States: Juneteenth. On this date in 1865, Major-General Gordon Granger read General Order 3 to the people of Galveston, Texas to announce the end of slavery. It has apparently been celebrated in the African-American community, especially in the South, since 1866 when the first anniversary celebration was known as "Jubilee Day."

I certainly oppose slavery, and welcome celebrations of its end, but the holiday strikes me as a cynical gesture by the government to cover up the systemic abuses it continues to inflict.

There is considerable debate over whether police are guilty of systemic racism, or whether other incentives are at play. It cannot be denied that the US has the highest prison population per capita in the world, or that the black community is disproportionately affected. In many urban areas, minority populations live in de facto segregated ghettos, and police seem to target black communities in particular. The laws these police enforce, including the drug war, were also often created on explicit racial grounds.

Between welfare incentives, regulatory obstacles to entrepreneurial activity, and historic urban planning, these communities are often cut off from the opportunities America claims to provide. This leads to a cycle of poverty and violence. Meanwhile, the government school system fails to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to empower them for personal growth.

Nothing is being done to address these grievances, or the wider problems of police abuse against the population as a whole. There is no real reform of education, regulation, social services, public transportation, or anything else the State has monopolized at various levels. But government officials gave themselves a day off again, pat themselves on the back for doing something, and that counts for something, right?

In the doubtless irrelevant opinion of a white dude, not really.