The emerging culture war over the holiday is misguided. In reality, Juneteenth celebrates one of the greatest triumphs of America and its founding principles.
Today is Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery in 1865—established as an official federal holiday in 2021. You might think that commemorating an event like the abolition of slavery would be uncontroversial. But, like almost everything else these days, Juneteenth has gotten swept up in the left-right culture war. A recent University of Massachusetts poll found that 69%of Democrats, but only 13% of Republicans and 32% of independents supported making it a federal holiday. The ideological divide mirrors the partisan one (77% of self-described liberals express support, 40% of moderates, and only 14% of conservatives).
There are various possible non-ideological reasons why people might oppose the establishment of this federal holiday. For example, some might believe there were too many federal holidays alrea). In addition, a large minority of respondents (39%), simply don’t know what Juneteenth is; if you don’t know what the holiday celebrates, you might quite reasonably refrain from expressing support until you know more. Some of those who don’t know the right answer about what Juneteenth commemorates actually endorsed wrong answers (14%) as opposed to simply saying they don’t know (25%). Members of the former group, too, may have reasons for opposing the holiday that have little to do with left-right ideological divisions.
But the stark partisan and ideological divide in support for Juneteenth suggests that much of the opposition is based on fears—expressed in 2021 by Republican critics of the establishment of the holiday—that it represents a form of left-wing identity politics, an of indictment of America, or a repudiation of July 4.
Nothing can be further from the truth. In reality, Juneteenth celebrates one of America’s greatest achievements. And the way that achievement came about is an indictment of bigotry and racial identity politics, both left and right.
In 2021, I wrote a post about the meaning of the then-newly instituted federal holiday that covers these points in more detail, and I think remains relevant today.
