But the legacy of Juneteenth - Juneteenth National Independence Day, Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Black Independence Day, call it what you will - is much more than an opportunity to barbecue. This year, we’re faced with the emergence of Juneteenth ice cream at Walmart, Juneteenth-themed watermelon salads, Juneteenth decorations on Amazon and at Party City, and even active fights over Juneteenth trademarks (involving the Walmart ice cream). And in 2021, the Biden administration made Juneteenth a federal holiday. Instagram infographics littered the nation’s phones. Corporations gave their employees the day off. In the so-called racial reckoning that followed, police officers were charged (or not) and convicted (or not) for their misconduct and politicians responded to chants of “defund the police” by giving the police even more money under the guise of “community engagement.” As these losses mounted, a consolation prize emerged: Juneteenth, long a Black Texas celebration of the end of slavery, became the latest vacation day. Those injustices went viral, amplified by a world-disrupting, inequality-exacerbating pandemic, and sent people into the streets to protest and set the city alight in discontent over the treatment of Black people at the hands of the state. Just months prior in Louisville, Kentucky, the police had killed (but not “murdered,” prosecutors insisted) Breonna Taylor.
Two years ago, Minneapolis burned after a policeman there murdered George Floyd.
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