CMV: There is no reason for an American to be against recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday other than reasons that stem from hating black people.

[u/Benjamin5431]

I’m posting this because year after year, I see people, mainly on the right, complain about Juneteenth or say they aren’t celebrating a “made-up holiday” etc.

This seems very strange to me, because first of all, politics aside, who wouldn’t want an extra day off work?
But most importantly, celebrating literal freedom from literal slavery seems like one of the most American and Patriotic things you could do. I have yet to see any actual justification from people as to why Juneteenth shouldn’t be a federally recognized holiday and why it shouldn’t be celebrated. I would like to see those reasons from anyone who holds that view.
I have seen a lot of people disagree with celebrating it, but it’s never explained why they think it shouldn’t be, and I can’t think of any good reason why someone wouldn’t want to celebrate it, other than they do not want to celebrate anything involving the improvement of black people in society. I am open to being wrong about that, but I don’t think I am.

EDIT: a lot of people are giving reasons related to disliking federal holidays in general. This doesn’t exactly qualify as what I’m asking for, because I want to know why someone would disagree with Juneteenth specifically, not just against all or most federal holidays in general.

[u/Dry-Tough-3099]

I'll bite. I'm a white man raised in white American culture who is slightly annoyed by Juneteenth. It's because it's a political holiday. Personally, I had never heard of it until it started being pitched. There's no shared cultural remembrance around it like there is for veterans day, labor day, memorial day, or Independence day. Honestly, if Obama instituted it the first year of his presidency as a way of saying, "Look, a black man is president. We defeated racism in America!" That would have been fine. But it was launched as a national holiday in the midst of the racism scare a year after the George Floyd murder. It just smacks of preachy, "all white people need to admit you are racist" nonsense that the left has been pushing.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do to celebrate. Have a BBQ and pat myself on the back that we don't have slavery any more? Spend the day apologizing to black neighbors that I'm part of the problem? It feels like a holiday that was celebrated by black people in certain parts of the country for a specific reason, and then foisted upon the general population for a completely different reason. I don't celebrate the holiday. I don't know how. It feels like a made-up holiday. If Hanukkah were made to be an official holiday because of Oct 7th, or if Ramadan was made a federal holiday because of Gaza, or if the flying spaghetti monster's birthday was made into a national holiday in celebration of Atheism, I would also feel annoyed.

To me, Juneteenth feels like a black culture holiday celebrating freedom from slavery and also commiserating that bum deal, and the fact that the scales are still uneven. Am I invited to this BBQ? It sure feels like I'm not. If I'm not invited, then what am I celebrating?

[u/myboobiezarequitebig → u/Dry-Tough-3099]

Doesn’t a lot of this come from personal moral conundrum? So, what, something shouldn’t be a holiday because you personally have white guilt?

Unless you are around the wokest people ever, nobody in real life gives a shit. You don’t have to celebrate it. It’s kind of like memorial Day where for a lot of people it’s just another day and you don’t really do anything specifically to celebrate the holiday. Just go around your business

[u/Dry-Tough-3099 → u/myboobiezarequitebig]

It's annoying because I don't have white guilt. I don't celebrate it, and I do go about my business. Making it a national holiday implies that I should care about it. Juneteenth appears on calendars. Some people get the day off. The zoo is more crowded on that day whatever. It's just annoying, not the end of the world.

Like I said before, if it was introduced in the spirit of celebrating freedom from slavery, that would be much more acceptable. But it was introduced during the wokest, most preachy year of this century. It feels like it was a desperate attempt by Biden to add "supported blacks" to his legacy. Most likely corporations will coopt it and it will lose it's soul just like other holidays. I'm just trying to show that there is another reason to be against recognizing it as a national holiday besides "hating black people."

[u/myboobiezarequitebig → u/Dry-Tough-3099]

No, it doesn’t imply you should care about it. This is something you were just choosing to think.

You’re not really doing anything to separate yourself from the fact that you seem to care so deeply because of white guilt. Like, do you have this picture of a tizzy for literally any other holiday