Juneteenth set to become a federal holiday in the USA

[Buzz Rules]

 

[Buzz Rules]

 

[prairie_girl]

Hourly workers are the same - they don't work they don't get paid.

That stinks! In Manitoba (and maybe all of Canada) hourly workers do get paid for a federal holiday, even if they aren’t working. Here, if you work your scheduled shift before and after the stat (statutory holiday), you receive a days pay. If you’re lucky enough to work on a stat, as was stated above, we get paid double time and a half.

 

[Buzz Rules]

 

[tzolkin]

The problem is that many people will now lose a holiday somewhere. Right now there are 10 Federal Holidays, which one do you (or your company) give up? Most companies cannot just simply add another paid vacation day.

There are already more holidays than what most companies include as paid days off, so this could just be another holiday that’s a normal workday. If they do choose to have it as a paid day off and if you get 10 paid holidays and your company chose to swap one out with Juneteenth, you’re not really “losing” a holiday if you still wind up with 10 free days off.


My husband and I do not have any paid holidays. We have to use PTO. So the time off does not affect me, but I think it would be good to make this an official holiday. Many people have been pushing to get rid of Columbus Day for decades so that would be an easy swap if they want to keep the same number of days.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

it will just turn into another “big sale at stores “day.

 

[monsterkitty]

No but hourly employee get double or time and a half

Depends on where you work. I never got either for working holidays when I worked outside of education.

 

[JimMIA]

We celebrate July 4th despite very large portions of our population not being "independent" after that day. Is that an empty symbol as well?

No, not at all. July 4th was when the United States declared independence from England's monarchy. That was a pivotal day -- not only in American history, but in world history.

National holidays create awareness along with reflection regarding that day. Despite the flaws noted, Juneteenth is very deserving of that status as slavery was a huge stain on our history.

I have no problem celebrating the end of slavery. We SHOULD celebrate it.

But I think the date of Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation is a much more meaningful national milestone. Or LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or the date of the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. As I said above, I have no problem with the holiday, but in African-American history, I think there are a lot more important dates than June 19.

And I also think there are numerous other vitally important slices of the demographic pie which have no national holiday to "...create awareness along with reflection."

 

[wvjules]

Honestly, who cares if you get the day off? It's a huge day in the history of country and it should be recognized as a federal holiday. I'm glad that it is happening.

 

[soarin_over_nyc]

All for it.

There are now only 11 federal holidays, add the standard two-week standard vacation time... that means we work 91% of the year.

We work waay too much in the USA. My firm is founded by French people and they have so many holidays off during the year back home, 5 weeks vacation. No one works all month of August basically.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

First, “Juneteenth” is not a cutesy mashup and it most certainly doesn’t need another name. It has ALWAYS been called that by the very people who celebrate it. My family lived near the Black community in our town and were always invited to, and attended, Juneteenth festivities for at least 100 years. Maybe longer, but I have no way of asking those who would’ve celebrated over a century ago. But the name Juneteenth is the legitimate name of the holiday.

Exactly. I grew up in a black and Latino community. I have plenty of black friends. I have black family members. I’ve known people who have celebrated Juneteenth since I was a kid. I also have some friends who don’t celebrate July 4th but trade it with Juneteenth.

 

[Cheburashka]

It marks the day that slavery truly ended in the US... 2 years after the Civil War ended.

No, it celebrates June 19th, 1865, which was the very year the war ended and June 19th was only a few months after the war ended. It was 2.5 years after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the war.

June 19, 1865 was the day many Texas enslaved people learned that they were legally free.

 

[Cheburashka]

"Juneteenth" is also kind of an empty symbol to me. Texas may have officially "freed" all slaves then, but so what?

"So what?" The end of slavery. No big deal? You need a serious history lesson about what slavery was actually like, if you think its end was no big deal.

That's like someone saying, "The liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, so what? There's still anti-Semitism today."

Aside from forced labor and impoverishment, slavery routinely involved beatings, rape, and the forced separation of close family members, such as parents and young children. Torture, castration and branding were less common but not unheard of. And a supreme agony, for an enslaved person, was knowing that your children were doomed to suffer the same fate.

Segregation and Jim Crow were terrible, but slavery, like the Holocaust, was in an evil league of its own.

 

[rlk]

Good Friday is not a Federal Holiday.

 

[RedAngie]

Good Friday is not a Federal Holiday.

Yes, and I was surprised when I joined my company and learned we got a paid day off for it. The company was founded (and is still mostly controlled) by Quakers.

We can work on Good Friday if we choose to and take a different day off that month.

About half the time I work GF, depending when Easter falls.

 

[MrsPete]

Easy. Banish Columbus Day.

That certainly will p.o. a lot of people.

Or change the name to Native American or Indigenous Peoples Day. THAT might p.o. even MORE. Win win.

We Southerners have never been much bothered over Columbus Day -- we haven't had it off school since I was a kid.
It already is called Indigenous Peoples Day ... it's more of a secondary name.

If this happens, I hope the focus will be on black owned businesses.

I was thinking that'd happen, but how serious will people be about it? I mean, are people serious about shopping at black owned businesses for Kwanza? Askin', not tellin'.

So you may lose another paid holiday in its place. I prefer to think that at least you get paid holidays. I've never had a paid holiday. If we didn't have school that day we didn't get paid. Hourly workers are the same - they don't work they don't get paid.

Not true. Both of my daughters are in professional jobs but are paid hourly -- one's a nurse, one's a social worker. They get paid for holidays.

People in retail jobs, etc. often get "time and a half" for working on holidays.

... But I think the date of Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation is a much more meaningful national milestone. Or LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or the date of the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. As I said above, I have no problem with the holiday, but in African-American history, I think there are a lot more important dates than June 19 ...

Thing is, we can't make ALL those dates federal holidays.

Good Friday is not a Federal Holiday.

We used to get it off when I started working. Might've been a state holiday, but definitely when we started getting MLK day, we lost Good Friday as a paid holiday.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I didn’t mean it like that. I just think it should be celebrated within Election Day itself.

I know you're coming at it from a practical standpoint.

In this case Election Day is not the same as women gaining the right to vote. That's why it shouldn't be combined and just lumped into "celebrate Election Day". Election Day is simply a day set forth that a municipality (be it city, county, state, nation) has determined individuals will vote on (and that's not getting into advance or mail it). It has nothing to do with what individuals gained the ability to vote.

Places have election days all throughout the year just based on where they live. That isn't connected to the day women gained the right to vote. In fact there isn't a one single day, it's a progress made over time and building on who could vote. Any day selected (if that were to happen) should be one to celebrate the movement in its entirety over the years and years worth of progress being made.

 

[JimMIA]

"So what?" The end of slavery. No big deal? You need a serious history lesson about what slavery was actually like, if you think its end was no big deal.

I agree with you. I just don't think some Army soldiers reading a proclamation in Texas really changed the course of history. I don't care if people celebrate it, but the MLK holiday is much more meaningful to me.

 

[JimMIA]

And what about women...and Asian-Americans...and Hispanic-Americans...and Jewish people...and Native Americans...and Irish-Americans (St. Pats is not a national holiday)...and Swedish-Americans...and Pacific Islanders...and on and on and on and on...

Thing is, we can't make ALL those dates federal holidays.

Why not? Are they not important enough?

Which group is not important enough to celebrate?

 

[rlk]

Why not? Are they not important enough?

Which group is not important enough to celebrate?

What about Elizabeth Petrovich? https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/peratrovich.cfm