Juneteenth and the lack of black lives in US curricula

[Belsnickel]

Anyway, on to the topic of the thread. So, I've known about Juneteenth for a while, now, because I grew up in the "black area" of my hometown. My best friend was black and his dad was an old school Black Panther who really only tolerated about 4 white people to step foot in his house. This caused me to get an education far beyond what I would have had otherwise. I've also had lots of conversations with scholars of African-American history as part of diversity discussions at our university.

Some of the interesting conversations about Juneteenth (which I brought up in another thread) have included things like:

- It should not be a celebration; it is a commemoration.
-Juneteenth shouldn't be a national thing. Each state/area should commemorate the dates they were emancipated (this apparently was what happened for several decades after the Civil War)
-It isn't appropriate to commemorate an end to slavery because we haven't ended slavery, yet.

These are just some of the topics that have been discussed. I, personally, have just sat and listened in these discussions but I thought these were good thoughts to bring up.