Juneteenth and Reparations

 Yesterday was Juneteenth.  For those who may not know what exactly that is here is a little history for you.  After Lincoln freed the slaves in the United States it took many months for the world to get to all states and cities. On June 19, 1865 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, TX.  The Army announced that the 250,000 enslaved black people in the state had been freed by executive decree.  This day became known as Juneteenth by the newly freed people in Texas. In 2021 Congress passed a bill and it was signed into law making Juneteenth a national holiday. 

While I feel this is an event that should be recognized and maybe even had been made a national holiday, this year I found myself irritated by all the virtue signaling I saw and heard.  In recent history June has become a month where we are flooded with LGBTQIA+ propaganda and the past two years one of the days become a huge flood of praising the black community for something that was done for them not by them. For me it would be similar to praising your white friends on the 4th of July for our freedoms.  But on the 4th we don't do that, we celebrate as Americans. I have never once seen a social media post saying "Happy 4th of July to my white friends!" but yesterday I saw multiple posts from people saying "Happy Juneteenth to all my black friends!" It is ridiculous that a day people gained freedom has been turned into another virtue signaling opportunity.  Much like the BLM or Ukraine support profile pictures this day is becoming another opportunity to signal your virtue and "support." But support of what exactly?  I think the day should be celebrated the same way we celebrate the 4th of July, Freedom is something to be praised, not individual racial groups.

The other big news in the black community is reparations.  California has a group called the "California Reparations Task Force", a group who spent time and government money to figure out how much money was appropriate as reparations in a state which never had actual slavery. So who do they feel is eligible?  Black Californians who are decedents of slaves (But how do they prove it?).  They recommend $1,200,000 per black Californian, yes 1.2 million dollars per black person in California or $800 billion dollars total, more than California's GDP.  How will they pay this?  Taxes on everything!  So why are Asians, Irish and other races who were slaves left out?  That answer is simple, this movement is another virtue signal and attempt to secure a voter base.  

This push came at a time where the Democratic party has seen black people leaving their party in droves.  The black community is starting to see that the Democrats and left do not have their best interest in mind.  From my experience the conservative movement is more aligned with the larger black community, not the extremists.  Black families believe in faith, traditional male/female roles, raising kids with good moral and values, anti-abortion, anti-lgbtqia and working hard to succeed in America.  As with most people in America, not the far left or right, most of us just want to live our lives and be successful.  But what we see in the media is the extremes and that makes those in the middle feel like they are alone in their beliefs.  Most Americans hold the same beliefs and our media and government push division because it sells or gets them elected.  We are all American.  Most Americans do not define themselves by race first.  

We have seen in the past few months a huge pushback against the LGBTQIA+ agenda, racial division and the trans movements.  These fringe movements are being rejected whole cloth.  People are starting to fight back and I love it!  We need to stand for equality, unity and what is morally correct or we will find our country lost to these fringe groups.  As I have stated more than once we are a good people overall.  All of us want freedom and success.  All of us want our kids safe.  All of us want to be able to afford to live and have the things we want.  So take this day to do something nice for someone because you can!  We need to unite and stay united in order for our country to continue to be the beacon of freedom that brings people from around the world to our doors wanting the American Dream.  We can do this and we can stay free!