Happy Juneteenth one and all!

[TomC]

You aren't making a whit of sense. Traditional Juneteenth foods are barbecue and grilled meats, plural. Fried chicken is neither barbecued nor grilled.

Have you ever even been to a good Juneteenth?

Church ladies competing for the best fried chicken is a thing. Of course, there's also somebody running the grill. Really, the food is great! Almost all of it's homemade, by people who know what they're doing.

It's not healthy. There's enough fat sugar and salt to kill an African village. But , boy it's tasty.

Nothing to do with big corporations hiring a caterer.

It was nice of IKEA to buy lunch for employees. People who didn't want the gift could politely say, "No thank you.", and eat whatever they want to eat. Racing to the internet to wail about being victimized by a menu that didn't include their personal favorites is impolite, to be charitable about it. My mom taught me that as a child.
Tom

Your post reminded me of this classic video of a white guy attending a black cookout:

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gmKxkRZzP4&t=81s[/YOUTUBE]

Ha ha ha!
Closer than you might guess...

Never been in that particular spot. I've played Spades since I was a kid. And I know what "bones" are. In my long and checkered past, I've sampled many vices. The only one I took an immediate and permanent dislike to was gambling. But I know how to politely refuse in that situation. "My momma told me not to do that. We don't disrespect our mommas, now do we?"

The most similar was a wedding reception I went to once.

It was at 25th and Keystone, in Indianapolis. 95% black. My buddy Dave asked me to go, because his wife didn't want to go to that neighborhood. His co-worker May had just gotten married and he wanted to go. I agreed.
My father was also appalled. "Are you an idiot? White boys don't go to parties in that area, especially after dark!" But I was about 20, still invulnerable. So Dave and I went.

It was both scary and fun.
There were three white people in a crowd of a hundred or so. Dave, me, and some guys girlfriend. It was my first experience with really gut thumping rap. Between the music and the dancing I was surprised there wasn't structural damage to the townhouse.

It was also my first experience as "the token". And a stranger to boot. People asked me simple questions like, "So how do you know May and John?" All I could say was "I don't really, I just met them tonight. My friend Dave over there works with May."
But May was utterly gracious. Every so often she'd show up in our vicinity in the crowd. She'd exclaim, "Dave, I'm so glad you came! Tom, it's very nice to meet you." Then she'd turn to some black dude and say something like, "DT, go get them bourbon and cokes, OK?"

Everyone was nice to us, but they kept looking at me like I was a pet boa constrictor or something.

All in all, it was fun and enlightening.
Tom

 

[TomC]

Juneteenth is intended to be a positive Holiday where people of all races can celebrate the emancipation of the American slaves and have positive conversations about our (yes it is also a part of white peoples) history.

To me, this is the point. It's maybe a recognition of the past, but what makes it worth celebrating is hope for the future. It's celebrating a turning point.
Same with 4th of July, Easter, Thanksgiving, and all such similar holidays from whatever culture. Cinco de Mayo, Diwali, Passover, there's tons of them.
Since people like to eat, some kind of "traditional" menu makes sense. But getting too pedantic about exactly what food is "sensitive" is ridiculous and divisive.
Tom

 

[Gospel]

What I'm puzzled about is any nonblack person thinking that it's not Celebrating them too. Black people weren't the only ones who stood up against slavery. I'm certain enough (though I'm guilty of being ignorant myself) to bet my life on it that there are hero's of all colors to be celebrated for that. This holiday should be used to bring them all to light, unify people and give all races an example of the sort of bullshit evils that can be overcome when we work together.

 

[TomC]

What I'm puzzled about is any nonblack person thinking that it's not Celebrating them too. Black people weren't the only ones who stood up against slavery. I'm certain enough (though I'm guilty of being ignorant myself) to bet my life on it that there are hero's of all colors to be celebrated for that. This holiday should be used to bring them all to light, unify people and give all races an example of the sort of bullshit evils that can be overcome when we work together.

Exactly!

It's not about race. It's about an ugly part of USA history fizzling out, or at least starting to fizzle out. It hasn't entirely fizzled out yet.
But it was a huge turning point.
Tom

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

What I'm puzzled about is any nonblack person thinking that it's not Celebrating them too. Black people weren't the only ones who stood up against slavery. I'm certain enough (though I'm guilty of being ignorant myself) to bet my life on it that there are hero's of all colors to be celebrated for that. This holiday should be used to bring them all to light, unify people and give all races an example of the sort of bullshit evils that can be overcome when we work together.

I'd be for celebrating my great x 3 grandfather who died in the civil war, a soldier in the Maine Voluntary Army. But I also mentally celebrate him on Veteran's Day and Memorial Day just a little bit. He's my favorite ancestor. The reason why is that he signed up for the war voluntarily when he was 48 years old and so did his oldest son...joining the same company. He and his son managed to survive 11 battles without major injury, even in heavy Union defeats that occurred. They were both in the Battle of Gettysburg which occurred July 1st - 3rd of 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the war, racking up the most casualties. The Maine regiment on the first and second day was led by Colonel Elijah Walker. A heavy skirmish at Devil's Den put the Maine companies into direct combat with artillery, muskets, and bayonets against the Confederate forces charging against them. On July 2nd, Elijah Walker had been injured and relieved himself of command and had to retreat from his position. In that single skirmish, there were 23 Maine soldiers killed, 44 wounded and 73 captured. Among them, my ancestor's son had been killed. And my ancestor had been injured and captured by the Confederate troops. There were several such soldiers who enabled the retreat of others from the company during this bloody skirmish at Devil's Den.

Upon capture, my greatx3 grandfather was taken to a prisoner of war camp. There were some terrible things there such as disease and torture. Eventually officers were tried for torture, but the Daughters of the Confederacy revise this history to say the Confederate officers all played nice. In any case, my 3xgreat grandfather got dysentery and was sent to the hospital, which they did in the most severe of cases. There he died.

I don't find this to be meaningless. But it'd also have to be celebrated in the greater context of a holiday that is for African Americans. Like I said there are other days where I think of my 3xgreat grandfather, too.

Now, other people celebrate their confederate ancestors on these types of holidays like Veteran's Day or Memorial Day or if they don't, then they've at least been told at some point that their ancestors were honorable people through revisionist narratives. The point I am trying to make is there is a subculture in the US that doesn't want to celebrate "ones who stood up against slavery" because they are being willfully brainwashed. These people were only very recently forced to remove a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest from their city park. Nathan Bedford Forrest...founder of the KKK. In Dec 2017...



I'm not claiming that it's impossible to try to work with them and the sentiment is probably right, BUT how can you frame it for them to celebrate?

Do you want to call it a Day of Healing?

 

[Gospel]

What I'm puzzled about is any nonblack person thinking that it's not Celebrating them too. Black people weren't the only ones who stood up against slavery. I'm certain enough (though I'm guilty of being ignorant myself) to bet my life on it that there are hero's of all colors to be celebrated for that. This holiday should be used to bring them all to light, unify people and give all races an example of the sort of bullshit evils that can be overcome when we work together.

I'd be for celebrating my great x 3 grandfather who died in the civil war, a soldier in the Maine Voluntary Army. But I also mentally celebrate him on Veteran's Day and Memorial Day just a little bit. He's my favorite ancestor. The reason why is that he signed up for the war voluntarily when he was 48 years old and so did his oldest son...joining the same company. He and his son managed to survive 11 battles without major injury, even in heavy Union defeats that occurred. They were both in the Battle of Gettysburg which occurred July 1st - 3rd of 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the war, racking up the most casualties. The Maine regiment on the first and second day was led by Colonel Elijah Walker. A heavy skirmish at Devil's Den put the Maine companies into direct combat with artillery, muskets, and bayonets against the Confederate forces charging against them. On July 2nd, Elijah Walker had been injured and relieved himself of command and had to retreat from his position. In that single skirmish, there were 23 Maine soldiers killed, 44 wounded and 73 captured. Among them, my ancestor's son had been killed. And my ancestor had been injured and captured by the Confederate troops. There were several such soldiers who enabled the retreat of others from the company during this bloody skirmish at Devil's Den.

Upon capture, my greatx3 grandfather was taken to a prisoner of war camp. There were some terrible things there such as disease and torture. Eventually officers were tried for torture, but the Daughters of the Confederacy revise this history to say the Confederate officers all played nice. In any case, my 3xgreat grandfather got dysentery and was sent to the hospital, which they did in the most severe of cases. There he died.

I don't find this to be meaningless. But it'd also have to be celebrated in the greater context of a holiday that is for African Americans. Like I said there are other days where I think of my 3xgreat grandfather, too.

Now, other people celebrate their confederate ancestors on these types of holidays like Veteran's Day or Memorial Day or if they don't, then they've at least been told at some point that their ancestors were honorable people through revisionist narratives. The point I am trying to make is there is a subculture in the US that doesn't want to celebrate "ones who stood up against slavery" because they are being willfully brainwashed. These people were only very recently forced to remove a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest from their city park. Nathan Bedford Forrest...founder of the KKK. In Dec 2017...

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I'm not claiming that it's impossible to try to work with them and the sentiment is probably right, BUT how can you frame it for them to celebrate?

Do you want to call it a Day of Healing?

The history you just discussed here is what Juneteenth is about. It's about honoring people like your ancestors who played a role in the emancipation of the slaves with the act of recognizing & remembering them and using said recognition and memories as a catalyst for unification. As far as any who don't want to celebrate that goes, I'll just say those are the types of people that made emancipation necessary, so fuck them.