U.S. companies embraced the Juneteenth holiday rings for many

As a diversity consultant, Dee Marshall trains Wall Street banks to become more welcoming workplaces for people of color. You would think that his customers would be happy when they call for help with plans to celebrate Juneteenth.

Not so much, it seems.

“Blacks aren’t that excited,” said Marshall, CEO of the Diverse & Engaged advisory team.

Then murder police George Floyd sparked mass protests last year and sparked racial calculations in the US. The American corporation adopted Juneteenth as a way to honor black Americans and show commitment to diverse and inclusive workplaces.

Juneteenth is commemorated on June 19, 1865, when Union Army General Gordon Granger entered Galveston, Texas, to free the last enslaved black Americans – two years after the Confederates surrendered in the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln formally proclaimed the end of slavery.

While some black Americans acknowledge the delay the American company made to Juneteenth by turning it into a paid vacation, others, Marshall, complain that it feels like an empty gesture, especially when many companies fail to live up to the promises of diversity made at Floyd’s top protests. .

“What’s more significant to support this population?” I don’t think they will be very happy because a Juneteenth event is happening. They will be excited when there is real change in the organization, ”Marshall said.

In any case, Juneteenth is now the basis of the racial justice efforts of many companies, including Lyft, Colgate and BP, in reports on social impact and diversity that claim to accept the holiday.

About 9% of businesses will take over Juneteenth this year, according to a survey conducted by consulting firm Mercer, compared to 55 percent of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. President Joe Biden on Thursday has signed the bill Establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday, the nation’s 11th.

The campaign to establish MLK Day began shortly after the assassination of the civil rights leader in 1968 and the law was finally signed in 1983.

Debate over the state of federal holidays for Juneteenth The United States discussed how to remember the history of institutionalized racism. Republicans in 20 states have introduced laws to limit the use of critical race theory in public schools, an academic strategy used to examine institutions from a racial perspective. Conservatives fear that discussing the U.S.’s legacy around discrimination policies could fuel anti-American sentiments.

“Even today, while conservatives try to erase history with their attacks on critical race theory and understand the effects of systemic racism, we recognize the truth here,” Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey wrote on Twitter earlier this week. “We will turn #Juneteenth into a federal holiday.”

Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African American studies at Duke University, saw black Americans in the southern and southwestern states mark their holidays with family reunions, cooking and block parties before he “never had a national follower.” The assassination of Floyd in late May 2020.

“For many corporations, they were unbroken fruits,” Neal said of the height that companies have at Juneteenth. The date came last year in the centuries of Black Lives Matter protests and as many corporations were publicly confronting racism for the first time.

“If Juneteenth were in October, that wouldn’t have happened,” Marshall said.

Some of the first businesses named by Juneteenth to be on holiday were offering a day off or offering extra pay, including Nike, Square and Mastercard, which they said they plan to do the same this year.

But overall, the memories are more pronounced. General Motors, which took a nine-minute work stoppage last year – the time Minneapolis former police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck last year – paid tribute to Floyd on June 7 last year, saying his plans this year include “volunteering and community engagement”.

Holiday opponents cited the economic cost of the lost work. Ron Johnson, a Republican senator from Wisconsin blocked Last year’s Juneteenth legislation estimated the cost at $ 600 million a year for federal workers alone. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said most federal employees will take the new Juneteenth vacation on Friday, as it falls on Saturday, June 19th.

Dakasha Winton, a black executive in charge of government relations at BlueCross BlueShield insurer in Tennessee, said Juneteenth deserves an educational approach to many corporate celebrations.

“Even if it’s the first time you’ve done something, you’re at least taking steps to do something and that’s the key,” Winton said.

Adding New York’s RF Binder public relations team to the Juneteenth paid holiday list and the XV. He voted to remove another honorary Italian explorer Christopher Columbus of the century to make room for it.

“To deny Columbus Day for Juneteenth Day, there is something very significant,” said CEO Amy Binder. “Columbus Day celebrates the invasion of a country in the western world and the removal of Native Americans, and maybe that’s not such a good concept.”

Marshall believes Juneteenth’s recognition makes sense for black workers only when they are part of a cohesive plan for diversity, equity and inclusion.

“This day doesn’t just celebrate the past,” Biden said before the holiday was legally signed. “It requires action today.”